CBMR Master Plan meeting to focus on Snodgrass next week

“It helps us in review of the individual pieces”

Crested Butte Mountain Resort will be making a presentation of the ski area’s Master Development Plan next week, and it will be the public’s first look at the plans for the proposed Snodgrass terrain expansion since the U.S. Forest Service determined two areas to be off limits.

The Master Development Plan (MDP) includes a bevy of previously approved improvements on Crested Butte Mountain, the Snodgrass expansion proposal, and how developments like North Village and Prospect tie in with the two mountains.
Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forest (GMUG), Gunnison District ranger Jim Dawson says the MDP isn’t an official development proposal, but will serve as a planning tool to help the Forest Service evaluate future proposals from the resort. “The master development plan is an overall vision for the entire resort… it helps us in review of the individual pieces to see if they fit with the whole,” Dawson says.
The ski area’s special use permit with the Forest Service requires periodical MDPs, but CBMR vice president of planning and development Michael Kraatz says the Forest Service hasn’t seen an MDP from the resort since sometime in the 1990s.
Dawson says since the Muellers bought the ski area in 2004 and started pursuing the Snodgrass expansion, the Forest Service requested an update to the MDP.
Last year the Forest Service approved a Main Mountain Improvements Plan for the resort, which includes proposals for upgraded lifts on Crested Butte Mountain, a lift out of Teocalli Bowl, additional tree and brush cutting, and on-mountain facilities like the Red Lady Lodge.
Kraatz says most of those improvements haven’t changed in the MDP, but the MDP gives them a sense of timing in relation to Snodgrass. For instance, both the Painter Boy and Peachtree lifts at CBMR are slated for lift upgrades in the Main Mountain Improvements Plan, but the Painter Boy lift may get upgraded first if the Snodgrass expansion is approved.
Aside from Snodgrass and the main mountain, Kraatz says the MDP also includes information about skier services such as restaurants and ski rentals. Real estate projects like North Village and Prospect also get mentioned in the MDP since they’re related to the on-mountain developments, but Kraatz says they have a smaller part in the overall document.
For Snodgrass, the MDP will include the resort’s latest expansion plan, which avoids two geologically unstable areas that were included in previous proposals. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) completed an extensive geological review of Snodgrass Mountain in January. The USGS determined that two areas of the mountain were too unstable for certain ski area infrastructure—one on the west side of the mountain and one on the southeast. When the review was complete, the Forest Service agreed to accept an official expansion proposal from CBMR so long as the two areas were avoided in the plan. GMUG forest supervisor Charlie Richmond sent a letter of guidance to CBMR on January 29, with instructions as to the best way to proceed with an expansion proposal.  
Excluding Snodgrass, Kraatz says, “There’s really nothing new in the MDP… The main mountain projects have already been approved. That really just leaves Snodgrass.”
Kraatz says the MDP isn’t a development proposal for Snodgrass, but the resort plans on handing in an official expansion proposal along with the MDP by mid-March. “When we formally submit the MDP to the Forest Service, simultaneously we’ll submit a project proposal for Snodgrass,” he says.
The Master Development Plan presentation will be held on March 4, starting at 5:30 p.m. at the Mountaineer Square conference center. It is being scheduled as a joint meeting of the Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte town councils. Kraatz says the presentation will last about one hour, followed by a question and answer session.
To see a copy of the Forest Service letter, please click here .