The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Covenants will restrict development, preserve view corridor
The Crested Butte Land Trust (CBLT) has set the size of the property it hopes to sell near Cement Creek Road at 3.7 acres. It is now waiting to hear the recommendation of the Gunnison County Planning Commission to the Board of County Commissioners about the request to subdivide the property.
The proposed subdivision is part of a 36.77-acre section of the Niccoli Ranch that the CBLT purchased in 2006 for $2.6 million. All but five acres of the land was placed in a conservation easement and kept open for agricultural uses, while the remainder was set aside for a possible future sale.
Now, with CBLT debts totaling more than $1 million, the time for that sale has come and CBLT needs the county’s approval to turn one protected piece of land into two pieces of property.
The section that would go up for sale already has a homestead and several outbuildings on it. To keep the developed footprint from expanding, a buyer would be bound by a covenant limiting any future development on the property to the square footage that is already there.
At a public hearing in December, CBLT executive director Ann Johnston told the commission, “The current square footage is 2,800 square feet and the largest new construction could only be around 2,500 square feet, so there would be a visual shrink… The cumulative square footage would be smaller than what is there now.”
Buildings on the property would also be limited to 20 feet in height. Part of the reason for the restrictions is to maintain the property as a view corridor, which was part of the justification CBLT gave for purchasing the property.
Before defining the boundary of the proposed subdivision, CBLT had considered carving out the entire five-acre piece of the property that wasn’t protected, which would have made for more marketable real estate, according to Dan McElroy, who sits on the CBLT board of directors.
But Johnston said the Land Trust “modified the original request from five acres to 3.7 acres to make it more complementary to the agricultural uses on the neighboring
parcel of land.”
The property being considered for subdivision is still larger than what the previous owner, Bob Niccoli, would like. When the property was first put up for sale and purchased by CBLT, it was two parcels: one 35-acre pasture and a second 1.77-acre lot where the homestead and outbuildings are located.
Niccoli said he has already told the Planning Commission of his concerns and isn’t going to involve himself in the subdivision process any more.
The Planning Commission will review the entire proposal and recommend action to the Board of County Commissioners, which will approve or deny the subdivision request. No date for a decision has been set.
