Mayor Kristopher Larsen, Nederland. It is certainly an unusual spring for us here in Nederland. With Covid-19 still spreading and our town still virtually shut down, this was not what any of us expected our spring to look like. Instead of meeting friends in town, we are meeting them on Zoom. Instead of sitting on the patios of our favorite restaurants, we are ordering their food to go while masked. Much has changed, and in ways we did not expect, but much remains the same. 

It comes as no surprise to any of us that the need for affordable housing is a pressing issue for Nederland. Like many small mountain towns, limited housing stock has become a problem, one that is exacerbated in Nederland because of our proximity to Boulder and the rampant growth of the Front Range. That is one thing that Covid-19 has not changed at all. 

Over the last four years, the Board of Trustees has made progress on the goal we set to encourage more affordable housing. It is one of the hardest, and most important, issues we have tackled. We have had some successes in reducing the red tape, and less when it comes to encouraging new affordable housing developments. But like a lot of the issues we work on in Nederland, affordable housing is not something we can solve by ourselves. It takes collaboration with partners across the county and state. 

A case in point is the soon to be completed Tungsten Village project. The Boulder County Housing Authority (BCHA) has worked closely with the town to build twenty-six new apartments across from the RTD Park-n-Ride. BCHA has been a great partner to work with and is providing much needed affordable housing units for our community, at a time they are needed more than ever. While it is not possible to guarantee all the new housing goes to current Nederland residents, we can do all possible to make that the case by encouraging our friends and neighbors to get on the waiting list as early as possible! On May 7, 2020, (next Thursday) the application website goes live at 9 a.m. at www.bouldercountyhousing.org! This is the best opportunity to ensure that our neighbors who need affordable housing get it. Help us spread the word to everyone who is looking for housing in our town. Tell your neighbors, post about it on social media. The town will be, and I will be, and I hope you will join us. 

Partnerships are key as we look to address the big issues facing Nederland. Whether it is affordable housing, the climate crisis, the need for enhanced medical services, wildfire preparedness, or economic recovery, we must keep looking for the creative solutions and partnerships. Not only do we need to look for regional partnerships, but in town as well. As we come out of the limbo that the Coronavirus has imparted upon us, we need everyone’s ideas. If you have a creative solution to affordable housing, or any of the other issues we are going to face, let me and the rest of the Board of Trustees know! You can write the entire Board at bot@nederlandco.org anytime, with any ideas you have. 

(Originally published in the April 30, 2020, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)