Estes Park board postpones provisional strategic plan after draft omission surfaces

The Estes Park Town Board voted Tuesday to continue action on its 2027 provisional strategic plan to its next meeting after discovering that a goal had been left out of the draft under review. The plan is meant to guide the 2027 budget process by giving staff direction as departments prepare budget requests, though officials said inclusion in the plan does not guarantee funding.

The discussion turned to language tied to the Cleave Street and Bighorn area, where trustees have been weighing how specifically to describe ongoing collaboration around a possible shared facility with parking, retail and housing. Mayor Gary Hall said he believed the board had previously removed explicit references to Estes Park Housing Authority and Whims-a-Doodle from one item, but after further thought wanted those names restored because they are the key parties currently involved in the discussions alongside the town.

During the debate, staff said the board was actually looking for a different goal than the parking-structure item first identified. The missing goal, read into the record before the vote to continue, called for "continued collaborative planning efforts regarding a shared facility concept on Cleve Street that includes a new parking structure, retail space, and housing units." Staff said that goal had been inadvertently omitted while documents were being transposed and asked the board to delay adoption so the full plan could be corrected.

Hall then moved to continue the item to the board's first meeting in June, and Trustee Bill Brown seconded. Before the board moved on, Brown raised a separate question about a strategic-plan item involving demolition and relocation of the existing Riverside restrooms, asking where replacement restrooms would go. Staff said the current location under consideration is on higher ground across the river to the south and said maintaining downtown restroom access remains a priority.

Trustee Jamie Mieras also asked for historical context on the Cleave Street concept, and Hall said Whims-a-Doodle had approached the town about collaborating on the idea after the town was already working on plans for a three- or four-story Bighorn parking structure. Staff told trustees the delay would not disrupt budget preparation because department directors will receive the strategic planning worksheet now and any revisions made at the June meeting can still be incorporated before budget proposals are due.