The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
The Foothills becomes the Slate River Addition
An official application has been made with the town of Crested Butte to annex 44 acres of land north of town across from the Gas Café. The Dallas development firm Cypress Equities submitted the application. The official name of the proposed development would be the Slate River Addition Annexation. The initial application suggests a density of possibly 115 units.
A previous proposal came before the town five years ago and was known as the Foothills.
This application is basically a starting point and according to town planner Michael Yerman the town staff will begin reviewing the details this week. As part of the review they will meet with the applicant over the next several weeks to get clarifications, analyze details and make suggestions. The Town Council will meet with the developers for a conceptual review of the plan sometime in November.
At the October 20 Town Council meeting, town attorney John Belkin said he would prepare a memo to the council advising them to treat the matter in a quasi-judicial manner. This would essentially make the council a panel of judges as the town Planning Commission and they would not be allowed to be lobbied by the developers.
Councilperson Jim Schmidt wanted to be sure the council had the opportunity to guide the process in an acceptable manner to deal with the old town dump that is located on the property.
“There will be a concept review plan before the council in November,” said Belkin. “That’s where you can have those types of conversations. There is opportunity for feedback. But I will recommend that the council treat this quasi-judicially.”
“I personally have a problem with some of that,” said Schmidt. “The dump makes this a very unique situation. I’m concerned the staff could take the developer down a road that is not agreeable to the council. They might not, but I don’t want that situation. The last time this land was before the town for annexation there was a year and a half of meetings before it all blew up. The council needs to have a discussion on it.”
“I’ll recommend you go the quasi-judicial route but you can decide what you want,” said Belkin. “I recommend you let the town planner do the planning and you make the decisions.”
“I support that and I support the concept of what Jim is saying,” said Aaron Huckstep, mayor of Crested Butte. “An annexation is essentially a negotiation in some ways. It might be worth at the least the council giving some specific direction to the staff.”
“It is a delicate balance,” said Belkin. “I feel strongly the council not be lobbied by the developers.”
“I agree,” said Huckstep, “but we can set the direction we want to see early.”
“Agreed. Remember you have Michael [Yerman] who brings fresh ideas and has done annexations before,” said Belkin.
“We need to be very careful with the process,” said Councilperson Glenn Michel. “We don’t want to encourage expediting the process. For me, I don’t want to telegraph what I think of the proposal until we have the final plan before us.”
“Overall with our town regulations and plans we have told them what we want as far as things like open space and parks but we have never addressed anyone about the old dump,” said Schmidt. “I just don’t want to waste time driving down the wrong road.”
“There will be ample opportunity to convey that at the concept review,” said Belkin.
“We don’t want to circumvent the process…again,” said Michel. “We need to be very careful and deliberate.”
The council hopes to have a conceptual review of the proposal at the November 17 council meeting.
