NEDERLAND - It was a transformative year for the Nederland Downtown Development Authority (NDDA). 2024 presented challenges, as well great successes for the Authority, while also offering the organization the unique opportunity to better define its role through revisiting their goals and vision. 

Events 

The NDDA began and ended 2024 by making decisions regarding its greatest success, the Summer Concert Series. 

During their first meeting of the year, on January 10, 2024, the Authority approved and subsequently released the Request for Proposal (RFP) for an Event Coordinator for the very first Summer Concert Series, originally to be six concerts to take place in different locations across Nederland from May to September. 

The original intention of the series was to find a suitable alternative location for the Authority’s outdoor performance space, while also testing the viability of hosting outdoor concerts with rented equipment.   

On February 21, Board members approved hiring Time Served Production Group, a recently formed group of Nederland business owners and residents Peter Fiori, Danny Hackett, Silas Herman, Mandy Kneer, Danny Shafer, and Kimba Stefane, all with experience in music production ranging from NedFest, Frozen Dead Guy Days, and Salmonfest.  

The Summer Concert Series began on June 1, 2024, with Rolling Harvest and Bonnie and Taylor Sims Band playing in Chipeta Park from 4 to 7 p.m.

Though the original purpose of the Summer Concert Series was for each of the six concerts to be held in a different location, Time Served reiterated their previously mentioned preference for hosting every concert at Chipeta Park during the NDDA’s meeting on June 12.

Some Board members felt that it was worth having Time Served assess all available options for locations, but the consensus was to use Chipeta Park for every concert due to time constraints and to the positive feedback generated from the community.

The success of the series resulted in the Authority focusing on summer 2025 a little earlier, by finalizing and releasing the RFP for an Event Coordinator for the next series on December 11. 

This time around the Authority agreed to expect all six concerts to take place in Chipeta Park, having concluded that, due to the complications with using either Guercio Field or East 1st Street, it was truly the most viable option.

  Board members’ suggestions were edited into the RFP, which included requirements of the Event Coordinator to include attendance numbers, the recorded impact to local business, and an inclement weather plan in monthly progress reports to the Authority. 

The NDDA also focused on more events than just the Summer Concert Series in 2024, awarding $7,000 in special event funding to many organizations, including the Nederland Farmers Market, and $19,270 in traffic control funding. 

However, during the Authority’s 2025 budget discussion on October 9, Board members expressed that the organization’s definition of “event support” was vague, considering that the draft budget had $200,000 allocated for such support despite not fully deliberating on the many ideas for what that support could be. 

In addition to their tradition of allocating grant funds to event organizers who come to the NDDA with requests, the Authority was also considering hiring a full-time event coordinator to run their own events, such as movies in the park, a potential winter fireworks show, and a drone show for the 4th of July, though no formal proposals for these ideas had come forward.  

In terms of general “event support,” the majority of Board members felt that the NDDA’s mission was not to create events to increase sales tax revenue, but rather to raise property values through public/private partnerships.

The Authority allocated $50,000 for traditional event support, but also approved budgeting $60,000 for their own event, the 2025 Summer Concert Series, as well as another $60,000 to release an RFP for the 2026 series much earlier.     

Outdoor Performance Space

The Outdoor Performance Space project gained little traction in 2024, as the proposed location, a section of Barker Meadows Park between the AmeriGas propane tanks and the Town Shop, has a logistical problem due to being partially in a floodplain. 

Though the NDDA has already spent money on projects and studies assessing the viability of that area, some Board members felt there still was not enough hard data and consideration for how the performance space will be used to support the Authority’s mission to justify budgeting for the project in 2025. 

On May 8, Nederland’s Parks Manager Nicki Dunn requested $14,900 to fund a survey, construction documents, schematic design, and design development from engineering consultants JVA for a proposed Rain Garden at that specific waterfront location. 

The NDDA approved paying $6,500 to JVA for surveying and a schematic design.

NDDA Chair Andrew Dewart and Board of Trustees (BOT) Liaison Tania Corvalan, as members of the Performance Space subcommittee, suggested that the project continue to be funded through 2025 and that a landscape architect be hired, as well as a sound engineer, in order to maximize the potential of the location.

