Niwot Historic District marks 30-year anniversary

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" has been home to an eclectic mix of independent restaurants and shops selling antiques, new and vintage clothing, bikes, gifts, books, pianos, and coffee, intermixed with offices and even residences. For years, the second block included a feed store next to a European car sales and repair shop which remains, and now includes a liquor store, alteration shop, offices, restaurants, salons, and a jewelry store.

Just down the street from "Old Town," Cottonwood Square shopping center includes a grocery store, gas station, microbrewery, marijuana dispensary - everything Niwot needs to be sustainable and self-reliant.

In 1993 the Boulder County Board of Commissioners established the Niwot Historic District, a 10-month process that designated eight commercial properties on 2nd Ave and one residential property on Franklin Street as historic contributing structures because they "maintained some degree of historical integrity throughout time."

The contributing properties designated are now occupied by the Niwot Wheel Works and Wheel House, 1914 House, Niwot Natural Medicine, and Left Hand Grange on the south side, and by Porchfront Homes, Few of a Kind Vintage + Mercantile, Wise Buys Antiques, The Wandering Jellyfish and the former Colterra property on the north side.

County regulations now require any improvements to properties within the historic district to obtain approval from a Design Review Committee appointed by the Boulder County Commissioners. Changes to structures in the second block are also required to go through the Design Review process, which provides input to the county when considering land use applications.

At the same time as the historic district was being formed, according to local historian Anne Dyni, who wrote the historical narrative for the historic district application, "The town was in need of a renaissance. The streets were in bad shape and drainage issues meant regular flooding every spring."

"Being unincorporated, the business owners on the local steering committee, which in 1992 became the Niwot Business Association (NBA), appealed to Boulder County. When asked, the committee told County Commissioner Ron Stewart they wanted street paving, improved drainage and sidewalks with lights and street signs linking downtown to the Cottonwood Plaza commercial center."

Dyni, who owns the historic Blacksmith shop (now Few of a Kind Vintage + Mercantile), was joined by other property owners, including Jim Knoch, who became president of the NBA, Chris Finger, Peggy King, Euvaldo Valdez, and Tim and Carrie Wise. The cost of these many infrastructure improvements are what led to the creation of the Niwot Local Improvement District (LID), which was approved by a vote of the property owners and residents of the two commercial areas, Old Town and Cottonwood Square, in late 1992. Included in the vote was authorization for a one-half percent sales tax, which was the maximum permitted for a local improvement district at the time.

The committee worked with Stewart and Boulder County Transportation Director Clark Meisner to design the drainage, street lights, sidewalks and curb and gutter, and Boulder County authorized a bond to pay for the $757,000 cost of the improvements. Boulder County contributed one-third of the cost and the sales tax collected paid the balance.

Sales taxes collected in 1993 totalled $19,915, and 1994 collections were slightly less. But as business improved, and more businesses opened in Niwot, the revenues rose and the bond was fully repaid in 2010, when tax collections applied to the debt were over $115,000.

Niwot business leaders led successful efforts at the Colorado state legislature on three separate occasions to modify the LID statute –- first to increase the permissible tax rate to a full one percent, which took effect in 2008, second to add marketing as a permissible expenditure for LID funds, and third to allow a LID to fund events that are deemed beneficial to the business district and allow the LID to add properties to its boundaries.

Since 2008, the LID has had a nine-member advisory committee of business owners, residents and representatives of the local business and community associations to review and prioritize requests for expenditures of the LID's one-percent of sales tax. The county commissioners serve as the board of directors for the LID, and have final approval over expenditures.

The sales tax collected, over $292,000 in 2022, is used to fund capital improvement projects such as the new parking lot and charging station on the west side of Murray and 3rd Avenue, and the bumpout on Second Avenue, as well as community events, and transportation improvements.