The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“As those publicly-driven opportunities come to fruition, we’re going to make sure there’s a spot for those”
[ By Kendra Walker ]
On Thursday, March 11, the North Village development team held a virtual public forum to share the conceptual design for the North Village and gather community feedback. A total of 108 people tuned in to hear about the project and ask questions via Zoom chat, and the team plans to take all feedback into consideration as they finalize and submit a formal planned unit development (PUD) application next month.
Lead planner Heather Henry and project manager Crocket Farnell led the presentation and public Q&A. Henry explained that the team plans to create a skeleton of development that many different market-driven projects and community-driven ideas can plug into. The heart of every decision for the project is also intended to foster a deep connection to the landscape, she said. “Everything born out of this community has that connection to the landscape.”
Henry also noted, “It’s important to understand the project may not look exactly like this, and that’s the whole point.” We have the general building configuration but it may not end up looking exactly like this. But we’re trying to make sure we have connected back to what we heard from the community early on.”
Roads, trails and open space play a major role in the design, and the team has engaged with the Crested Butte Mountain Bike Association (CBMBA) and the Crested Butte Nordic Center to help with designing all the layers of the trail system. A wheelchair accessible commuter trail will connect throughout the village to new trails that link up to already established trails, such as Snodgrass.
Community housing is another huge piece of the project. “This is so critically important and we know it’s the backbone of our community,” said Henry. The PUD will meet the preexisting requirements for 17 community housing units and any other provisions required within the town code. The team also plans to help facilitate third party partnerships with entities like the town, the county, the school and fire district to explore additional affordable housing opportunities. Farnell explained that North Village’s total unit count is still being finalized, but assured the numbers will be significantly less than any prior approvals for the property, and there will be a cap on the numbers once the PUD is finalized.
The general design includes a “Gateway to Gothic” entrance area to accommodate a new Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL) visitor’s center, Fantasy Ranch horse operations and potential transit center and new Snodgrass trailhead and parking. As of now, said Henry, there are 20 designated spaces associated with the visitor’s center and the entrance could potentially accommodate between 80-90 additional spaces for Snodgrass parking.
The development also includes an extension of the RMBL campus, potential single-use and multi-family residential areas, and a Village Center with space for a village park, mixed-use commercial and residential and other civic use opportunities. The team is working with Mountain Express to include bus stops that circulate within the village. “We see the Village Center as being the heartbeat of the community,” said Henry.
Henry explained the design is intended to have as little impact on the surrounding neighborhoods as possible. “The whole land form is really working in our favor,” said Henry. The benefit that we have… is that as you leave Gothic Road you really circulate down into the property. So because we have accumulated and really clustered the development and the density down into those lower areas… the views continue to be unbroken views with the village there in the foreground.”
The property also holds two easements, one for a water reservoir for CBMR snowmaking storage, and one for a lift connect to the base of the mountain. The team has left space to accommodate both easements but explained that those would be privately driven if ever pursued.
Attendee David Inouye noted that there’s a population of thousands of plants of Frasera speciosa, the monument plant or green gentian, that lives on that property. “Those plants live for decades, then flower once and die. Probably reaching ages between 25 and 75 years. I’ve been tracking the number of flowering plants in that population since 1985. In 2019 there were 2,420. About every 5-8 years there are lots of flowering individuals,” he said. “I’d be interested in salvaging some of the plants that are going to be dug up.”
“That is certainly something we’d definitely encourage and be happy to help facilitate,” said Farnell. “We want to do our best to save anything out there that’s salvageable. We’ve also minimized the design to avoid any of these sensitive areas… we would also hope over time to improve all the places that are being left natural and bring them to their original state.”
Louise Rosenfield asked, “Would you consider a small planetarium on the knoll?”
“We’re wide open to cool ideas,” said Farnell. “That might be a cool feature to incorporate into the RMBL campus.”
“What are the plans to deal with the increased traffic?” asked Maria Runge.
“We will be developing a new traffic study to evaluate impacts, capacities and mitigation recommendations as part of our PUD submittal process,” said Farnell. Henry also noted those traffic studies will also help in deciding whether the need to widen Gothic Road for a turn lane into the property will be necessary.
Answering a question on whether plans for a community recreation center could be implemented, Farnell responded, “We’d be more than happy to engage in talks to figure out how it might fit into overall scheme.” Throughout the meeting he reiterated, “The earlier we know about anything that has traction the better, so we can better accommodate for it in the design process.”
The North Village team plans to begin the PUD review process in April, with the hope to have approvals complete this year and begin on infrastructure in 2022. Farnell said the build will then ultimately depend on market demand, but the hope is to build out the village in phases over the course of five to 10 years. The team has already received interest from the Valley Housing Fund, the fire department, possible hotels and people interested in office space and third-party development.
“Throughout the process we will continue to work with Mt. Crested Butte and other stakeholders on publicly-driven opportunities,” said Henry.