On August 14, NDDA Executive Director Kate Masingale and Town Administrator Jonathan Cain expressed that the applicability of the performance space is important in setting a precedent for how the NDDA should operate in collaboration with the Town of Nederland. 

But on October 9, a line item for the performance space project was absent from the draft 2025 budget, reigniting the debate of whether or not the Authority should prioritize the project.  

Those who supported the project felt that Nederland’s waterfront was in need of revitalization; other Board members believed that the parks surrounding the waterfront should fall under the purview of the Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Advisory Board, and not the NDDA. 

The Authority eventually accepted a compromise offered by Cain, that the NDDA could leave the line item empty in their budget as the Town of Nederland will spend $36,000 in the General Fund, previously allocated for Guercio Field improvements, to hire a landscape architect to create performance space designs for Barker Meadows Park. 

Public Art

The Authority’s initiative to use public art to amplify Nederland’s central business district continued with great success in 2024.

Over 16 artists applied to the Public Art Committee to be chosen to create a mural on one of the Town’s many businesses. Two artists were chosen, Aerica Raven and David Swartz, whose preliminary mural designs were approved by the Authority on June 12. 

Raven was chosen by the NDDA to paint a mural on the concrete pillar on the corner of the Kathmandu restaurant depicting a scene of nature, accented with imagery influenced by Nepalese culture. Raven, whose work has evolved from branding design in Austin, Texas, to murals in Fort Collins, depicted a vivid, natural scene of a fox invading a marmots’ home.  

Swartz, a graffiti artist who has created murals all over the country, including in California, Chicago, and Michigan, painted the stunning image of a magpie set against a striking orange sky, with a wave of turquoise water splashing in the background on The Mountain-Ear office building at 98 West 1st Street.

The NDDA also approved hiring Casey Pyle as the Art Director for the Public Art Committee’s project to decoratively paint eight unique picnic tables.

The tables were painted by several local artists, including Lindsay Erickson and Wolfy Wolf, as a live demonstration during the Town’s Neder-Day of Art celebration on June 22. Attendees also helped to create  a community table that, along with the seven other tables, were distributed for use all over downtown.  

Strategizing

On March 12, the NDDA met with the BOT to hear from business support nonprofit Downtown Colorado Inc. (DCI) in order to launch their program with the Authority, which was originally planned to extend into October, to identify how best the Authority and Board can collaborate.

DCI delivered a final progress report on April 23, which was to contain recommendations for actionable ordinances and possible grant opportunities for collaborative projects with the BOT. 

The recommendations within the report include updating their plan for downtown development, establishing a work plan, considering projects that would support their partners, narrowing the organization’s vision to focus on feasible outcomes, tightening the process for setting the official agenda, broadening communication and reporting to the public, engaging with partners to align with their goals, building downtown habits, addressing downtown accessibility, and enhancing communication.

On August 14, as the Authority was beginning to discuss which projects it should prioritize in 2025, Chair Dewart proclaimed that the NDDA should consider DCI’s recommendations when addressing future priorities.

On that note, Cain suggested that the Authority could provide light infrastructure needs, such as lighting, ADA compliance, and sidewalks for the downtown area, as well as collaborate with the Town by providing matching funds on grants for water and sewer improvements below East 1st Street.

During that discussion, Masingale expressed that the Authority should update its own Plan of Development (POD), which has not been updated since 2017. 

On September 11, Masingale and Board members heard a proposal from Studio Seed and Progressive Urban Management Association to draft an update of the NDDA’s POD for $39,875. The drafting process is expected to be four to six months of research, review, and public engagement, and will produce a document that coincides with the Town’s Comprehensive and Subarea Plans, which are expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2025.

Another joint work session with the BOT is planned for the first quarter of 2025 as well, which Cain has specified as an opportunity for both organizations to discuss the POD update during strategic planning sessions.

Masingale has also stated during the September meeting that she would be conducting one-on-one conversations with each member of the Board in order to refine an agreement with Studio Seed. 

The Nederland Downtown Development Authority meets the second Wednesday of every month. Their first meeting of the new year is scheduled for Wednesday, January 8, 2025, at 6 p.m. 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.