On the morning of Friday, January 27, 2023, businesses opening up for the day were greeted with notices on their doors. The notices from Nederland Central Business District Redevelopment LLC advised business owners that parking will not be permitted in several lots in the Central Business District (CBD) until the town of Nederland lifts an emergency moratorium on CBD development.

The notice reads:

“The Town has declared an emergency. During and until that emergency is resolved there will be no parking for you, your employees or your customers on the parking lots owned by The Nederland Central Business District Redevelopment (NCBDR). Fees for violators will be harsh. Cars towed will be charged $600 plus the towing fee and cars immobilized will be charged $600 plus $50 per day until all fees are paid. We regret this situation, and hope it can be resolved as soon as possible.

Do not call us regarding this emergency. Call Town Hall at 303-258-3266. We regret the inconvenience and economic loss this emergency may cause you.”

The “emergency” mentioned in the notice is referring to Emergency Moratorium Ordinance 835. On January 17, the Town of Nederland placed a suspension on processing land-use applications for properties in the CBD due to a property owner who had run into issues in the zoning code when applying for lot consolidation. The Town drafted the moratorium in order to allow time for “necessary” review of the zoning code.

The official Agenda Information Memorandum, prepared by Town Administrator Miranda Fisher, reads:

“The Town’s Zoning Code and regulations for the CBD have not been updated to reflect the goals for the zone district and downtown as outlined in the Comprehensive Plan 2013 Update and Envision 2030.”

The Board of Trustees (BOT) reviewed the moratorium at that January 17 meeting and were not convinced that the matter should be considered an emergency.

Trustees agreed with several property owners present at the meeting that the moratorium caught them off guard, as the item appeared on the BOT agenda on the morning of the meeting. Ron Mitchell was present at that meeting, representing NCBDR LLC, and stated that the moratorium felt to him like a personal attack, as the “emergency” would subsequently halt some of his CBD development plans.

Some Trustees agreed that the moratorium represents a “breach of trust” between town staff and those investing money in the town. However the BOT approved a motion to place the moratorium for five weeks, to allow time to discuss the pertinence of the issue. An added amendment to the motion specified that any land-use applications or future Special Review Use (SRU) applications that have currently been submitted to the Town will not be affected by the moratorium.

This matter will be discussed by the BOT on February 7 and will return as an action item on February 22.

Mitchell was also present for the Nederland Planning Commission (PC) meeting on Tuesday, January 25, 2023. Representing NCBDR LLC, Mitchell requested that the PC allow for the property of 100 East 1st Street to be rezoned from High Density Residential (HDR) to CBD. The request to rezone was presented as an opportunity to more closely follow the town’s 2013 Comprehensive Plan by utilizing the property as a paid parking lot and “mini-park.”

The Planning Commission voted to deny the request from NCBDR LLC, stating that rezoning property sets a dangerous precedent. The January 25 PC meeting is covered in more detail in this edition of The Mountain-Ear.

The property at 100 East 1st Street has been utilized as a parking lot for many years, but on Friday, January 27, work crews from NCBDR LLC fenced it off. Many other lots were barricaded, including 95 East 1st Street, affecting businesses from Ubon Thai and all down East 1st Street. Work crews also towed derelict cars to block parking spaces across from Salto and Tin Shed.

The parking restriction caused issues with businesses and their employees, as well as created road hazards due to the cluttered streets caused by improvisational and illegal parking jobs, especially on Snyder Street.

The staff at Salto noted that their dining room was particularly sparse for a Saturday morning, and mentioned that they had witnessed potential customers, who typically stop in on their way to Eldora, attempt a single loop around the neighborhood before deciding to move on due to the lack of parking. Some customers would just attempt to park perpendicular to Mitchell’s blockade of rundown cars.

Salto’s staff added that they had to park on the other side of the traffic circle and walk to work. However, the staff for any businesses who rented property from NCBDR LLC were permitted by stationed attendants to park in the lots. Customers who wished to park in the lots had to state their order of business, in reference to where they were planning to shop or dine, to the attendants.

Businesses at the top of East 1st Street, like the Covered Wagon and Crosscut, did not suffer from the parking ban, though businesses at the lower end, like Decent Bagel and The Deli noted less customer traffic than usual for a Saturday. Wings of Lace staff observed that retail stores suffer as a result of the restaurants suffering, as food service establishments bring in the most foot traffic to the CBD.

Perhaps the most affected by the installation of barricades around their parking lot is Ubon Thai. Their main parking lot and entrance to the restaurant, which faces the corner of East 2nd Street and North Bridge Street, is completely fenced off. Those wishing to dine would have to know to access parking from an attended entrance on East 2nd Street, which would allow them to loop around the restaurant to park up front. On Saturday afternoon Ubon had two customers sitting in the dining room.

“Yesterday, I had lunch at a restaurant on First Street. It was empty. They said it had been empty all day. Ron’s tenants are being damaged by his actions against the BOT.” mentioned one commenter on NedHeads.

Residents around Nederland and on social media sites like NedHeads on Facebook are mostly opposed to what they perceive to be a drastic overreaction from NCBDR LLC. Those in opposition claim that the “bullying tactics” being used by NCBDR LLC to strong-arm the Town of Nederland are only harming the local businesses who are stuck in the middle.

“The town, and our small businesses, are being bullied by a landowner who is throwing a temper tantrum in an effort to quickly push through changes to his properties that only benefit him as a landowner,” one resident posted on NedHeads in response to the news of the parking ban.

There are also those who believe that the “emergency” moratorium was conveniently timed by Town staff to halt Mitchell’s redevelopment plans for the CBD. There is a belief among these residents that Mitchell is unfairly scapegoated and demonized as the man who wants to “turn Nederland into Breckenridge.”

The Mountain-Ear reached out to Mitchell and to Town staff for their statements regarding this matter; Mitchell declined to comment and the Town of Nederland has yet to make an official statement as of the publishing of this article.

Unless NCBDR LLC and the Town of Nederland can reach some sort of agreement, the parking ban will seemingly stay in effect until Emergency Moratorium Ordinance 835 is lifted. The BOT will be discussing the moratorium on February 7 and on February 21 will either take action to lift the moratorium or vote to continue it until the Town zoning code is sufficiently analyzed.