Jennifer Livingston, Nederland. The Nederland Board of Trustees (BOT) meeting began at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, January 7, 2020, with the recognition of the passing of Tom Hendricks, a beloved community member and long-time miner.

The consent agenda included the appointment of Trustee Karen Blakemore to serve as liaison to the Planning Commission. Blakemore replaces former Trustee James Rawsthorne, who also served as liaison.

Elections will be held Tuesday, April 7, 2020. People interested in running for a seat on the BOT must live within the town of Nederland and are encouraged to attend the last informational meeting on Monday, January 20, 2020, at 7 p.m. at the Nederland Community Center. A petition for nomination to run must be filed with the town by Monday, January 27, 2020. Write-in candidates must file an affidavit by Friday, January 31, 2020. Further election information is available via the Election 2020 tab on the town website.

Town staff have instituted new policies for posting to the town website and social media platforms in an effort to ensure clear and consistent information. Another new policy requires submission of a permit for a noise variance 30 days prior to an event, requires staff to mail notification to residents within 100 feet of the event and to post relevant information to the website and social media. Staff stated they approve about five noise variances a year for festivals, weddings and other private events.

Action items included a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for on-call engineering, which was passed, the accessory dwelling unit (ADU) ordinance was also passed, as was ballot language for the occupational tax.

The Town of Nederland has received federal funding allocated through the Transportation Improvement Project (TIP) which is managed by the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT). CDOT has exacting requirements that must be adhered to and staff has been working with CDOT to create an FRQ for engineering to satisfy those requirements.

The TIP project will include a multimodal ADA compliant sidewalk from the RTD Park-n-Ride to the visitors’ center. The project also includes an electric charging station, bike corrals and related civil engineering. Nederland was awarded $1.5 million for the project. The Nederland Downtown Development Authority will also contribute over $100,000 for Jefferson Street improvements.

The RFQ will also satisfy Nederland’s need to renew the contract for an engineer of record. The selected consultants will assist the town with civil and environmental engineering, infrastructure, plan reviews and project management. Individual work orders will be negotiated, not to exceed $1 million in expenditures over the next five years or $200,000 a year, which staff does not expect to exceed.

The ADU ordinance amends the zoning code in an effort to increase the supply of affordable long-term rental housing and create additional onsite housing for family members. The ordinance also manages the increase in density. The BOT, Planning Commission and town staff have been working to listen to public input and create the final ordinance which delineates two types: detached and integrated. An integrated ADU is attached or located inside a principal dwelling unit such as basement apartment or mother-in-law unit, whereas detached ADUs do not share a roof line. Both types must be owner occupied, comply with building codes, have running water and septic or sewer and have only one per lot. Integrated ADUs have no size limitation but must have exterior access. External ADUs must be less than 800 square feet with height and set-back controlled by existing “yard and bulk” requirements. Complete and “user friendly” policies will come back to the BOT on Tuesday, February 4, 2020, for final approval.

The BOT remained in support of an occupancy tax to go before the voters. This tax would be applied to lodging including hotels and short-term rentals. Nederland is a statutory town and as such cannot legally charge the more familiar lodging tax but may institute an occupation tax, basically the same thing. Trustee Julie Gustafson explained that the intent of the tax is to assist the town in meeting the gap between what Boulder County supplies for health and human services and the actual needs of residents, especially pressed by high rents and home prices.

Health and human services is a large umbrella that could support the invaluable work of services such as the Nederland Food Pantry and Clothing Closet, could be used as seed money for additional grant funds, establishing a low cost clinic, affordable housing, etc. The challenge was to make the intention clear, protect future boards and staff time from litigation around actual expenditures and to leave a little room for additional uses should revenues prove bountiful. The revenue amount is of course an unknown. Ultimately, the voters will be asked if Nederland shall institute a $2 per room/per night tax on hotel and STR accommodations in order to fund much needed health and human services initiatives. Trustee Blakemore did find the $2 amount consistent with other statutory towns in Colorado.

The BOT will clarify that one room in a STR shall have no more than two adults but will leave numbers of persons under the age of 18 undefined. This allows guests who may have more than two children sharing a room, or two adults and child with whom they will bunk to still visit their favorite STR in Nederland. It will also assist STR purveyors to determine how many rooms are required for their reservations. However, it will not allow for special circumstances such as sport teams who come occasionally and share closer accommodations so that they can stay in Nederland although other STR ordinances in Colorado do allow for special uses. The BOT will be amending the STR ordinance to include these changes and an updated fee schedule in a later meeting. The two-hour response time to complaints will remain the same, requiring STR operators to have a backup person on call should they be out of range.

Lastly, it was announced that Nederland’s Sustainability Advisory Board and Partners in Energy will be at Wild Bear’s Climate Actions Sundays event on Sunday, January 26, 2020, from 2 - 4 p.m. with free pizza, LED light bulbs and energy efficiency information.

(Originally published in the January 16, 2020, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)