Dear Editor,

On January 4th, the Board of Trustees will meet in executive session to discuss Boulder County’s request to extend our “Comprehensive Development Plan Intergovernmental Agreement” (IGA) until December 2022. The twenty-year agreement between Ned and the county on development standards expires March 7th. The mayor and mayor pro tem support allowing it to expire, but extending it until December provides time to involve the broader Nederland community in deciding Nederland’s future growth. With the revision of Ned’s Comprehensive Plan this year, and a mayoral election in April, it’s a particularly good time to gain broad public participation in deciding Ned’s future direction.

Some claim the county won’t agree to an IGA that allows Town final say on annexations, but the sticking-point is not annexation but standards for the density of development on undeveloped forested properties. Ned’s own Comprehensive Plan, revised in 2013, was awarded the Colorado Chapter of the American Planning Association’s “Honor Award: Sustainability and Environmental Planning” in 2014. The result of a broad community process, facilitated by an outside consultant; it sets forth guidelines for sustainable development, including:

“A compact and walkable land use pattern is a key element to a community’s longterm sustainability. The Comprehensive Plan encourages that growth be directed towards infill and redevelopment parcels in the downtown core, rather than outlying areas of Town...Infill development and redevelopment will prevent Nederland from building outward, protecting undeveloped tracts of land for open space, wildlife habitat and watershed protection.”

It calls for: “... the integration of affordable housing and senior housing within Nederland’s downtown core, allowing walkable access to goods and services, and nearby to transportation and community facilities...”

I encourage the BOT to accept the county’s offer to extend the IGA until December and begin the process of hiring an outside consultant to manage revision of Ned’s Comprehensive Plan. If readers agree, I hope they’ll let the Mayor, Mayor pro tem, other Trustees, and Nederland’s Planning Commission know: kristopherl@nederlandco.org, jonathanb@nederlandco.org, bot@nederlandco.org, and planning commission@nederlandco.org.

Sincerely,

Susan Wagner Nederland