CB council voices initial displeasure with master planning

Concerned the “Community Compass” would take away from housing

By Mark Reaman

Members of the Crested Butte Town Council made it clear at the December 2 council meeting that they want to focus on tangible affordable housing projects and not spend town staff resources on a master planning process for the town.

Staff had prepared a timeline to craft a so-called “Community Compass” plan that would “weave together essential public values and goals into a positive, proactive set of guideposts that inform discussions and guide decisions now and in the future.”

Staff laid out an extensive year-long public engagement process that would result in what was described as a concise document capturing the unique voice of the Crested Butte community. It would explore the vision of the community and the trade-offs the community was willing to make to achieve its goals. The idea was to collaborate with Mt. Crested Butte to use the public information process so that municipality could begin to craft a similar document.

“We don’t want this to be a checklist of things to do, we want it to be more visionary,” explained town manager Dara MacDonald. “This would lay out who the community wants to be in a big picture sense and how to get there.”

The idea fell flat for the most part with much of the council.

“You don’t want it to be the same thing that every other ski town has posted in their town hall,” said mayor Jim Schmidt. “For me, the compass of town changes every time there is an election. That sets vision and direction.”

“This would be meant to be deeper and explore the real trade-offs needed to accomplish goals,” said MacDonald. “We want a meaningful conversation.”

“We are expected to make complicated decisions so I would like to see a presentation like that,” said new council member Mona Merrill. “I think it would be good to explore the trade-offs of these complicated decisions we make.”

Responding to a question from council member Mallika Magner, MacDonald said the Community Compass project would take a lot of staff time and no new major projects were slated to come on board in 2020.

“When I went door-to-door during the campaign I didn’t hear people say they wanted a Community Compass. They said they wanted affordable housing,” said Magner. “Our businesses are hamstrung because we don’t have enough housing. I would hate to see that left behind for a lovely group get-together. We are in desperate need of more affordable housing.”

“I second what Mallika is saying,” said council member Will Dujardin. “No one is talking about the need for a Community Compass. Staff priority should be on affordable housing.”

“We could still be doing some of that,” said MacDonald.

“We want housing now, not more plans,” said Dujardin. “It’s not just the staff, but the public only has so much more capacity, too.”

“I want to make sure we deliver affordable housing to the community,” said Merrill. “But I also want to make sure the decisions I make over the next four years have good benefit for the community. Getting the housing to the right people with the right income and that it is full.”

“With all due respect, housing in 1995 was a tremendously difficult issue and it still is,” said Magner. “It has never gotten better. It is always an issue.”

Magner said her understanding was that the state had a big pot of money for workforce housing projects and she wanted to jump on the Valley Housing Fund bandwagon and come up with a regional approach for several major projects across the county to tap into that money. “If there is a potential to build affordable rental housing in Crested Butte we should take it. We all ran our campaigns on that.”

Town community development director Michael Yerman said he respectfully disagreed with the conclusions of the Valley Housing Fund.

“Understand that we are a county of 17,000 people and we are not going to get three major projects funded from the state,” Yerman said. He had suggested the council be supportive of the Mt. Crested Butte North Village planning process that could include significant affordable housing. And while council expressed support for that project, they anticipated a long review process and wanted to forge ahead with Crested Butte planning for more housing.

Magner insisted that she felt a regional approach with the state was in order and could result in money for a project inside of town. She also re-emphasized the Valley Housing Fund desire to bring in the state officials who distribute the money to the county to get firsthand knowledge of how that money would be allocated.

She also said the idea of building too much housing was not a real issue. “I would rather see our town resources spent on an actual project in town instead of another plan,” she said.

“I understand the housing issue and it is important but it is not the only issue,” said Yerman. “That is what the Community Compass would try to address. What are the ramifications of 156 more affordable housing units?”

“It feels like if we just build without thinking about impacts we are blindly heading down a path and that doesn’t work,” said MacDonald.

“It doesn’t work now,” responded Magner.

“Where are we aiming?” asked MacDonald. “What is the balance point for Crested Butte?”

“The public is commenting that we need housing now,” said Dujardin. “I understand supporting Mt. Crested Butte but who knows how long the North Village will take to approve? I want to be good to go with a project when the annexation is complete. I don’t think people want to see us spend money on a Community Compass. It feels like a document that will be put over here on a shelf. I am not convinced we need to do this. We’re hearing what people want and it is housing.”

“If you keep building without a plan, you will eventually fail. More building means more traffic and more impacts on things like school and safety. You will never be able to house all the people who want to live in town,” said MacDonald.

“To me it feels like meetings for the sake of meetings,” said Dujardin. “Our constituents want us to take action.”

“I agree with Will and Mallika on this,” said Schmidt. “The problem is starting the Compass now. I feel we can put it off at least three months and focus on a housing discussion with Mt. Crested Butte.”

“No one elected me to start a Community Compass,” said Dujardin. “The character everyone loves about this place is figuratively dying because workers can’t afford to live here.”

“If we are going to do a plan it should not be about visions, but about issues and solutions,” said Magner.

MacDonald again emphasized the need to take a big picture look at the community and include affordable housing. “I would rather not do things in isolation but if you as a council want that, just let us know,” she said.

Citizen Kent Cowherd said big picture views from the council were important and they should not entirely dismiss the idea of a community master planning project.

“Affordable housing is the big picture for me,” said Dujardin.

The council decided to add a Community Compass discussion as an agenda item for the December 16 meeting. Council member and vocal master planning advocate Chris Haver was not at the December 2 meeting but will no doubt jump into the discussion at the next meeting.