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Ned BOT discuss amending annexation ordinance

Christopher Kelley
Posted 6/8/23

The Nederland Board of Trustees (BOT) met on Tuesday, June 6, 2023, at 7 p.m. to hear a presentation on advancing tourism initiatives for the town, to discuss the proposal to build a Pump Track at

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Ned BOT discuss amending annexation ordinance

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The Nederland Board of Trustees (BOT) met on Tuesday, June 6, 2023, at 7 p.m. to hear a presentation on advancing tourism initiatives for the town, to discuss the proposal to build a Pump Track at Chipeta Park, and to appoint an official hearing officer in preparation for an inevitable protest hearing in regards to the BOT’s decision to approve rezoning a parking lot in the Central Business District (CBD).

Within their Consent Agenda the BOT approved the appointments of several applicants to various Town boards and commissions, including the reappointment of Andrew Dewart and Barbara Hardt to the Nederland Downtown District Authority (NDDA).

Sam Ovett was approved for reappointment onto the Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Advisory Board (PROSAB), and Linda Glasser and Stephanie Herring were approved for reappointment onto the Planning Commission.

The Town did not receive any other applications for the open positions on the NDDA, PROSAB, and Planning Commission. However the Sustainability Advisory Board (SAB) received one application for someone applying from outside the board, Rab Lachance. The SAB unanimously voted to recommend Lachance for the position of board member on May 25.

Lachance’s appointment was approved by the BOT.

Trustees also approved within their Consent Agenda Resolution 2023-30, authorizing Mayor Billy Giblin to sign a contract agreement with Fehr & Peers to consult in the creation of a Multimodal Transportation Plan. The plan is funded by the Denver Regional Council of Governments Transportation Improvement Program.

Resolution 2023-26, authorizing Mayor Giblin to sign a contract with Fischer Construction to complete the installation of a grit removal system at Nederland’s wastewater treatment plant, was also approved.

The Board approved Resolution 2023-28, proclaiming June as Pride Month. The official proclamation states that all residents, including Nederland’s LGBTQ+ community, deserve equality and fair treatment, and encourages all to honor the history, diversity, and resilience of the LGBTQ+ community.

Resolution 2023-29, proclaiming June 19 as the Juneteenth holiday, was also approved. Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, as the day Union General Gordon Granger announced in Galveston, Texas, that the Civil War was over and that slavery had been abolished.

Nederland’s Public Engagement Manager Peter Cacek presented an update on the Reimagine Destinations Program, a tourism promotion initiative offered by the $2.4 million dollar CARES Act Recovery Assistance grant, which was awarded to the Colorado Tourism Office (CTO) in January, 2021. The Town of Nederland was selected for the program in July, 2022.

After an initial assessment by the CTO a core tourism team was established, consisting of Cacek, Town Administrator Dr. Miranda Fisher, Parks Department Director Nicki Dunn, Nederland Community Center Director Dawn Baumhover, Event Coordinator Stephanie Andelman, Wild Bear Nature Center Executive Director Jill Dreves, and TEENS, Inc. Executive Director Stephen LeFaiver.

CTO Contractor Amy Cassidy, along with colleague Derek Shimmel, were named the facilitators for the partnership between the CTO and Nederland.

The core tourism team attended a “community visioning and action planning workshop” in November, 2022, during which the team drafted their tourism priorities and a timeline for short, medium, and long term actionable items to advance tourism in Nederland. Encouraging responsible and respectful use of public lands, championing the value of communitybased tourism, and defining Nederland’s identity were listed as the town’s areas of focus.

During a meeting on February 1, 2023, the core tourism team discussed the next phases of the program, which includes 100 hours of free consulting from “tourism expert” Cassidy, a “Do Nederland Right” campaign to uphold the town’s defined values, and a $20,000 creative production shoot to highlight Nederland’s visual assets in order to market the town as a tourism destination.

Cacek stated during the presentation that the Reimagine Destinations Program is not intended to bring more tourists but is designed specifically for municipalities without any tourism management to be able to create a proper structure for tourism and for the branding of the town.

