Town Council debating issues with Sixth Street Station project

Parking and rights of way discussed

The Sixth Street Station project in Crested Butte has been in the town regulation pipeline for more than a year. Working with town staff and the Board of Zoning and Architectural Review (BOZAR), the retail-lodging-restaurant development still has a ways to go.

The 62,500-square-foot development would be built along Sixth Street essentially from Gothic Field to the north edge of town across from the Gas Café.
 Crested Butte Building and Zoning director Bob Gillie told the Town Council on Tuesday, September 8 that a lot of progress has been made but he wanted some direction on certain issues.
“We have gotten to the point where BOZAR is comfortable with the landscaping and architecture of the project,” he said, “but we are still working on some issues and I wanted to put this back on the council’s radar screen.”
Gillie said the developers want to line the area with mature trees and place some of them in the public right-of-way. He said this could cause some havoc with snow removal and maintenance. “We aren’t huge fans of this from a snow management standpoint,” he said.
Gary Hartman of Sunlit Architecture represented the developers and said the idea was to give a welcoming boulevard feel to the development.
“We feel it will vastly complicate snow removal on that street and translate to additional costs to the town,” countered Gillie. “We don’t like it and the county doesn’t like it for the same reasons. Our recommendation is to not allow the trees on the street as shown. It just isn’t practical in this environment.”
Gillie said the project was introducing some other new proposals for development to Crested Butte. “They want to introduce some new material such as pavers and areas that bulb out onto the streets, that would be put in the town rights-of-way,” he explained. “There are other things but it is a philosophical question of whether to allow private entities to bring their standards to public property. The question is, ‘should we make changes to public property that is driven by the developers?’”
Gillie said the Sixth Street Station wanted the town to make the parking along Gothic Avenue by the ball field as short-term parking since valet parking services would utilize some of that space. Underground parking is also part of the project and Gillie asked if the council would allow the space beneath Crested Butte streets and alleys to be used for parking spaces to satisfy the parking requirements. “Is compensation to the town needed or is it okay to let them utilize that space?
Mayor Alan Bernholtz reminded everyone that the Town Council had already agreed to changes in zoning to allow the project. “We’ve made concessions to allow the Sixth Street Station to go forward,” he said. “We’ve worked hard to make this feasible for the developer.”
Councilmember Skip Berkshire didn’t want the council to start micromanaging the project. “We could be here several days talking about this project,” he said. “I personally expect BOZAR and the town staff to take care of most of this and come to the council with a recommendation.”
Councilperson Dan Escalante said from a philosophical point of view, he didn’t want the project to change the character of town. “I know a lot of people are nervous about this project,” he commented. “We have a great town and anything that starts making the town incur more costs is not a good idea. And while we know this will look different from anything already here, I don’t think we need it to look different in our space as well.”
Councilperson Billy Rankin said he would like to see compensation to the town if parking spaces are located under town rights-of-way. “The Gothic Field and valet parking conflict could be a problem,” he added. “Valet parking and foul balls may not work well together.”
Berkshire didn’t like that comment. “We’ve known from day one that Gothic Field would be impacted by this project if we allowed it,” he said. “It bothers me to hear us backtracking on that. We need to look at solutions for the foul balls and short-term parking.”
Rankin also expressed some concern over groundwater disturbance as a result of constructing underground parking. “The public needs to know about this,” he said.
“Needless to say, that’s a piece of a very large puzzle,” responded Gillie.
Bernholtz disagreed with Rankin over having the town compensated for use of space under the town alleys and streets. “It’s not like we could go down and use that space for anything,” he said. “I don’t have a problem with parking spaces under our alleys. As for impinging on town right-of-way with bulb-outs and whatnot, I don’t like it. They should make their project work on their land.”
Mayor pro tem Leah Williams said that if their intrusion onto public property can help with public safety, the town should pursue allowing it.
Citizen Roland Mason asked if allowing this development to utilize town space would set a precedent that would bring in other businesses looking for similar approval. A restaurant coming in asking to use town sidewalks for seating was used as an example.
The staff said that while there would be a difference in use, that situation should probably be expected.
Gillie said he had a feel for the broad-brush attitude of the council over the development and would return to staff and BOZAR discussions with renewed vigor and knowledge.