The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Updates include additional parking and snow storage
By Kendra Walker
The Mt. Crested Butte Town Council has approved alterations for the 22-unit affordable housing development in the Prospect Homestead subdivision. The alterations will move some of the existing lot lines to accommodate for additional snow removal storage and more parking.
Under the alterations, a few duplexes have been turned into four-plexes. “So now we have two four-plexes instead of four duplexes,” said community development coordinator and Homestead HOA board member Todd Carroll, as he reviewed the alterations with the council. The bedroom count has also changed from 52 to 60 to accommodate more two- and three-bedroom units, which, as recommended by the Gunnison Valley Regional Housing Authority (GVRHA), are more desirable and needed than one- and two-bedroom units.
“We’re trying to make it better,” said Carroll.
“We have the same amount of units, fewer buildings and more space to manage snow,” added community development director and Prospect resident Carlos Velado.
Additionally, a portion of Deer Creek Circle will turn into a one-way to help accommodate diagonal parking.
“It made sense by turning that into a one-way road,” said public works supervisor Bobby Block. “With the parallel parking in there you were getting possibly three cars on both sides—having that extra eight feet on both sides of the road by turning cars diagonal we were able to more than double the parking spaces that were on the original plan.”
During public comment, Prospect residents Daniela Runge and Kelly Dean both spoke of the neighborhood parking worries.
“One of my concerns is it’s pretty tight right now. What they’re proposing is diagonal parking, so one of the options was to maybe have that parking go deeper a little bit into the common space,” said Runge.
“Something among the neighbors that we’ve talked about is instead of having the four-plexes, have them become three-plexes so that we have more storage for snow and more parking,” added Dean.
With the addition of diagonal parking, “Homeowners still feel like it is under-parked, even with this new plan?” asked council member Lauren Daniel.
Carroll explained, “I’ve been on the HOA so I’ve listened to a lot of the complaints and I do know that they have some parking issues right now. I think part of it is some of the garages are not used for parking and some people have at least four vehicles, sometimes commercial vans, that are parked there. So there are parking problems but some of them are self-imposed by not doing what they’re supposed to be doing.
“It is something that can be changed as a minor alteration if we find that it’s not working or we can do more with parking,” Carroll continued. “If the one-way isn’t working very well or if we could get another diagonal, we could maybe amend the parking plan.”
Mayor Janet Farmer also referenced some of the letters council received included comments about the building materials and landscaping in the common areas. These design elements will be determined later down the road.
“[Conservation is] one of the things we’re looking at for this subdivision…. We’re looking into getting rid of that sod for more of a natural, lower maintenance type of yard in order to keep costs for upkeep and maintenance down,” said Velado.
With the alterations approved, developer Lance Windle of Homestead Housing, LLC will now be able to submit the design for review, which will go through the Prospect Design Review Board and the Mt. Crested Butte Planning Commission. “In a perfect world, things start moving, we get the topographical map done and submit drawings in a month or so,” said Carroll. He also said the developer is hoping to begin initial excavation this fall, and all 22 units of the project are slated to be done within a year.
