Jennifer Livingston, Nederland. The Nederland Board of Trustees meeting began promptly at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, December 3, 2019. Trustees Dallas Masters and Alan Apt were absent. Rev. Hansen Wendlandt of the Nederland Community Presbyterian Church and Claudia Schauffler of the Peak to Peak Housing and Human Service Alliance shared with the Board an inspiring development set to benefit communities across Colorado. 

Their project, the Nederland Interagency Council for Homeless Encampments (NICHE), has partnered with many community agencies to assist people experiencing homelessness and camping on public lands. Their program educates campers around fire safety and connects people to much needed resources.

Wendlandt and Schauffler reported that Colorado State Senator Steve Fenberg has been able to pass, and is in the process of funding, a bill that will allow communities across the state to create and model their own programs based on the best practices developed by NICHE. Senator Fenberg said the bill will likely go to the finance committee next, and it may be possible to increase funding from the initial $95,000 requested. Wendlandt and Schauffler intend to bring a letter of support for the Board’s first meeting in January.

The agenda included information regarding the upcoming election on April 7, 2020. Mayor Kristopher Larson was initially elected in 2016 and reelected in 2018. Mayors can serve a maximum of 8 years total. 

Mayor Pro-Tem Julie Gustafson, Trustee Johnathan Baumhover and Trustee Dallas Masters currently occupy the three four-year term positions. Kristin Conrad, who was appointed in 2018, occupies one of the two remaining two-year term positions. The other is vacant due to the resignation of James Rawshtorne, and the vacancy will be filled in December 2019. Term placements are determined by number of votes.

Voters should note that if they would like to write in their Trustee of choice, they must submit an affidavit to town staff by January 21, 2020, in order to be able to have their write in counted.

Public Works Manager Chris Pelletier again presented information regarding the recommended planned investment fee (PIF) increases. At a previous Board meeting, Pelletier had been asked to provide options to preserve affordable development in the face of PIF increases. Per Public Works, the town is not generating the revenue required to operate and maintain the water and sewer services it already provides, let alone into the future. 

Also, Nederland does not currently account for differences in use, as other communities do. For example, in Nederland, a new single-family home would be required to pay the same PIF as a four-unit development. A similar disparity occurs when commercial developments are charged the same PIF as a single family, though a restaurant obviously uses much more water.

An important distinction exists between rate payers paying their per gallon rate, and the PIF, which is the cost of a new connection to the water and sewer systems. For Pelletier, “The bottom line is we’re growing, and who knows what’s going to happen with downtown.” Public Works would rather minimize the burden of the cost of that growth on ratepayers. 

Increasing the PIF would minimize rate increases for people who have been paying into the system, and would place the burden of cost increases on developers causing the need for increased capacity. Pelletier pointed out that developers may own several lots in town but not live here or support the local economy and are speculating on the increase in property value while the already undervalued PIFs have not increased.

Public Works recommended raising the PIF for Water to $18,505, bringing it in line with a rate study done in 2014, and increasing the sewer PIF to $16,962, which, per Pelletier, would be “more in line with reality and what it costs to operate.” The recommended rate increase for commercial PIF was 150 percent. An additional $2 per square foot fee was intended to account for the increased use of multifamily developments. The increases are an attempt by Public Works to make sure the department has the funds it needs to keep the rates equitable.

Testimony questioned the readiness of the Board to move forward with decision-making and encouraged further review, especially as it pertains to commercial PIFs. For example, some commercial enterprises, such as restaurants, have heavy water and sewer use while antique stores may only have one sink and toilet. It was also suggested that PIF could be assessed by counting fixtures such as sinks and toilets. Pelletier reasoned that new commercial development maintains the value of the water and sewer tap regardless as businesses may change over time in the same building.

Trustee Julie Gustafson wanted to avoid ratepayers shouldering the burden of increased infrastructure and potential debt to fund it. Trustee Kristin Conrad recognized that Nederland is currently “well below what we should be charging, especially with respect to the 2014 rate study,” which recommended the water PIF fee be $18,505. They both agreed that the Trustees needed a work group meeting and more board members present to make a decision, especially regarding the commercial PIF.

Mayor Kristopher Larson and Trustee Baumhover were comfortable moving forward with the residential increases and revisiting the commercial increases within a work group meeting and with more Board members present. This was passed. 

Ordinance 798 regulating Short-Term Rentals (STR) was passed in October but doesn’t go into effect until March 16, 2020, for the Board to continue listening to the community and working out the details of the ordinance. During this meeting, fines for violations were on the agenda. 

Public testimony has indicated that the fines in the ordinance were too high and the suspension of licenses would result in STR purveyor’s inability to use platforms such as Airbnb, drastically inhibiting their ability to operate. Specifically, if a STR license is suspended resulting in cancellations of reservations on such platforms, the platforms will no longer list the STRs, or make it difficult to attract further bookings. In response, the Trustees ultimately decided to decrease fines to $150, $750 and $1,500 for the first, second and third violations, respectively, and to revoke a license only on the third offense, and for a year.

Testimony also repeatedly included the sentiment that the regulation of STRs without regulating long-term rentals (LTR) is discriminatory, possibly illegal and unfair. The two-hour response time to complaints is also problematic for people with an STR as they may, for example, be out on a hike or visiting friends without cell reception and be unable to respond within two hours. 

Another concern with violations is that at times an STR may actually be owner occupied and a complaint during those times would be outside of the ordinance’s regulation. The ordinance also limits STR to two people per bedroom, which limits many purveyors to much less than they have historically allowed. 

The Board made it clear that noise and trash issues will not be assessed as a violation but rather municipal issues. The Board also recognized that these issues remain to be addressed and indicated they may move on regulation of LTR in the future and will continue to work on the details of the ordinance with the STR community. Occupancy and response times will be discussed during the January 7, 2020, meeting.

The 2020 budget was passed with amendments. The Trustees will consider adding an occupational tax to the April 7, 2020, ballot, per TABOR law. As Nederland is a statutory town, not home rule, it cannot institute a lodging tax, but it could create an occupational tax. Many towns charge this tax, the average of which was reported as $2.73 per night per room. 

Larson said he sees it as a way to offset the costs associated with tourists, such as roads, police and general funds. The Board discussed ideas to allocate the funds to the police or Public Works, or to support local businesses with parking, arts and beautification rather than have them simply go to general funds. 

The Board plans to workshop the idea and listen to public testimony before setting the rate and writing the measure. It will return to the agenda at the second meeting in December.  

The Board passed Ordinance 803, which will decriminalize violations of Nederland’s ordinances while raising the maximum fine. This action does not mandate imposing higher fines, and the Nederland Police Department may appeal to the County Court in cases in which violations are believed to rise to a criminal level.

(Originally published in the December 12, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)