Welcome to the Downtown Development Authority’s new website. We are still working on a few pages and will be adding content as we go along. Our goal is to be transparent and to that end we hope that visitors to the site will ask questions and let us know when we are doing well and when we need to do more.
I wanted to put a little history up on why Nederland has a DDA and have included links to statutes and ordinances. All that information can also be found in the About NDDA section as well. While all major DDA projects go through a Nederland Public Process, if you are a business or property owner in the DDA District, we want to hear from you and we hope to make it easier as we go along and it starts with this Website and better connecting with our members.
In 2004, after an economic downturn that had really affected Nederland, the Nederland Area Chamber of Commerce and the Town of Nederland hosted an Economic Summit. The results of the summit can be found in the 2 documents, Nederland Area Market Analysis & Action Plan and the Nederland Area Market Analysis Appendix.
The realized result of the Summit was the creation of a funding mechanism, the Nederland Downtown Development Association, a way to give the downtown area the money to make major physical improvements. This would help to enhance the shopping experience for residents and visitors, encourage new businesses, preserve and improve property values, and encourage investment in the downtown area. It was the hopes of this group that through the DDA the downtown area of Nederland could be no only kept from deteriorating but improved through infrastructure, circulation and beatification projects
Colorado law provides for the creation of DDA’s and they typically focuses on improving the infrastructure of the downtown area within the DDA boundary, and the organization is granted authority to develop or redevelop these areas. (Read the whole statute here)
In 2005, Nederland voters approved the creating of the DDA and they began planning their projects. To date the DDA has completed the sidewalk from downtown Nederland to County Road 130 and another walkway/drainage/improvement project, NedPeds, will go into construction summer 2015. We have provided downtown flowers in the summer and holiday lights in the winter. We have contributed matching funds for a Marketing and Tourism grant, Fireworks 2015, and 2 Electric Vehicle Charging stations are being installed behind the Visitor Center. In the past year we’ve applied for capital improvement grants for the intersection of Lakeview and Highway 119 and for walkways connection the NedPeds project to HWY 119 bus stops. The addition of sidewalks and planned walkways have encouraged RTD and Boulder County to contribute to the improvement and additions of bus stops in Nederland.
We are just beginning our Master Plan update process and along with that we will be reaching out to District Members and the Nederland Public to ask how our downtown should function and what it should look like. We will have an email newsletter, we already have a Facebook page and we have this new Website where we hope to keep everyone up-to-date and give people a place to comment. Our Board Members are committed to creating the Downtown that our businesses, property owners and residents need and want and you can see who we all are and contact any one of us with questions or concerns.
