The Town of Nederland will conduct its regular municipal election on Tuesday, April 5, 2022. During this election, registered voters in Nederland will be electing a mayor and three Trustees.

At the February 1 meeting of the Nederland Board of Trustees, the Board picked names of candidates at random to determine the order of their names on the ballot. Running for mayor is Julian Taylor. Running for Trustee are Karen Blakemore, Riley McAllister, Tom Mahowald, Tania Corvalan, and David Sites.

The voters will also be asked to approve a ballot initiative: “Without creating any new tax or increasing any current tax rate, may the town of Nederland continue to collect the 0.42 percent sales tax approved by the voters in 1997 and reauthorized in 2002 funding the improvement, renovation and repair to the community center and the operation and maintenance of the Community Center and other community center purposes as approved by the trustees?”

The Community Center and its partners provide invaluable services to the community including food and clothing donations for those in need, regular COVID-19 testing, kitchen space for small businesses, and public health events.

The Mountain-Ear asked candidates for the Board to answer questions about their candidacy, and their responses follow.

Julian Taylor lives on Ute Way in the Hilltop subdivision just north of the Community Center. He and his spouse, Janette, have lived there since 1996. Previously, they lived in Colorado Springs.

“I was called away to design electronic instrumentation for the petro-chemical industry, at which point I became distracted from college,” Taylor said. After a stint developing electronics for a small company in Oklahoma, he worked at various Colorado companies designing electronic systems and then became a software engineer at Sun Microsystems.

After Sun, he moved from company to company developing software for newspaper publishing, satellite imaging, and most recently, Rosetta Stone, where he developed projects in language learning.

He and Janette have been married for more than 35 years and have two grown offspring. Taylor said he only began participating in the business of the Town over the last two years, serving as trustee on the Nederland Board of Trustees.

His top three priorities if elected as mayor would be, first, to try to inspire citizens to participate in their local government. Without that, he believes, the Town may lose control of its democracy.

He would, second, address the traffic issues during ski weekends so that residents keep access to their Town, while businesses see a free flow of visitors who are minimally frustrated with the Nederland experience.

Taylor’s third priority is regarding the Nederland Board of Trustees working with Boulder County on a new Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) after the current IGA expires. Taylor said he favors improving the IGA by calling for better value for Nederland by requiring more effective information sharing regarding industrial activities near the Nederland border and improved enforcement of environmental regulations in Boulder County that affect the Nederland water table.

The Board needs to work closely with the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) and Boulder County to clearly designate alternate routes to other destinations that do not pass through the town center. “We also need to negotiate the methods for ski traffic passing through town,” he says.

As for our current businesses, we can do more to encourage tourism during the slow season by getting word out regarding the recreational opportunities that are always available in a town like this. We can also encourage business during ski season by addressing the traffic issues and assuring easy access to our businesses through clear streets.

Julian is available by email at julian.taylor@forethought.net.

Karen Blakemore has been a resident of the Big Springs neighborhood of Nederland for over four years. Before living in Nederland, she lived in the city and county of Boulder for 27 years.

Blakemore was married in Boulder and raised her two children there. Before Boulder, she lived and worked in Dallas, Texas, for 12 years. In 1979, she received a bachelor’s of science degree in secondary education with a major in mathematics and a minor in computer science from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio.

While working for Texas Instruments, she attended graduate school in the evenings at the University of Texas at Dallas, receiving a master’s degree in mathematical sciences with a computer science focus in 1983. Blakemore retired from a career in software engineering a couple years ago. She and her ex-husband have two grown children who are both in graduate school. She has a little pug-mix dog named Charlie who accompanies her on many adventures.

Blakemore currently serves on three advisory boards within the community, the Nederland Planning Commission, the Nederland Eco Pass Public Improvement District and the Forsythe II Multi-Party Monitoring Group.

Blakemore has also served on the Nederland Envision 2030 Steering Committee, Chair of the Environmental Sustainability Subcommittee, is a member of the Parks, Recreation and Open Space Subcommittee, the Nederland Zero Waste Dream Team and the Nederland Board of Trustees from December 2019 to April 2020.

Blakemore’s top two priorities if elected to the Board would be the community and environment. “One area that I think would benefit the town is long-range planning. I will advocate for more proactive rather than reactive efforts.

“I would also like to see the board define focus areas for the next two years and establish committees of trustees to work with other community organizations towards progress in these areas. The specific areas that I think we should focus on are the Comprehensive Plan, the Inter-Governmental Agreement with Boulder County and annexation plans, transportation including emissions, congestion, egress routes, parking, alternative, multi-modal and affordable housing for the workforce and seniors.”

The Nederland IGA with Boulder County is a legally binding document that concerns land use in unincorporated areas outside of but adjacent to the town of Nederland, Blakemore said. Nearly every municipality in Boulder County has such a document.

