All Local, All The Time
All Local, All The Time
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During the Boulder County Commissioners' public comment session on April 3, several Niwot residents addressed the commissioners with significant concerns about the detrimental effects of the current minimum wage ordinance on Niwot's small businesses. Ordinance 2023-4, which took effect on January 1, 2024, established the minimum wage for unincorporated Boulder County at $16.57 per hour this year, $1.76 higher than the neighboring incorporated towns and cities, except Boulder, which is still...
An audience of close to 40 people attended a community meeting on Thursday, March 6, at Niwot Hall, to hear about the proposed development plans for the former feed store property at 291 Second Avenue in Niwot. Architects Tucker Huey and Anne Postle of Osmosis Architecture gave a slideshow presentation about the proposed two-story mixed-use building and also addressed comments and questions from the audience. The architects represent Niwot residents John and Xan Fischer, who bought the property...
The year-end numbers are in, and they show a continuing downward trend in sales tax revenues collected by the Niwot Local Improvement District (LID) for 2024. Revenues for 2024 totalled $249,677, down 8.8% from 2023 sales tax collections. The calendar year 2022 marked the high point for revenues collected by the LID at $292,231. But in 2023, LID revenues dropped to $273,747, a decline of $18,484, or 6.3%, from 2022, and the 2024 year-end figures showed an even greater decline. LID members were...
It shouldn’t take a research paper to figure out that the reason the cost of living is driving workers and young families out of Boulder County is one thing. It’s not the cost of food, or clothing, or utilities, or other essentials of living that makes it unaffordable to live here. It is the cost of housing. Yet the governing bodies in Boulder County have taken only token steps to address the shortage of affordable, attainable and workforce housing their own policies have created. It’s much too little, and too late. A recent study concl...
All nine members of the Niwot Local Improvement District Advisory Committee (LID) met with Boulder County Commissioners Claire Levy and Marta Loachamin on Aug. 12 at the Left Hand Grange building in Niwot. The meeting, which had been rescheduled several times, is an annual affair in which LID members can give an update on the state of Niwot and hear directly from the commissioners about their priorities. County Commissioner Ashley Stolzmann, who is the elected representative from an area which...
For nearly a year, Niwot residents and regular visitors have been watching the progress of the restoration of the Frank Bader Home at 210 Franklin Street. The property is currently in the process of being redeveloped by Nassar Development, a company known for other historically focused restorations. The latest update from the company's founder, David Nassar, confirms what many can see with their eyes-that progress on the exterior is nearly complete. "Once the exteriors are completely finished, w...
Sales tax revenues for 2024 in Niwot continue to decline, based on data through February, with revenues down by 11% over the same period in 2023. Several funding requests were approved by the LID Advisory Committee (LID). Rock & Rails The 18th year of Rock & Rails, Niwot’s summer concert series, begins on Thursday, May 30, this year. The event takes place in Whistle Stop Park every Thursday night in June, July (except July 4th) and August, with 13 concerts total. Biff Warren, one of the three co-managers of the event, presented the funding r...
The Left Hand Valley Courier is spotlighting various local neighborhoods, their history, issues and general nature. This week, the Courier is spotlighting the Old Town residential neighborhood. Thanks to its proximity to the railroad depot, Second Avenue is one of the oldest areas of commerce in town. As the earliest Niwotians created businesses on both the eastern and western side of the railroad tracks, now the Diagonal Highway, they chose to live in or around where they worked. Eventually,...
Redevelopment, particularly on historic properties, can be unpredictable. It's challenging to know exactly how a project will proceed until an excavator begins to dig into the ground. It's become apparent that this is the case with the project at the former Colterra restaurant and Bader House at 210 Franklin Street in Niwot. The building which housed the Colterra restaurant began life as a barn, and has been demolished due to damage from a fire several years ago, leaving the historic Bader...
The former Colterra Restaurant on Second Avenue is currently in development by Nassar Development as a mixed use space. Plans for the former Colterra Restaurant include an eatery by Boulder restaurateur Josh Dinar, two commercial spaces and five residential units. In various capacities, Dinar is behind several area restaurants including River and Woods, T/Aco, Ash'Kara and Tributary Food Hall in Golden. Nassar Development founder David Nassar presented a vision for the new restaurant, including...
