Issues, candidates set for April 2 Estes election

ESTES PARK – With two unanimous votes Tuesday night by the Estes Park Board of Trustees and the Monday passage of a deadline for prospective candidates to file, the municipal ballot that Estes Park voters will face on April 2 has taken shape.

Trustees voted Tuesday to place a citizen-initiated ordinance about zoning on the ballot instead of enacting it themselves, and also gave voters a chance to decide whether the town’s 1% sales tax will be renewed for 10 years,

Under the proposed ordinance, the result of a successful petition drive, applicants for planned unit development, variances or rezoning would be required to first obtain written approval of the proposal from 60% of the people who own parcels of property within 500 feet of the parcel specified in the application.

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Renewal of the 1% sales tax, to be presented as Ballot Issue 1A, would fund street maintenance, stormwater infrastructure expansion, public trails and wildfire mitigation.

With Mayor Wendy Koenig’s decision not to run for re-election, voters will decide on two mayoral candidates — Gary Hall and Trustee Barbara MacAlpine — as well as nine candidates for the Board of Trustees to fill seats held by MacAlpine, Frank Lancaster, Patrick Martchink and Cindy Younglund.

MacAlpine has served as a trustee since 2020, and Hall had served for 18 years as chief information officer at Estes Park Health.

Incumbent trustees Lancaster and Younglund will seek re-election. Lancaster’s 40 years of local government experience include 18 years as Larimer County manager and seven as town administrator; he was appointed to the board last May after the death in March of Trustee Scott Webermeier. Younglund is seeking her second term after being elected in 2020.

The other candidates for seats on the board of trustees include attorney Bill Brown, developer Frank Theis and taffy-shop owner Mark Igel, as well as Bruce Darby, John Guffey, Nathan Harger and Nick Thomas.

The last day to file an affidavit to be a write-in candidate is Monday, which also is the last day for any of the official candidates to withdraw from the ballot.