CS Irwin seeks new barns above Lake Irwin

A better environmental situation

CS Irwin went before the Gunnison County Planning Commission on Friday, June 3, to discuss a proposal to add to their facility above Lake Irwin. That plan includes the addition of a 6,655-square-foot parking barn, a 1,584-square-foot maintenance barn and an enlargement of the existing fuel barn.

“We’re trying to create a better environmental situation up there,” said Alan Bernholtz, CS Irwin’s director of mountain operations. “Currently, right now we have no way to store our fuel inside a facility that can act as a containment.”
According to Gunnison County Planning Commission chairman Ramon Reed, there were no major concerns at Friday’s meeting.
“The main thing clarified,” Reed said, “is there would be no expansion of the operation. In both the Forest Service environmental assessment done back in 2009 and the Planning Commission approval of that, there were specific limits on the number of skiers and skier days, and that won’t increase. It’s just the construction of these two buildings to house and maintain equipment.”
The Planning Commission has tentatively scheduled a site visit for July 1, assuming that enough snow will have melted by then to allow for an effective site visit. In the meantime, the Planning Commission has requested comments from the Crested Butte Town Council by June 10, prompting town planner John Hess to submit a memo to the council and mayor Leah Williams. In the memo, he noted that the construction would take place within the Crested Butte watershed.
“While new tourism and business endeavors should be encouraged, even in the town’s watershed, I believe the Town’s primary concern with any development application in the watershed should be drinking water quality,” the memo said.
Hess’ memo noted that the project includes a sand and oil separator to control any leaking fluids in the parking barn, and a dry cleanup process for disposal of petroleum and other fluids in the maintenance barn. The current plan also includes the storage of petroleum products and other fluids in the fuel barn, requiring that they be transported between the fuel barn and the maintenance barn.
The memo included recommendations beyond the current plan that could further prevent watershed contamination, but also suggested that it was too early for the Town Council to comment on the proposal because the project might require a watershed permit. Hess suggested that he would write a letter to the Planning Commission indicating that the buildings fall within the town’s watershed and ensuring that county locational standards have been followed.
The Planning Commission plans to hold a public hearing on July 1, following the site visit.