It was noted in the presentation that having the proper structure for how the Town would like to manage tourism would allow for certain Nederland values (indicated, from the results of a community survey, completed by 256 residents and 32 businesses, as respect for nature, respect for local rules and culture, and support for local businesses and artists) to be upheld through “visitor behavior messaging.”

Such messaging would include signage and other social awareness initiatives to highlight certain behaviors that the Town of Nederland as a whole would prefer to either prohibit or encourage, including behaviors surrounding issues of parking, speeding, fire bans, illegal camping, and trash disposal.

With the 100 hours of consultation from Cassidy complete, a guideline for how Nederland’s tourism management will be organized was created. Actionable decisions involving issues of tourism will be drafted and approved through a process beginning with the public, the visitor’s center, marketing experts, a Tourism Advisory Subcommittee (TAS), Cacek, Fisher, and ending with the BOT.

The TAS would be a seven member subcommittee based out of PROSAB that would meet once every three months and whose aim would be to integrate matters of tourism into other areas of focus for the town, including the community, economic development, and sustainability.

In addition to the potential formation of the TAS, some other next steps in the Reimagine Destinations Program include launching the “Do Nederland Right” campaign, having the $20,000 creative production shoot done in 2024, and to expand the town’s capacity and build upon its growing tourism structure with medium to long-term initiatives by possibly applying for the Destination Blueprint grant.

The BOT were tasked with whether to approve Resolution 2023-27, appointing a hearing officer for a protest hearing concerning the referendum petition to reconsider the approval of Ordinance 837. Ordinance 837, approved by the Board on April 4, 2023, changed the zoning classification for 100 1st Street from High Density Residential (HDR) to CBD.

The referendum petition began due to the belief that the decision did not meet the set criteria in that the neighboring residents did not approve of the proposal and that lot owner Ron Mitchell’s claims of the original lot classification of HDR having been done in error could not be corroborated.

Trustees decided on May 16, 2023, to wait for an official protest petition to be submitted by the deadline of June 14, 2023, by 5 p.m. The Town would then have a deadline of July 5 to hold a protest hearing. If the hearing officer determines that the petition is sufficient the BOT would then have to decide whether to repeal the original decision or to hold a public election. A public election, if chosen, would have to take place between July 10 and October 6, 2023.

There were three candidates for the position of hearing officer: Karen Goldman, who has 30 years experience as Aurora’s Deputy City Clerk, is considered an expert on elections, and is available at $80 an hour; Kathy Haddock, a former Boulder and Nederland attorney who is available at $350 an hour; and Bill Tuthill, with years of experience in the Jefferson County Attorney’s Office and as a Broomfield City and County Attorney, who is available at $225 an hour.

A motion was made to approve Resolution 2023-27 and appoint Goldman as the hearing officer. The motion was seconded and approved by a unanimous vote.

Trustees discussed the potential of amending Sections 15-24c and 15-27 of Ordinance 834, which is the document that dictates the Town of Nederland’s matters of annexation. Ordinance 834 was passed in December, 2022, and an Annexation Town Hall meeting was held in March, 2023, after which the two sections of the ordinance were labeled as areas of concern.

Section 15-24c states: “the failure of the Planning Commission to provide a recommendation within seven days of the Planning Commission meeting shall be deemed an unconditional recommendation of approval of the annexation and/or the zoning ordinance.”

The recommendation, from the Agenda Information Memorandum prepared by Trustee Tania Corvalan and Trustee Nichole Sterling, was to clarify that the perceived “tight” timeline for the Planning Commission was due to abiding by state statute timelines related to annexation procedures which cannot be affected by Nederland’s ordinance.

Section 15-27 states: “the petition for special annexation election shall be signed by at least 30 registered electors of the Town of Nederland and submitted to the Town Clerk within thirty 30 days after the publication of the annexation ordinance.”