A fire at Colterra, a French restaurant at 210 Franklin Street in Niwot, led to the closure of the popular high-end restaurant in October, 2018. Now, five years later, the iconic property is finally being redeveloped. Restaurateur Bradford Heap, who transformed the previous restaurant known as Le Chantecler into Colterra, faced with the prospect of bringing the damaged building up to current code, ended up selling the property to Boulder developer Terry Palmos for $625,000 in September 2019,...
Karen Ragland, Niwot's St. Vrain Valley School District (SVVSD) school board representative, joined the Niwot Community Association's (NCA) September board meeting to hold a conversation with members and the public about the banners on the football field fence, an upcoming bond measure, and property valuation and taxes. NCA board members have previously spoken with Niwot High School (NHS) principal Eric Rauschkolb about the advertising banners on the football field fence facing Niwot Road, which...
Over the next few months, the former feed store on 2nd Avenue will continue its reimagined purpose as a home for art and culture in Niwot. "At this time, the climate isn't good to start building any kind of development for that lot, so we decided to do a minimal fix up and get the Niwot Cultural Arts Association (NCAA) involved and create something that would encourage people to come downtown," said John Fischer, who co-owns the building with his wife Xan. "Until the climate for redevelopment...
Halfway between Boulder and Longmont lies the charming, unincorporated little "whistlestop" town of Niwot. The "small town with a big heart" was platted in 1875, but never incorporated. Today, Niwot is home to a unique commercial downtown district that is primarily located along two blocks of 2nd Avenue, with the "first block" located between Murray and Franklin streets, and the "second block" between Franklin Street and its intersection with Niwot Road. For many years this modest "downtown"...
Revenues for Niwot's Local Improvement District (LID), which collects a 1% sales tax within the Niwot business district, continue to grow, with the July 2022 report showing a 48% increase in revenue over the same period in 2021. Collections for July totaled $26,346.68, compared to $17,780.17 for the same period a year ago, when the pandemic was still raging. Year-to-date revenues for 2022 are up by 21.48% over 2021, when a total of $269,286.08 was collected by the end of the year. At that rate,...
The Niwot Community Association (NCA) held its monthly board meeting Sept. 7 in the Mountain View Fire Rescue Niwot Station conference room where several issues were discussed. The Veterans Banner Project celebration will take place on Sunday, Nov. 6, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., in Cottonwood Square shopping center. Banners honoring veterans with local connections will be displayed downtown and in Cottonwood Square this fall. Fall festivities in Niwot will keep the NCA Road Crew busy with several roa...
Residents of Niwot and Gunbarrel, long overlooked by the powers that be in Longmont and Boulder, have begun to do something about it. The LOBO Trail, which reputedly runs from Longmont to Boulder and back, and seemingly uphill both ways, was named for LOngmont and BOulder. But you can't actually get all the way to Boulder from Longmont on a trail, as sections are incomplete as the "trail" makes its way through south Gunbarrel. You can get from Longmont all the way to Niwot, and from Niwot to...
The first significant change to the planned mixed-use Palmos Development property (formerly Colterra Restaurant) on the corner of 2nd Avenue and Murray Street was the removal of a mature Silver Maple tree on the west side.The stump of the tree is seen in the foreground of the photo on the right. "As part of a permit application process with Boulder County for the new projects proposed for that property, the owner was required to do a tree inventory report from a certified arborist," according...
In the early hours of the morning in Oct. 2017, a fire broke out on the 200 block of Franklin Street in historic Niwot. While no one was physically hurt, the community felt the loss of Colterra restaurant, with the "barn building" badly burned and deemed uninhabitable. Years, public forums, a development moratorium and a property sale later, redevelopment is finally set to begin. Chef Bradford Heap bought the property, which had been home to Le Chantecler restaurant. He opened the popular...
Remember when Niwot Tavern used to be Flanagan's Pub? Or when Pinnochio's used to be Treppeda's? Or when 1914 House used to be Reverend Taylors? Though some may not realize it, Niwot has always been home to a large number of high-quality, diverse restaurants. Recently, local resident Laura Bloom has started to document the progression of one establishment to another beginning as far back as the 19th century. Bloom is keeping her history on a website, Serving Boulder, which she created in 2010....