The purpose of these agreements is to support compact development patterns and open space preservation. The IGAs have a lifespan of about 20 years. The Nederland IGA was developed in 2002. It shows that none of the land outside of Nederland can be annexed into the town. This is consistent with Nederland’s current Comprehensive Plan, which has a strong preference for in-fill development over expansion of the town boundaries.

At a recent Board of Trustees meeting, the IGA was extended to the end of 2022. The current Board is leaning towards allowing annexations but requiring large ones to be approved by the Town of Nederland voters. This would require modification of the IGA in cooperation with Boulder County to show unincorporated land that the town would consider for annexation.

“I would recommend delaying revision of the IGA until the Comprehensive Plan is updated to ensure that annexation plans are aligned with the current community values, policies, and objectives,” Blakemore said.

Two years ago, during her short tenure on the Nederland Board of Trustees, the town adopted regulations for short-term rentals. These regulations effectively phaseout short term-rentals, except for those in primary residences. This has the effect of making more houses available for residents, Blakemore said. The Pew Charitable Trust and the Harvard Business Review have done research showing that nonowner occupied short-term rentals have a negative impact on both the availability and cost of housing.

Cultural events play a role in economic development, by attracting visitors. Events such as Frozen Dead Guy Days, which has become associated with the town, attract visitors during the entire year. The culture of a town also draws residents, workers and investors, Blakemore said

The culture of Nederland is based on its history, arts, music, outdoor recreation and the natural environment. The Board should recognize and support the history and culture of the town for social as well as economic reasons.

Reach Karen by email at karenjoanblakemore@gmail.com.

Riley McAllister lives on West Boulder Street. He has lived in Nederland for about three years. He was born and raised in Colorado and previously lived in Evergreen. He attended Lakewood High School and Northern Arizona University.

Currently he is a safety officer for the Cross and Caribou gold and silver mine. His top three priorities if elected to the Board would be to reestablish a good standing relationship with the businesses and the town, and to help redevelop 1st Street to be more functional and effective for the town. He would like to see Nederland host some local festivals like Nedfest again to help grow the town.

McAllister agrees with continuing the IGA and possibly assigning more responsibilities than the current IGA. “Environmental health is one of the first and foremost fronts that I believe the town of Nederland should be working with the local community and businesses to keep Nederland pristine and clean.”

The need for housing in Nederland is a constant struggle with the current growth of Nederland because of lack of space to develop new affordable housing, McAllister said. First Street needs redevelopment to compensate for traffic and parking, as well as the design for heightened traffic throughout the town.

A second bridge would help reduce congestion and improve safety in case of any natural disaster. Parking is also an issue that he would like to see resolved. “I believe that if we work together, the Trustees can resolve all of these main issues and help clarify more problems and come up with viable solutions, effectively making a better Nederland.”

Riley can be reached at 303-349- 8629.

Trustee Candidate Tom Mahowald lives on Griffith Street. He lived in Nederland from 1973 to 1975, and again from 2016 on. He previously lived mostly in Boulder, but before that, Breckenridge, Chicago, and Germany.

Mahowald attended Fenwick High School in Oak Park, Illinois, and the University of Colorado. He also went to the Thunderbird International School at ASU for a master’s degree in business administration.

He just finished building a new home at the corner of Griffith and West 4th Street, west of the fire department. Professionally, he is a consultant for Guidehose, a global advisory firm focused on public sector energy, life sciences, aerospace, healthcare, and financial services. That means helping private and public organizations with renewable energy, sustainability, and capital markets guidance, and helping drive the energy transition from carbon-fueled sources to renewable resources.

Mahowald has been involved with the Nederland Board of Zoning Adjustments since 2019, and three subcommittees on Envision 2030 last year. He was on the Wild Bear Board from 2018 to 2019, plus engaging in a great deal of volunteer work around Nederland and Boulder County.

His top three priorities if elected to the Board are upgrading the downtown and its infrastructure and the Community Center, especially the west wing; as well as supporting many pocket parks, and building a second bridge for safety and better traffic flow.

Mahowald would rationalize Town code and zoning rules. Inconsistencies need to be clarified, corrected, and streamlined, defining a fair, consistent, clear legal framework of rights and obligations for citizens, businesses, and property owners.

He would decide on the IGA with Boulder County and an annexation strategy. He favors negotiating a new agreement with Boulder County that reflects the needs and expressed wishes of the community, and with landholders with parcels that could benefit the community.

He would rationalize the budget, keeping a close eye on how the budget is formulated, allocated, and spent. While grants have been helpful in supplementing the $3 million budget, it is necessary to budget for the needs of the town, and then supplement that consciously and rationally with grants. As COVID allows, he would like to bring back events that are fun, safe, and supported by the community.