The recommendation was to amend Section 15-27 to state that any annexation larger than ten acres, or that requires a change of zoning based on adjacent properties, will automatically trigger a special election. The amendment is to quell what has been the most debated subject by the public concerning Ordinance 834 by allowing for a vote of the electorate in order to better assess community opinion on an annexation application.

Mayor Giblin and some other Trustees stated that they were satisfied with the compromise the BOT came to concerning Section 15-27 of the Annexation Ordinance and allowing for a referendum petition to dictate a special election for annexation applications.

Trustee Sterling stated that through hearing the public’s opinion during a previous Town Hall meeting concerning annexation on March 21, a community conversation held at the Nederland Community Library on March 13, and from the responses on the community survey, the most requested amendment to Ordinance 834 from the public was for Section 15-27 concerning the desire for a public vote on annexation applications.

Trustee Sterling also noted that the democratic process of a public vote is quicker and more efficient than dictating that a referendum petition must be processed, which takes 70 days, followed by the special election process which takes 60 to 90 days.

The Board agreed not to amend Section 15-24c, which did not require an amendment and was presented for clarification of its language, and gave a nod of four to amend Section 15-27, stating that any annexation larger than ten acres will automatically trigger a special election.

Town Attorney Jennifer Madsen advised that the language pertaining to a required change of zoning based on adjacent properties also being a triggering criteria for a special election be changed to pertain specifically to the issue of density as opposed to zoning, as all annexed properties will require a change of zoning.

Trustees also gave a nod of four in agreement that the applicant for the annexation should be responsible for the cost of the special election, which can cost between $3,000 to $5,000. The BOT will review and vote for final approval of the drafted amendment to Section 15-27 of Ordinance 834 at a later date.

Trustee Seavers, on behalf of PROSAB, and PROSAB Vice Chair Ovett presented a discussion regarding the proposed Chipeta Park Pump Track project. The estimated 10,000 to 15,000 square foot track is being considered to be built between the parking lot and the basketball court in Chipeta Park.

The proposed concrete track would be constructed by American Ramp Company (ARC) at an estimated cost of anywhere between $250,000 and $500,000. Trustee Seavers and Ovett asked the NDDA on April 12, 2023, to provide $15,000 to fund preliminary designs and construction specifications from ARC. The NDDA approved up to $10,000 to be used for the designs.

The preliminary design process with ARC will include public engagement and allow for discussion on multiple designs that could be scalable to the Town’s expected project budget. Shifting areas of difficulty can be added and placed onto desired areas on the design plan in order to alleviate safety issues between differently skilled riders.

The pump track has overall received unanimous votes of recommendation from PROSAB on March 16, and from the Sustainability Advisory Board (SAB) on March 23. Ovett and Seavers have also provided survey results featuring over 170 residents who stated their approval of the project.

Parks Department Director Nicki Dunn addressed concerns that the proposed pump track would interfere with the selected locations for a second bridge across the creek, stating that the Chipeta Park location was ideal in that it did not affect any other town project, it was central to Town making it easily accessed by all of Nederland’s youth, and was closer to local businesses.

Dunn also mentioned that ARC had specified that the Chipeta Park location was a “perfect” size for a pump track.

Trustee Seavers spoke of his and his daughter’s love of bicycling and how he was passionate about providing more bicycle infrastructure to support Nederland’s thriving bicycling community.

Mayor Giblin stated that he felt the pump track would be a great investment for the locals, providing more activities for kids in town and creating incentives for more families to consider moving to Nederland. Though Mayor Giblin felt that the pump track project was as important as any infrastructure or capital improvement project, he mentioned that he would like to hear from other pump track contractors other than ARC, and wanted to look at options for locations.

The Board gave the Chipeta Park Pump Track project a nod of four in approval. Final review and vote for approval of the project will commence at a future meeting.

The Nederland Board of Trustees meet on the first and third Tuesday of every month. Their next scheduled meeting is on Tuesday, June 20, 2023, at 7 p.m. and can now be attended either online or in person at the Nederland Community Center. For more information: https:// townofnederland.colorado.gov/board-of-trustees.