Estes OKs temporary moratorium on bed-and-breakfast licenses

ESTES PARK – The Estes Park Board of Trustees voted unanimously on Tuesday night to impose a temporary, six-month moratorium on the issuance of new licenses for bed-and-breakfast inns.

Town Clark Jackie Williamson told the board that the intent of the moratorium would be to give town staff the opportunity to clarify several issues including whether owners must be in residence on the properties and the statutory and operational differences between bed-and-breakfast inns and short-term rental vacation homes, both of which have been a point of confusion for those businesses’ neighbors.

State regulations define a bed-and-breakfast as offering lodging accommodations for a fee, providing at least one meal a day, containing a maximum of 13 sleeping rooms and having an innkeeper near or on the property. The meal requirement isn’t addressed in Estes Park town codes, Williamson said, while the town rules on residency are more restrictive than the state’s regulations.

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Tuesday’s unanimous vote included that of former Estes Park Town Administrator Frank Lancaster, who had been sworn in earlier in the evening to fill the vacancy left by the March 25 death of former Mayor Pro Tem Scott Webermeier. Lancaster, who was town administrator from 2012 to 2019, is to serve through the next regular municipal election on April 2, 2024.

The board on Tuesday elected trustee Marie Cenac to succeed Webermeier as mayor pro tem.