Regarding affordable housing and short-term rentals, he said that this has been a contentious issue, and as an owner of two rental properties, he has a particular point of view. In Breckenridge, he watched the oversupply of STRs strip the town of affordable worker housing, and suck some of the vibrancy out of the community with too many empty mega-homes.

“I think our zoning code needs a review to densify our core and prevent sprawl.” He said he is delighted to see Frozen Dead Guys return in March, and he loves the Farmer’s Market, especially when they have music. He believes that the Wild Bear Center is going to draw families to the community.

Tom can be reached at tmahowald@gmail.com .

Tania Corvalan has been a Nederland resident since 1995. She works as a potter with her husband, and has a child who goes to NMSH. She joined the Board two years ago because of frustration with many issues such as affordable housing, infrastructure limitations, lack of a performance space and subsequent loss of Nedfest, as well as a very confusing and ineffective Short Term Rental (STR) resolution.

Unfortunately, what she has learned as a trustee is that there isn’t enough time to tackle these important issues and much of the responsibility falls upon volunteers who just don’t have the time to accomplish goals quickly.

Envision 2030 is an amazing community building exercise as well as a thoughtful document that really does represent the Town’s values and is used as a guide for much of Town policy decisions. However, she does think it’s important to recognize the Town’s failure to really implement many goals from the 2020 Envision or to come up with realistic goals that can be accomplished with a timeline and a strategy to achieve them within the decade.

Creating affordable housing should be a priority and energy and resources should be dedicated to exploring how some of Nederland pocket parks could become units for our families and workers. Businesses could be served with a weekend shuttle that would take visitors from the various spread-out parking spots to 1st Street.

Businesses would also be helped if Nederland decided to be a town that encourages festivals instead of one notorious for roadblocks and fees that discourage festivals from wanting to come to Nederland.

She is very excited that Ned now has a parks and rec coordinator . The town has many recreational assets and again, it is too much for volunteers to do everything. SAB has a sustainability coordinator who has done a great job receiving grants and implementing them. She is happy to support SAB and hopes to do more with sustainability, with a focus on composting, recycling and energy efficiency.

STRs were a big issue in the recent past and haven’t been revisited, even though she doesn’t consider the previous resolution a success. She feels it makes sense to limit STRs and keep them a small percentage of housing stock, but the resolution is extremely complicated and difficult to enforce.

“There is very little oversight. And the worst is that it completely banned ADUs from being STRs. It makes sense for ADUs to be STRs so that the homeowners can be present and manage guests, which was the chief complaint regarding STRs.”

Much discussion has been made regarding the IGA which is set to expire this year. She feels Nederland really needs to decide what expectations we can place on Boulder. “For example, might Nederland have more input on mine activities? Would Boulder help manage Eldora traffic better? Would Boulder make improvements along the trail by the reservoir and that ‘park’? And what would Nederland want to change in terms of annexation policy?”

She feels any discussion of annexation policy should include a discussion of all infrastructure strengths and weaknesses, including water supply, sewer capacity, snow plowing and road grading, evacuation plan, and the lack of a second bridge to help with any traffic emergency. She also feels wildlife corridors and ecosystems shouldn’t be sacrificed for growth and profit. The Board can guide town staff to make sensible decisions to ensure Nederland doesn’t grow beyond its ability to provide residents with a strong infrastructure.

A dedicated performance area for festivals is needed.

Corvalan’s email is taniabcf@yahoo.com.

David Sites lives on East 2nd Street. He has lived in Nederland for 22 years. Before that he lived in Binghamton, New York; Lexington, Kentucky; and Orlando, Florida – but mostly in Denver.

Sites attended Vestal High School and received his undergraduate degree at SUNY Buffalo and attended graduate classes at SUNY Binghamton. He is a retired software consultant and single.

His top three priorities if elected to the Board would be, first, bringing back outdoor music in the summer. “Lots of people around here know how to do this. Let’s welcome them back,” he suggests.

He would modify zoning restrictions to allow high density energy-efficient housing, and build a bridge across the creek from Conger Street to Snyder Street. This would allow traffic to bypass downtown and will help if there is an emergency.

Regarding the IGA with Boulder County, he said “Let’s look for more areas of cooperation. They have expertise and resources that we don’t.”

On affordable housing, David said housing cost is a national issue and the result of supply and demand. The best way to stifle runaway price increases is to relax zoning restrictions and build more housing.

“Affordable housing implies a subsidy and it’s not clear where the subsidy would come from. If the county or state wants to fund it, I’m in favor.”

David can be reached by email at david_sites@yahoo.com.

For more information about the elections, go to https:// townofnederland. colorado. gov/ board-vacancies