The Town of Estes Park is working to steal the property rights of owners wishing to develop their property. Currently, landowners in A zoning can build condominiums that also can be used as nightly rentals. These are good developments for the Town because as short term rental properties the user is charged a nightly fee and therefore sales tax. That tax is collected and then misused by the marketing department, but pays them several hundreds of thousands of dollars to meet their huge payroll.
The Town now wants to take these rights away, to no advantage to the Town and to a real detriment to the property owners. If these properties can't be developed as promised, they will lose value and perhaps the Town will be liable for this loss.
Bob Joseph, Town Planner, states that there isn't a problem now, they just want to prevent a problem in the future. Land rights are dear and the Town should stay clear of this proposal. It is interesting to note that the first public hearing was closed to public comment because the Trustees didn't want to bother hearing it then and again at a future meeting. That's our government in action. Always behind the code of silence!
