Town of Westcliffe
Swearing in Trustees,
Tiny Home Provisions,
Rework of STR and Lodging Codes in the Works

by Laura Vass,
Town of Westcliffe BOT Report
The regular monthly Town of Westcliffe Board of Trustees meeting on April 16, 2024, was called to order at 5:30 p.m. After the Pledge of Allegiance and roll call with a quorum, the meeting began.
Before the agenda, Mayor Wenke spoke. He said at the last planning commission meeting, he blew up. “I lost my temper, needless to say it was unprofessional. I lost my temper, I swore.”
“I don’t know what came over me. I’ve never done this before in my life. But I was very angry.” He said he wanted the board to have it on record that “I’m very sorry I did that, and I apologized to Christie and Bob. I just want to bring that up.”
Under New Business: Three winners of the April 2 election were sworn in as new Trustees; Bob Fulton, Mark Dembosky and Loree Lund.
Town Officials were appointed as follows; Mayor pro tem; George Mallory, Town Manager; Caleb Patterson, Town Clerk and Admin and Treasurer; Kathy Reis, Deputy Clerk Erin Christy; Town Attorney; Clay Buchner Municipal Judge; James Heavey, and Auditor; David and CO LLC.
Next on the agenda was “Discuss the occurrences during April 3rd Planning Commission meeting.” With Christy Patterson, the Planning Commission Chair. She pointed out that there were a lot of ethical violations at the meeting, one of them being cursing at citizens. During that meeting she asked Mayor Wenke to step down when he was arguing on an issue regarding Ace Hardware. He also made a phone call mid-meeting and was asked to step out again. And he refused. She said he broke with a Town
Ordinance and the Ethical Oath of the Town officials and also the Colorado Constitution Section 29 with his outburst during the Planning Commission meeting.
She played a recording of the section of the planning commission meeting where Mr. Wenke cursed and argued concerning the past deadline for Valley Ace to fix their lighting which does not currently comply and apparently has been on.
The Mayor moved on to the next item on the agenda.
High Altitude Garden Club-Sally Strom thanked the board for their financial donation.
Next, Joanie Liebman of High Country Recycling, requested the board appoint a representative to attend the Recycling meetings held once a month. Someone volunteered.
Tim Hilgert of US Solar, gave a presentation regarding a partnership program. US Solar builds Solar fields that can be used by Black Hills Energy (or other energy companies.) Community Solar, he said, is a state mandate. US Solar asked the board to utilize its website etc. to make the Town citizens aware of the program. He called the Solar panel fields a “Solar Garden”. There is apparently some built-in savings for participation, starting with $100 for promoting, and $100 for sign up.
The current solar field is 20 miles east of Pueblo and contracted for 20 years on that land.The company is asking the board to “create a partnership” to add to their visibility and credibility. (Endorsement and publicity.) Hilgert said the State passed legislation in 2010 and has made requirements since then to go to 80% renewable energy by 2030 and 100% by 2050. Questions were raised about whether this would count as energy credits in the future. It seemed that US Solar doesn’t know what the State will require but said the company is capable of giving out stats, certification of participation, and anything else required.
The board decided to table making any kind of decision to work with them and put it on the agenda for next month. The new Trustee Loree Lund thought the $600 lifetime savings seemed pretty puny. (It is a 20-year cancelable contract for individuals who sign up). (US Solar is a developer and owns/runs the “Solar gardens” and make the land leases and land reclamation when it is over. US Solar makes their money via the customers who sign up as a participant.)
The Board approved Resolution NO.2-2024 approving a mural at 57600 State Highway 69 South. Tim Broll’s Business LP tank. The artist will be Lorna Perkins. (She did the locally familiar gate walls at the Stuart Ranch).
Next was Consideration of a request to add a new chapter to Title 10: Chapter 17 Lodging by recommendation from the Planning Commission and direct the attorney to draft the ordinance.