Boulder County's newest commissioners Claire Levy and Marta Loachamin got a crash course in the history of the Niwot Local Improvement District when the BOCC met with members of the LID advisory committee on Feb. 25. They also got an earful about some missteps by their predecessors, as well as some still-lingering conflicts that arose from the NRCD building moratorium from two years ago. But the meeting ended with an optimistic tone, and an agreement from both boards to work more cooperatively...
Plans to resuscitate the Bader House property in Niwot cleared a major hurdle last week when the Boulder County Community Planning and Permitting department issued a conditional approval of the Franklin Commons project after a two-month Site Plan Review. The proposal is now subject to a 14-day public comment period, and will become final on Feb. 5, barring further action from the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC). The version of the plans approved by the CPP call for a two-story, mixed-use...
Boulder-based Palmos Development Corporation [PDC] has submitted plans to build a mixed-use development at 210 Franklin St. in Niwot, the site of the historic Bader House and former Colterra Restaurant. On Nov. 19, Boulder County's Community Planning and Permitting Department issued a referral packet to county agencies and adjacent property owners requesting comment on the proposed Franklin Commons development, which includes a new building with five residential units and commercial space, as we...
Before the coronavirus pandemic, the commercial real estate market in Niwot and surrounding communities in Boulder County was robust. While some properties such as the former Colterra restaurant have remained visibly vacant, generally the commercial market here sees low vacancy rates and high demand. The Courier checked in this week with Jim Ditzel, co-owner and founder of Summit Commercial Brokers in Niwot, for an update on the local commercial market. Summit Commercial is a full service commer...
On a sunny, but smoky day in August, plein air artists paint what they see at the corner of 2nd Avenue and Franklin Street. The artists were set up on the northeast corner near the now- shuttered Colterra Restaurant....
A proposed development on the former Colterra property at 210 Franklin St. in Niwot will include up to five residential units, plus a commercial "food/beverage" establishment in the historic Bader House, according to preliminary drawings unveiled by the new owners at a neighborhood meeting at the Left Hand Grange on Wednesday, Jan. 29. In a first-of-its kind engagement required by new land use regulations, Terry Palmos of Palmos Development Corporation [PDC] addressed an assemblage of nearly 50...
Niwot residents are invited to attend a neighborhood meeting hosted by Terry Palmos to review and provide feedback on a preliminary plan for a project in the Niwot Rural Community District I on property formerly occupied by Colterra restaurant. Docket SPR-20-TBD: 210 Franklin, LLC Request: Residential/Commercial mixed-use Location: 210 Franklin, Niwot, CO Owner/Applicant: 210 Franklin, LLC The neighborhood meeting will be held at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, January 29, 2020 at the Left Hand Grange #9 (...
It's been nine months since the moratorium on development concluded for downtown Niwot and as yet, no new projects have been born, and new land use codes have not been put to the test. When the Boulder County Commissioners (BOCC) approved updated land use codes in April 2019, the nettlesome issue of access to the mostly unused alley between the residential side of the alley facing 3rd Avenue and the commercial area facing 2nd Avenue had yet to be laid to rest. BOCC approved more prescriptive...
It's official - the property formerly known as Colterra's restaurant has been sold for the asking price of $625,000. As of Friday, Sept. 6, the new owner of 210 Franklin Street is Palmos Development Corporation of Boulder. The family-run real estate development business is planning to build a mixed use project with the historic Bader House being the commercial property and the larger restaurant building most likely being replaced by residential property. "It's just a great piece of property,"...
The NRCD development moratorium and its repercussions dominated the discussion between the Niwot LID Advisory Committee and the Boulder County Commissioners at their annual joint meeting Aug. 6, but there were tentative signs that relations between the two boards might be on the mend. In concluding remarks, Commissioner Deb Gardner expressed remorse for the “acrimonious” process and pledged to work for improvements going forward. “We have some definite questions to bring to the land use depar...
Almost two years of conjecture around the reopening of Colterra Restaurant in Niwot was put to rest by a “For Sale” sign in the front yard as of Thursday, July 18. The 10,000 square foot corner lot at 210 2nd Avenue, including the historic Bader Building, and the scorched larger “barn” building, are being offered for $625,000. Public records show the property was last purchased for $1,150,000 in 2006 by the entity, Table 210 LLC, with a post office box in Niwot. Colterra Restaurant was owned a...
