Residents of Crested Butte South speak out in survey

Nordic skiing, community garden, and better bus service

The Property Owners Association asked, and the residents of Crested Butte South answered. The Crested Butte South POA has released the results of a community survey that was conducted over the last two months, finding that some of the top items residents asked for are Nordic skiing trails, a community garden and pavilion, and more convenient bus service.

Crested Butte South manager Chris Behan says he’s fairly confident in the statistical accuracy of the survey. He says 284 surveys were sent via email to a list of addresses Behan has collected from residents over time. One hundred and one surveys were returned.
“We were fairly surprised by the response,” says POA board president Al Smith.
Behan says he’d certainly encourage any residents of Crested Butte South to e-mail the POA ([email protected]) to be included in future surveys.
Behan says the board decided to pursue the survey after having trouble settling on goals and objectives among themselves. “Over the year’s we’ve been trying to get the board to agree on some goals and objectives. They said, ‘Instead of us trying to figure it out, let’s hear from our owners.’”
“The goal is to get short- and long-range goals,” Smith says of the survey effort.
Behan says it’s tough to get people to come to meetings, and Smith says he appreciates the extra community input. “It’s cool to see people hanging out, sharing opinions on what they’d like to see, and not just living in a bedroom community,” Smith says.
Smith says planning efforts like the Commercial District Master Plan were helpful, but they weren’t very inclusive as far as the community’s desires. “That didn’t really involve people so much,” Smith says. “You hope you’re doing the right thing, but it’s nice when you get a survey back that says you are.”
Smith says he also appreciated the community response to big-ticket projects like Gary Garland’s proposed ice rink. “Maybe that was too much too fast, but it was great to have the discussion,” he says.
Behan says he’s planning on a follow-up survey in January with more refined questions.
Smith would like to keep the next survey shorter, too. He thinks the POA may get better response with a shorter survey, since it took about 15 minutes to fill out the last one. Some of the questions required rating eight or nine items at a time, and required complete answers.
Smith and Behan were both surprised Nordic skiing was the most desired recreational amenity.
Some of the other top items included a pavilion and community garden.
“Those are relatively low-cost items we could put as short-term goals,” Behan says.
Bus service from within Crested Butte South to the town of Crested Butte was the top overall item community members thought the POA should pursue.
Smith says things like improved bus service will take more time and greater input from various parties involved before it can be realized. But Smith is glad to see people are using it. Fifty-nine respondents said they have used the RTA bus service at least once. “We kind of thought that people maybe wanted a bus, but pretty much everyone said they wanted it,” Smith says.
Another survey question asked if residents would approve a dues increase or real estate transfer fee (RETT) to fund new improvements. Thirty-four percent of the respondents said they would support a one-time $200 per year POA dues increase. Forty-seven percent said they supported a real estate transfer fee, and 16 percent did not support any change in the revenue stream. Eight percent were undecided, or wanted the POA to pursue other options.
During a meeting of the Gunnison Valley Rural Transportation Authority on December 12, where he briefed the RTA board on the survey results, Behan said the numbers didn’t look very positive for a successful dues increase or real estate transfer fee.
“If we don’t get close to 51 percent, in my mind, we’re not going to send out a dues increase or RETT,” Behan said. He said additional comments on the survey indicated that more people would be supportive of a dues increase if it was less than $200.
Behan was also surprised about some of the demographic figures. Seventy-five percent of the respondents said they were full-time renters or owners. “The remainder were part-time or vacation-home style,” Behan says.
Sixty-seven percent of the respondents had lived in Crested Butte South five years or longer.
Behan estimates there are about 2.8 people per household living in the subdivision’s 524 residential units, making for a total population of 1,475 people. Forty-nine percent of the respondents said they worked in the towns of Crested Butte or Mt. Crested Butte.To see the see the complete survey please visit. http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e2dvarmgfmkseoip/results