After Nucla’s Town Board of Trustees met Aug. 13, the Forum had questions about three different items on the agenda that seemed unclear, what were ordinances and resolutions that town officials discussed. The Forum was able to speak with Nucla Town Manager Melissa Lampshire last week for clarity.
Lampshire said the three items appeared as bullet points on the agenda and were indeed two ordinances and one resolution. She said 2018-01 was for a second reading and adoption of an ordinance. She added with ordinances the public should know there must be a first reading, a legal notice in the newspaper two times thereafter, and then a second reading, after which an ordinance may be adopted. Ordinances then go into effect 30 days after the first publication in the paper.
For 2018-01, the ordinance originally allowed the mayor the right to vote. However, Lampshire said a town mayor in Colorado already has the right to vote. She said there is some discrepancy with ordinances and laws in Colorado. In this way, that ordinance was amended Aug. 13 simply for clarity.
“That was cleaning up old stuff, and not a big thing,” she said.
There was also, though, a first reading of the ordinance 2025-03, which does adopt conditional use permits for housing. Under this new ordinance, Lampshire said, residents can live in an RV full-time in Nucla.
“The new ordinance amends any previous ordinance that was in conflict,” she said.
The following Nucla Town Board meeting, Aug. 27, will have the second reading of that ordinance, and then adopt it. Per the law, she said it will go into effect 30 days from the first date of publication, which was Aug. 20 in the San Miguel Basin Forum.
The Forum asked if Lampshire had gotten any pushback about the ordinances, but she said she had not as of press time. She said some might not know about the adoptions, until they read about them in the legal section of the paper.
For the conditional use housing permit, she said it allows RV living under certain circumstances, but with rigorous inspections and regulations. She affirmed it is a result of the alternative housing committee meetings that took place earlier this year, wherein citizens discussed ideas and solutions.
“So many people applied for temporary occupancy permits,” she said. “We allowed them while they were building, remodelling or for whatever reason the board saw as useful.”
Now, though, the ordinance does allow full-time RV living, and one doesn’t have to ask repeatedly for the temporary permit.
“But the regulations are rigorous,” she repeated. “We don’t want everyone thinking you can put an RV anywhere and rent it.”
There will be a permit application, fee schedule and inspection list available for the new conditional use permit at Town Hall, once the ordinance goes into effect.
Ordinances are different than resolutions, she explained; resolutions are about resolving something. At the Aug. 13 board meeting, Nucla approved an intergovernmental agreement with other municipalities and Montrose EMS regarding the Montrose Emergency Telephone Service Authority, referred to as METSA. Through METSA, which serves Montrose County, Ouray is now included. METSA is the 911 public service that is used for safety.
