The Nederland Downtown Development Authority (NDDA) met on Thursday, August 3, 2023, at 6 p.m. for a two-hour work session primarily aimed at setting the organization’s goals. Board members discussed what they each felt their goals should be and began work on a prioritized list to be drafted into an official document.

Trustee Nichole Sterling, who has previously run goal-building sessions for the Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Advisory Board and for the Sustainability Advisory Board, led the work session with the NDDA.

On July 12, during a regular NDDA meeting, board members had provided several suggestions for projects to be focused on for the next five years.

NDDA Chair Ron Mitchell expressed that he would like the board to focus on projects that generate revenue, specifically paid parking initiatives. Mitchell currently owns a vacant lot in Nederland’s Central Business District (CBD), in the jurisdiction of the NDDA, that he wants to develop as a paid parking lot.

Board Member Scott Papich stated that he would prefer to see the NDDA better evaluate applicants for special event funding and to assess whether the proposed event can perform on the promises made by the applicant.

Vice Chair Andrew Dewart expressed that he would like to see a summer concert series held in town; the idea was expanded to include holding the series on a portable stage at several different locations as a way to ascertain public opinion regarding location and design for a new outdoor performance space, which is an NDDA project currently in its preliminary stages.

Board Members Danielle Crouse and Catherine Valen stated a preference for the NDDA to focus on Nederland’s traffic and parking issues, as well as housing issues, noting that such infrastructure problems directly affect local businesses. Traffic and parking problems dissuade customers from stopping and shopping downtown, while the housing issue is a primary cause for the shortage of employees and poor employee retention at local businesses.

The August 3 work session provided board members with the opportunity to clarify and specify their list of goals and to accurately describe how such projects or plans would be logistically implemented.

Under Sterling’s direction the Board also had an hour to rank all of their suggestions based on “four quadrants of impact vs. effort” (high/low impact, high/low effort), determining the importance of each project in relation to the town’s needs and the NDDA’s own purview.

After clarifying, specifying, and determining the impact vs. effort for each suggested project, board members will each complete an online ranking form in order to anonymously vote and create a prioritized list of their suggested goals.

The list of goals that the NDDA had at the beginning of their work session covered many areas of focus, including goals aimed at assisting businesses, such as: assisting businesses with recycling and trash; buying a cardboard compactor to be used by all local businesses; creating grant writing support for businesses; instituting a free bus pass for employees of Nederland businesses; assisting Town in hiring public “ambassadors” or “safety officers”; supporting Nederland workforce by addressing the wage imbalance and creating workforce housing options; changing Town code to decrease empty storefronts; and developing the Black Forest property.

Goals were also listed pertaining to creating attractions to generate revenue in Nederland’s CBD, which included: working on a summer concert series; creating a River Walk; enhancing electrical capabilities at Chipeta Park; and creating more public art projects.

Board members included goals based around the NDDA’s role in assisting special event organizers. Such goals included: providing more support to an event organizer for promoting tourism; increasing grant funding available for special events with the focus of promoting tourism; and developing a vetting process for special event funding requests.

Some goals involved the Board potentially providing more support with infrastructure projects, including: providing traffic support and traffic management for the Town; developing new parking; developing paid parking; developing employee parking; and increasing walkability throughout town.

There were also goals that focused on the organization itself, such as: evaluating more financial options for the NDDA, increasing public engagement for the NDDA, and finishing all of their projects currently in development.

Sterling asked board members to provide more details on several of the listed goals, including specifying which of the current projects in development are expected to be completed within six months.

The Big Springs Parking Project was stated as being nearly complete; and Crouse, who sits on the Public Art Committee, noted that the art restoration on the covered bridge is complete and is waiting for a plaque; the mural on the Mountain People’s Co-op building just needs to be installed; and the artfully painted picnic tables are soon to be completed as well.

Treasurer Steve Rowntree and Board Member Steve Karowe specified that the townwide accessibility initiative known as the Wayfinding project, which is currently entering its second of three stages, is a much more complex project that will not be completed within six months.

The project to build an outdoor performance space on an undetermined piece of available land in Nederland was also isolated from the list of projects in development that are soon to be completed.

