John Scarffe, Nederland. The Nederland Downtown Development Authority discussed feedback on its draft master plan during a regular meeting on Wednesday, May 18, 2016, at the Nederland Community Center. The board also learned about upcoming board vacancies, and that current members planned to reapply for those positions.
Board members Peter Marshall and Brent Tregaskis were absent. Charles Wood was appointed as the Nederland Board of Trustees liaison to the NDDA Board at the May 17 trustees’ meeting. Former Liaison, Keven Mueller, also attended the meeting.
The NDDA has developed a master plan draft, and the board needs to get comments from Town advisory boards as well as the public and incorporate those into the draft. The board plans to update the plan by July and then show it to trustees that month.
The board seeks a new debt authorization and needs to have the master plan completed, so the Board of Trustees can approve the debt authorization in August in time to place the question on the November ballot.
The Board opened the meeting to public comments on the master plan. Nederland residents, as well as business owner, Ron Mitchell, came prepared with comments. Mitchell said he was an original NDDA board member who helped set up the organization.
Mitchell said he also donated $5,000 to the board. “I have not been happy with the board’s performance so far.”
Mitchell said he has talked to three different engineers and architects about the master plan. “There is no utility renewal underneath the street, so when things break, you’re going to be damaging the street.”
The engineers have analyzed Mitchell’s property and the plans he has for that area. He would like to give the board copies and see if those fit in with their master plan. The master plan includes a matrix listing external partners involved with the plan, but he suggested instead the board should create a matrix with local partners and what they could do.
“What I would be doing would have to be done with the town in a major collaboratively way,” Mitchell said. The master plan points out the need for additional parking in town, and his plan is to create parking.
“It’s conceptual, but now is the time to present it and see what your reaction is relative to your plan and see if we can move forward with both plans. I want to bring forward my plans that architects and engineers are planning.”
Board Chair Katrina Harms said the board had Mitchell scheduled for a presentation in February or March, and Mitchell replied that an hour is not enough time. He would prefer to bring in the architects.
“My suggestions are a lot more specific. I’ve been working on this a long time, and I want broad public approval,” Mitchell said. “I’m not going to start anything and spend a lot of money until I’ve got that. They are not that different from a lot of stuff that you have.”
Board Member Susan Schneider said the board would be happy to get suggestions from him on updates to the master plan, and Mitchell said he would give the board a document that shows what the architects have done. “I’ll fill it in and give you pictures.”
Kevin Mueller had several comments and edited the master plan. He pointed out that the map of the NDDA district had been changed. He recommended that the master plan include the original map and then the two changes to the map.
Mueller pointed to a statement that sales and property taxes had been stagnant, when in fact they weren’t. “The more data we can provide the better we can make our case,” he said.
Mueller suggested many other edits, including his major point: “Nowhere in that process are we stating what our vision is. It gives confidence that the community aligns with what we’re doing.
“We have ecological limits, and that aligns with the vision and our master plan.
If we want to head somewhere different, we can’t continue to do what we have done in the past. Backcasting is a process of deciding where we want to be in the future and then figuring out what we need to do to get there.”
He also said the plan should have the international definition of sustainability right at the beginning of the executive summary and should emphasize a small is beautiful, less is more approach. “We need to take all the plans we have on the table and flush them through this process. The Executive Summary you have misses the process.
“This process helps us to decide what to do. Do a needs statement and then determine measurable goals. It brings to the surface those projects that can be done without a lot of buy in.
“If we get to that point with the top five projects we have a lot better chance of getting through to the voters.” Mueller said he will provide one or two examples of how the description for each project should be written.
Harms said the board has a few comments and emails, and needs to have a workshop. The Board of Trustees also wants a work session on June 14, so she proposed moving their meeting back a week, and they could have a couple hour workshop. The meeting ended before a final decision was made on the next meeting, but the regular schedule calls for a meeting on June 15, 2016, at 6:30 p.m. at the Nederland Community Center.
The board also learned that it has two board terms expiring on June 30, 2016. The seats are currently held by Board Chair Katrina Harms and Susan Schneider. They both will be reapplying for their seats.
Qualifications and responsibilities can be found online or can be picked up at the Nederland Town Hall. Applications are due to Town Hall by June 10, 2016, at 5 p.m.
