The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“I for one am very concerned”
The Mt. Crested Butte Town Council is considering an extension to the zoning plan approved for Solstice, an envisioned development near the Crested Butte Mountain Resort base area. But a meeting with the applicant Tuesday, June 21 showed that the road to resolution to the tension between the town and the applicant is going to be a white-knuckle ride.
The council had been asked by Colorado Properties Ltd., Solstice’s developer, to extend the PUD II (Planned Unit Development) for the property, which includes the site of the former Crested Butte Lodge and a few other lots, totaling more than 330,000 square feet in a prime location.
Getting an extension of the approval is no guarantee, according to community development coordinator Carlos Velado, and the council has the option of withdrawing its approval altogether or letting the former approval stand.
The town’s PUD process allows an applicant to create the zoning for a lot before taking it to the council for approval. The Solstice PUD, which was good for three years, was approved in May 2006. “That PUD has since expired,” Velado says.
But Mt. Crested Butte is a small town and the applicant, Rick Divine, has ownership in another building near the base area where “maintenance is lacking,” according to Velado. And while the council legally can’t make approval of the PUD extension contingent on the condition of the other property, the Mall and Conference Center at Crested Mountain Village (where the Brown Lab Saloon and Mt. Crested Butte Bakery is), it isn’t motivating their approval, either.
“I’d like to know from you, Rick, your ability to manage the [Solstice] property in terms of having consensus among the owners and know you have some concrete ability to make changes,” mayor William Buck said. “I for one am very concerned. I would characterize the condition of the Mall as pretty bad.”
“I would, too,” Divine said.
Councilman Danny D’Aquila, who volunteers for the fire department, said, “It wasn’t that long ago that the fire department came to the bakery and there was a fireplace issue. So the fireplace was condemned. That takes aesthetic away from the property and usefulness. Then in the past couple of weeks there was the issue of the fire on the deck. The fire was an issue, but the deck wasn’t able to manage a whole lot of weight. So you’ve kind of got to wonder about the condition of the other decks on the structure.”
D’Aquila recognized that the apartments are affordable but worried about the safety of people in the building.
“It’s getting to the point where something’s got to be done… In good efforts, what would help us consider the extension is what can you do now to satisfy some of our concerns. I agree that it would be nice to see something in print that says this is what we can do in exchange for consideration [of the PUD extension].”
Divine agreed with Buck that some improvements needed to be made to the Mall building but he couldn’t tell what they would be, saying, “We can discuss [the improvements] when I come in because we’ve been considering some upgrades.”
Buck wanted details.
Councilman David O’Reilly wanted detail too, and asked if the council could see a rendering of what the improvements to the Mall building might look like. Divine said, “There are no renderings.”
“The satisfaction level would be better if you had something to show us, if you had plans to do something,” O’Reilly said.
Divine responded, “Do you want a painting? What? There’s nothing to show you.”
“I’m going to let that up to you,” O’Reilly said. “You’ve asked for my input and I’ve tried to be as kind as I can.”
Buck continued what was becoming a theme, saying, “It concerns me as a representative of the town. We have guests show up at the Base Area and it doesn’t help the image of the town to have these kinds of structures there. I think it’s gotten to the point where it’s critical. Whatever you do I hope it’s going to be big and satisfactory.”
While the council batted around statements of frustration throughout the meeting, councilman Chris Morgan summed it up: “The existing building that is there right now is a problem. I walked through it a couple of days ago and I can’t believe you have anybody living in that place. It’s crazy.
“You’ve got bike stands blocking off corridors, plywood nailed up in places, I walked into one of the bathrooms and everything had garbage bags over it,” he continued. “It’s like this far away from having to take some actions on it. And I’m not inclined to give a property right to someone who treats property in my town that way. I don’t know how I can say it any clearer than that.”
The town delegated Morgan, Buck and O’Reilly to talk with Divine before the council meets July 5, when they’ll again take up consideration of the five-year PUD extension.