NDDA Chair Mitchell clarified that his listed goals to “assist businesses with recycling and trash” and to “buy a cardboard compactor to be used by all local businesses” were part of one central goal to create a sanitation district within the CBD.

Mitchell also wanted to add instituting back-in parking on East 1st Street. The suggestion was grouped with all suggested goals pertaining to parking initiatives and to traffic control initiatives.

Sterling asked for clarification on the listed goal that asked for “traffic support and management to alleviate the bottlenecking.” Dewart stated that the goal is intended to suggest increasing the traffic control budget to allow for flaggers or public safety officers managing Nederland traffic all year long.

The goal to “work on enhancing electrical capabilities at Chipeta Park” was specified to refer to creating better electrical infrastructure, at least 200 amps worth, specifically for bigger events that are held at Chipeta Park such as the Nederland Jazz & Wine Festival.

Mitchell was tasked to provide further explanation on the meaning of his suggestion to “evaluate financial options including loans and leasing property” and to “leverage the NDDA’s money by considering return on investment.”

Mitchell would like the board to consider lending money to special event organizers in addition to providing grants. He also suggested that the board could potentially lease property from the Town to be used for parking for special events, and then sublease the property to the event’s organizers.

The suggestion for the NDDA to provide loans to event organizers was grouped together with the listed goal of drafting a new process for evaluating applicants who come to the NDDA for special event funding. The suggestion for the NDDA to lease and sublease property for parking was added to the list of goals aimed at creating and monetizing parking in Nederland.

Sterling required more clarification on the listed goal to “address the wage imbalance and look at workforce housing options,” at which Sterling laughed and equated the scope and feasible success of the task to “solving world hunger.”

Board Member Papich stated his belief that the NDDA, being an organization whose goal is to facilitate a thriving CBD in Nederland, should advocate for workforce housing to support local businesses.

“Are we in the business of being in business, or are we in the business of supporting businesses?” Papich asked during the meeting. “When we start talking about things like taking out lease agreements and buying and selling things we’re kind of doing something different than what I thought we were here to do. We should recognize when we step over the line.”

NDDA Executive Director Kate Masingale noted that supporting affordable or alternative housing does fit within the board’s purview and that board members could choose to find ways to financially assist such developments through several avenues, including new market tax credits. Masingale added that the board would have to decide what their role should be on this matter.

The NDDA then determined what they constituted to be the “impact” and “effort” of each goal. Board members gauged “impact” on how the suggested goal affects the NDDA’s ability to foster a successful CBD, and gauged “effort” on the amount of time and money that goes into each respective project.

With board members agreeing on the set criteria, each goal was then categorized in one of four quadrants; high impact, low effort; high impact, high effort; low impact, low effort; and low impact, high effort.

The goals that were listed as “high impact, low effort” were: increasing the Public Art budget; increasing the Beautification budget; and providing grant writing support for businesses.

“High impact, high effort” goals included: creating a summer concert series; changing municipal code to limit empty buildings remaining empty; creating an evaluation system for special event funding; continuing the Wayfinding project; developing a River Walk; creating a sanitation district; and developing parking solutions, including paid parking, employee parking, subleasing parking spaces to event coordinators, and enforcing back-in parking on East 1st Street.

“Low impact, low effort” goals included: instituting a free bus pass for employees who commute to Nederland and developing better electrical infrastructure at Chipeta Park.

The goals that were listed as “low impact, high effort” were: developing better public engagement for the NDDA; and bringing back 4th of July fireworks, which was a goal added after the agenda for the meeting was set.

Board members, having fleshed out and categorized each of their goals based on the agreed upon criteria, will have to fill out an online ranking form in order to form a prioritized ranking of the goals, which will be discussed and reviewed by the board during a future meeting.

The Nederland Downtown Development Authority meets the second Wednesday of every month. Their next meeting, on Wednesday, August 9, 2023, will be covered in the August 17 edition of The Mountain-Ear. The next meeting after that is scheduled for Wednesday, September 13, 2023, and will be held online as well as in person at the Nederland Community Center.

For more information go to: https:// townofnederland.colorado.gov/downtown-development-authority.