According to the 2019 Colorado Business Economic Outlook, published annually by the CU Leeds School of Business, Boulder County’s economy is robust and growing, outpacing state and national statistics. This fact reaffirms the tenor of upbeat local leasing experts. The Niwot and Gunbarrel commercial leasing environment continues to be very strong. Being on the fringe of high-end Boulder proper, available office spaces don’t sit unoccupied for long, while the restaurant scene is experiencing spa...
Twenty-eight artists, 59 completed people’s choice ballots, and three judges’ professional opinions have resulted in the winners for this year’s “Why Not Niwot?” Juried Art Show., sponsored by the Niwot Cultural Arts Association (NCAA). Displayed at more than 15 businesses throughout town, the eclectic and imaginative entries illustrated what makes the town of Niwot inimitable. Following a musical performance by the Niwot Community Semi-Marching Free Grange Band at June’s First Friday Art...
The Boulder County Commissioners (BOCC), whose job includes the governance of Niwot, abdicated that role to a Land Use Department whose “arrogance of power” as Niwot resident and community volunteer Laura Skaggs put it, is out of control. The April 23 hearing on changes to the Niwot Rural Community District (NRCD) regulations once again demonstrated a blatant disregard of previous direction from the BOCC to Land Use and Transportation departments, most especially with regard to opening the alley behind 2nd Avenue to immediate use by commercial... Full story
Stalled plans to build a public parking lot west of old town Niwot could be getting a jump-start after Boulder County Commissioner Deb Gardner strongly suggested revisiting a county policy that has prevented the lot’s developers from moving ahead with construction. During a March 12 Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) public hearing on proposed updates to the Niwot Rural Community District (NRCD) land use code, Gardner questioned a provision in the 2011 Niwot Transportation and Connectivity P... Full story
In a move that caught some stakeholders off-guard, Boulder County Commissioners voted unanimously at their March 12 public hearing to extend Niwot’s development moratorium until April 23 in order to address, among other things, concerns from property owners about proposed limits on Floor Area Ratio (FAR) for the non-historic blocks of the NRCD. FAR is a measure of a building’s above-grade floor area in relation to the total area of the lot it’s built upon. A FAR of 1.0 means that a 10,000 squar... Full story
The Niwot LID advisory board is back at full strength, following the appointment of three new members late last month. Joining the six current members are residential representative Lisa Rivard, and business representatives Cornelia Sawle, owner of the Niwot Inn, and Mary Coonce, co-owner of Porchfront Homes, who was also elected to the Niwot Business Association’s executive board recently. The three fill the vacancies left by the departures of Harris Faberman, Carrie Wise, and Jay Champion d...
As a part of their last update to the Niwot Strategic Plan in 2017, the LID advisory board tasked the Niwot Business Association with developing a forward-looking “vision” to help guide funding decisions and planning over the next 10 years. NBA representatives finally unveiled that vision at the board’s regular monthly meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 5. “It’s not a committed plan, and it’s not an approved plan,” NBA president Tony Santelli said while introducing Niwot Vision: 2029. “It’s a visio...
New hands have taken over Niwot Massage, and the new owner is serious about rejuvenating--both bodies and the business. Laura Graziano might seem a familiar face to Niwot residents. She worked at Colterra for five years before the restaurant was closed due to a kitchen fire in October 2017. A Licensed Massage Therapist for the past two years, Graziano was building a private practice in south Boulder when the opportunity to take over Niwot Massage became available to her. The former owner of...
The Boulder County Land Use Department is seeking comment on a proposed 4,358-square-foot, multi-unit addition to the Porchfront Homes building, located on the northeast corner of 2nd Avenue and Murray Street in Niwot. On Jan. 5, county planner Laura Weinstein issued a referral packet to county agencies and adjacent property owners detailing plans for a two-story, a mixed-use structure which will fill the back half of the lot at 102 2nd Avenue. County agencies and individuals have until Jan. 22...
