October ball

^{Hardball? It’s sure not softball. Is it all about Moneyball?
So much for rushing to get the Foothills annexation sketch plan in by the end of October. In an “I’ve reached my patience limit” type of moment, the Crested Butte planning commission said enough is enough Tuesday evening.  
In a nutshell, the Foothill proponents have gotten in a habit of sending some unexpected curveballs to the town hours, minutes or even during planning commission meetings. The commissioners, especially chairman Alan Bernholtz have time after time asked lead Foothills attorney Jim Starr to break that habit. Instead, the developers just keep winging hardballs at the plate. Some seem right down the middle for a solid strike like affordable housing or open space. But a lot seem like wild pitches from an increasingly frustrated lefty.
Hey, the neighbor is offering to sell their property to the town? Let’s throw out a curveball and offer to sell our property to the town during a meeting.
Ball 1. Outside.
The dump is starting to get problematic? Let’s throw a curveball sending a legalese letter stating the town has all the liability and we’ll go to the county for development approval and basically sue your ass to do the dirty work of a dump clean up if you don’t let us annex to the town.
Ball 2. Brush back pitch way inside.
This week, it’s hurry up and let’s all reach a conclusion over some of this stuff but we don’t work weekends so we’ll get you our responses (which significantly don’t agree with your proposal) 90 minutes before what we hope is a final sketch plan meeting.
Ball 3. In the dirt and heading to the backstop.
Who knows if there will be a ball 4 in this game? Like a World Series game played in the snow, this game just got weirder. The planning commissioners told the developers during the contest Tuesday to take a walk and get their act together. The series will resume in a couple of weeks.
Hey, a snow delay may be in order no matter what.
The old dump in this game is a black cloud hanging over the ballpark. Back in September a guy from the state came in and confirmed a problem but said certain things could be done to determine what was really in the dump. A “site characterization study” was in order and could have been done by about now. Information could have been expected by December. The study wasn’t started and there is no indication the proponent, the town or any combination is working on making one happen. That should disappoint anyone watching this dance. So it probably won’t be until at least next spring or summer when a site study finally gets started. FYI-the state guy says more accurate readings are done in the fall when the water table recedes.
A successful pitcher-catcher combination communicates. Shouldn’t the guy catching the ball have an idea of what’s coming before the pitch? Otherwise that curveball might hit the dirt and get away and lose the game with a run scoring on a passed ball. Guess what’s happening now?
So, as in every game, a timeout might be beneficial. Frankly, it might be too late for a timeout to stop the wild pitches. Who knows? This is a weird game we’re watching at the moment.
Bottom line; some pretty complicated ideas about deferring close to $2 million in town fees and imposing a couple of real estate transfer fees on the project and determining whether land values from 2004 should be used to calculate who owes what are all out there on the table. Just the concept of some of these ideas needs deeper discussion.
If the dump is truly a tremendous mess and the town eventually has significant liability, the commission should be giving all options serious thought. But serious thought takes some time…and more information rather than less should be part of a real thoughtful decision. No one likes having to resort to a dangerous suicide squeeze at the end of the game.
Maybe it was a good thing the latest curveball bounced in the dirt. This game clearly needed a timeout.}