The attorney has been working on a draft. He said this began with a citizen who wanted to rework the STR ordinances to include other Lodging, ie hotels, motels, noting, “I have to pay and get inspections. How come the lodging establishments don’t have to?”
The attorney has been working on possible changes and what would go into it. “Currently Lodging businesses aren’t regulated in
a way that includes proper inspections and fire code,” Clay explained.
Some of the discussion centered around how often inspections would need to be done—would Lodging need an annual requirement and whether they would need to work with WMFPD on this.
Not written yet, are regulations on extended stay lodging. The
lawyer wanted to know, “How heavily do you (planning commission/TOW board) want to regulate these? or should he “take out all the extended stay reference?”
Citizen Bianca, whose business is in Lodging and extended stays, was asked for input. She explained that most lodging in Westcliffe does have kitchens at this point. And that the Town probably doesn’t have to worry about the community getting “the wrong kind of people… wrong kind of situations, where they are renting long term and turning it into a slum inn situation.” Her reasoning is that most lodging owners can’t afford to rent the properties for a low amount. She said her extended stays are often people moving to Town and waiting on a house to be built and people visiting family, etc.
The lawyer noted that the State did submit rules for health and safety years ago but doesn’t regulate it anymore and there’s no State licensing for that anymore. So he recommends putting something in place for the Town.
Although the topic of not allowing extended stays was broached, it seems that the update will be worked on and would most likely involve inspections for health/safety/fire each year and an additional fee for this licensing. Just in the planning stages, they are working on this for the year 2025. There was no plan yet for a workshop since the document is not complete. The idea of controlling extended stays seemed to peak the mayor’s interest. Other Trustees did not comment further.
The Board approved an update to signatories on all bank accounts.
The Board then went into Executive Session (ES) for the purpose of receiving legal advice under C.R.S. Section 24-6-402(4) (b) regarding the adoption of the Tiny Home Supplement to the current building code. The ES ended at 7:35 p.m.
Resuming board meeting, A Tiny Home Supplement was discussed, specifically, to increase the square footage allowed in the Town (within a yet to be determined zone) from the State’s definition of 400 square ft or less to 500 square ft or less for the Town. The motion that followed approved directing the lawyer to draw up building code language for this increase, and to then go to the planning committee with it.
Under Additions to the Agenda:
A Trustee suggested that Paul Wenke not represent Ace Hardware in any Town meetings. The Town Lawyer addressed the Mayor, saying that the outburst was not related to an agenda item, that Wenke has done the appropriate thing in apologizing, and that he does not see it as an ongoing issue. Paul did not back down on whether or not he should/would represent Ace Hardware in matters of the Town. Instead he twice stated that “the lights are shut off now and will stay off.”
Staff & Committee Reports:
Town Manager Caleb Patterson reported that pave patching will be done by Rocky Mtn. Chipseal and chip sealing the parking lot behind the alley at Jess Park is something he’s getting bids on and he’ll run in the budget. He is waiting to find out if the Town got grant money from Safe Streets and Routes for All for the crossing.
He said for the agenda next month, The Feed Store is going to replace the wooden boardwalk. It’s technically an improvement. (He’d like the Town and owner to split the cost of the Town’s on-call engineer and the new sidewalk.)
Line stripping is being done. Patterson said getting numbers for a new bathroom on Hermit (park) which is going to come in at a lot less that he anticipated. The Trail is being repaired. He’ll have numbers for the next meeting, also. He is also putting some numbers together for the replace-ment of some lights on the Main Street.(Concerning the light color differences.) The Town recently wrote a ticket for an excavation violation. That is now a court item, and he reminded the trustees not to discuss it with the individual at this point.
“Animal clean up” signs are needed. Mayor Wenke said they might need to create a fine for violations, and maybe put some cameras in. Wenke mentioned that the First Baptist Church picked up a 55-gallon drum of feces on The Bluffs prior the Easter egg hunt.

With no public comment, the meeting adjourned.