The Niwot LID Advisory Committee checked off a few boxes on its annual to-do list at its first meeting of the new year on Tuesday, Jan. 8. Treasurer Bruce Rabeler led off with a report on the district’s nascent 2019 finances. For the third straight year, the LID will have just under $133,000 in its initial budget (which is based on a percentage of the prior year’s revenue), thanks to flat revenue growth between 2017 and 2018. Through October of last year, tax collections in the LID were dow... Full story
Editor: Courier Treppeda’s ristorante was the heart and soul of 2nd Ave. in Niwot. Jim Miller (resident of Niwot for 46 years) To the Editor: After reading “What tripped up Treppeda’s?” in the January 2, 2019, issue of Left Hand Valley Courier, I say shame on Bernadette and Gilbert Reed, owners of the Slater Building. In our household, Treppeda’s and Colterra have been anchors in our life and in Niwot since we moved to town 12 years ago after living in Boulder for 42 years. We continue to lament the kitchen fire and closure of Colterra...
To the Editor: It has become painfully apparent that the Boulder County Land Use Staff is biased. This bias has compromised the safety of our 2nd Avenue sidewalks for 25 years. Unfortunately, the Community Meeting on Monday night was not productive, and it soon became clear that the focus was an exercise designed to steal property rights from the commercial property owners subject to the moratorium. The Land Use Staff orchestrated the night to address only the predetermined topics that Land Use has identified as necessary to limit the rights...
More than two dozen people stepped up to the microphone in the Boulder County Commissioners’ hearing room on Oct. 30 regarding a temporary halt of development in downtown Niwot. The commissioners could vote to maintain, modify or rescind the moratorium they initially approved on Sept. 20. Dale Case, Boulder County Land Use Director said his department’s recommendation was to uphold the six-month moratorium on development in the Niwot Rural Community District (NRCD), but with the exclusion of... Full story
On Tuesday, Oct. 23, the Niwot LID Advisory Committee welcomed county commissioners Cindy Domenico, Deb Gardner, and Elise Jones to the Left Hand Grange for a “very timely” discussion of the state of local affairs during the past 12 (or so) months. Ordinarily used as an opportunity to showcase the town’s recent successes, this year’s presentation to the commissioners was fraught with anxiety about the county’s development moratorium, which was scheduled for a public hearing on Oct. 30. Ackno...
Owner of shuttered Colterra restaurant, Bradford Heap, announced that he is seeking to rebuild the fire-damaged restaurant in an expanded and perhaps mixed use format. While attending a Niwot community meeting held by Boulder County Land Use staff on Oct. 17, Heap said that the county’s statement that the plans to rebuild his restaurant were approved and “ready to go” was fallacious because he was unable to meet the county’s requirement for additional parking spots. Boulder County Land Use Dir...
Second Avenue property owners vent frustration Early opposition gave way to a more cooperative spirit at a public meeting to discuss the temporary moratorium on new development applications in the Niwot Rural Community District (NRCD), held at the Left Hand Grange on Oct. 17. Dozens of Old Town residents, business owners and community members showed up to express their concerns to Boulder County Land Use Director Dale Case and his staffers, either about the six-month ban itself, or about the...
Owing to a surprise six-month development moratorium imposed on Sept. 20 by the Boulder County Commissioners for the Niwot Rural Community District (NRCD), Bradford Heap, owner of Colterra Restaurant, a mainstay in the Old Town commercial area, stated, “The moratorium is preventing me from reopening [Colterra] and that’s what I know. That’s a fact. I can’t go into the particulars, but there are a lot of things.” Colterra, which opened in 2005, suffered fire damage to the kitchen in early mor...
In the wake of the Boulder County Commissioners’ temporary moratorium on new development applications in the Niwot Rural Community District (NRCD), the Niwot LID advisory committee welcomed Land Use director Dale Case and his staffers, Jose Ruano and Denise Grimm, to the Oct. 2 meeting to discuss the wider implications of such a ban, as well as the next steps in the process. They also considered a funding request, elected a new slate of officers, and discussed the agenda for the upcoming m...
Boulder County Land Use Director Dale Case knew he was walking into a hornet’s nest when he met with eight Niwot developers on Oct. 1. In the ten days since the county enacted a six-month moratorium on new development in the Niwot Rural Community District (NRCD), concerned local business and property owners have politely and not so politely let their displeasure about the halt be known. “This moratorium, out of the blue, with no prior warning, is totally outside the spirit of cooperation tha...
