Westcliffe to Move Forward on Grant Application for Infrastructure to Town Lots,
7th Street Rezone Approved, New Loader in the Works for Snow Removal
Westcliffe Town Meeting
November 19, 2024
by Laura Vass
The Regular Board of Trustees meeting for the town of Westcliffe started at 5:30 p.m. Pro Tem George Mowry called the meeting to order. Mayor Wenke attended remotely via Zoom through the first public hearing and vote. They had a quorum, however, without his presence.
Under New Business, the board approved the lease agreement with 4 Rivers Equipment with payments to begin January 2025. This will include one new piece of equipment deemed more appropriate for snow removal noting that currently owned attachments will also work with the new loader. Town Manager Caleb Patterson said that he got an improved interest rate.
Next the board went into a Public Hearing for Consideration of Approving Rezoning Blocks: 19 & 20, 33 & 34, and Town-owned lots in Westcliffe from Residential to Multi-Family District. (Finalizing this has been a long process.)
The Board heard a few residents and discussed ordinance 5-2024 being considered. There still seems to be a consensus among business owners that there should be protections in place to keep any future housing on the town owned lots for the workforce first, avoid overbuilding, due diligence on research of any “strings attached” to grant monies, and insuring builders provide sufficient parking. Caleb answered the the last item about parking, saying that any future builder on the town owned lots would need to provide 1.75 parking spaces per unit. Other zoning requires two paces per unit.
After the Public Hearing the Town board voted yes on #5-2024, Rezoning only the Town owned lots from Single Family to Multi-Family District. The board voted no on the alternative ordinance #6-2024 which would have rezoned privately owned blocks.
A couple of post-vote comments that were notable were that 1) the town has made it possible for all home builders to add on to a home or home plan and ADU. Duplexes are already allowed under current zoning for the lots in blocks 19 and 20. So flexible housing choices are already in place. 2) Mr. Schneider noted after a question about getting water to the private lots at a later time, that he could only comment as an engineer and not representer, that he hoped there would be an adjustment to the grant application for water/sewer to these lots (which will be completed and submitted at the beginning of December by Caleb) that would ensure that the infrastructure to the lots would accommodate any future extension of lines into the other blocks not being considered for rezoning.
The board went back into a new hearing for ordinance #7-2024 on Rezoning 106 South 7th Street. From Residential Single Family to Traditional Neighborhood per the Planning Commission’s recommendation.
The owner has plans to create housing and a rentable/leaseable event space and off-street parking. The owner’s plan is to create another venue for the dance studio, the VFW, etc. to use. A Caterer’s kitchen is also being considered in his plans. Ordinance #7-2024 was approved.
Next on the regular meeting agenda was a request to hire a part-time/ at will IT employee for the town’s website. The Town office staff has been doing their own IT. That was also approved.
The last item of business was to approve paying the bill on construction of the EV charging station via Black Hills Energy. The cost went over in construction by $8,047.60. The board approved this.
Under staff reports, Erin Christie said the audit is complete and has been filed with the state. It did not affect their sales tax income. The request for an extension was due to the auditor who was out for a period of time due to personal circumstances.
Caleb Patterson gave a short report on his preparations for the next Housing Needs Assessment.