Solstice PUD extension approved

Mt. Crested Butte Council approves 5-2

After a request to extend the Solstice Planned Unit Development (PUD)—a zoning plan for an envisioned project in Mt. Crested Butte—got off to a rocky start late last month, the tone of the conversation had changed at a Town Council meeting on Tuesday, July 5, while the goal stayed the same.

When developer Rick Divine went to the Mt. Crested Butte Town Council for a second time last week, he still held out hope for another five years to sit on Solstice, a project that has been through the town’s zoning review process and awaits a rebound in the economy to get moving.
But it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it, and Divine had spent the last two weeks rephrasing his position with members of the council, on tours and in meetings. At their July 5 meeting, the effort paid off as the council voted to extend the Solstice PUD for another three years.
“What we’re really here to talk about is the PUD of Solstice… but much of the conversation and much of the concern has been about the neighboring property, Crested Mountain Village, and the aging buildings that are on there, including the Mall and Conference Center, and what we should do about them,” Divine told the council on Tuesday. “I’m right there with you.”
He went on to offer a glimpse into the thinking on the part of his company, Colorado Properties Limited, which has led to the current, run-down condition of the mall and conference building that the council thoroughly trashed at a meeting on June 21.
“These buildings, in our minds, have always been slated for demolition and it didn’t happen for a variety of reasons,” Divine said. “Every year we’d say what should we do this year… and we’d convince ourselves that the demolition isn’t far away and should we really be reinvesting in an asset that’s not long-term because we’re tearing it down. That process went on for five years.”
Divine said even before the council began expressing concerns about the condition of the mall and conference building, he and his team were talking about how to make improvements that also made financial sense.
Then, after the council’s reaction to the initial request for an extension of the Solstice PUD, during which many of the council members doubted the wisdom of granting a right to build to someone who wasn’t caring for his existing property, Divine and property manager Reed Meredith got together with Mt. Crested Butte Mayor William Buck and councilman David O’Reilly to discuss some of the improvements that could be made, and then toured the mall and conference center building separately after the first Town Council meeting.
With camera and clipboard, Meredith made notes on things “we could improve and places where we thought we could get the most bang for the buck and make some real improvement to the exterior of the buildings.”
Meredith then went on to present a capital improvement plan that laid out a schedule for some of the repairs and upgrades the council was looking for, starting with a new coat of paint in a new color.
A local company will start repainting both buildings, covering the siding stucco and trim, “So we can get rid of the Texas A&M orange and go to a better pallet,” Meredith said, adding that the work would likely start after Labor Day and possibly sooner.
Along with a fresh look, the capital improvement plan calls for upgrades to decks and stairways and improvements to the roof and upgrades to the existing signs of the mall building.
Other repairs will be made to the garage building on the property and to the shake shingling on the conference building. All of that work, along with some work on the property’s landscaping, will be started this year, according to Meredith.
In 2013, the plan predicts the driveway to the property—which Meredith said is heavily used by delivery trucks that wreak havoc on the pavement on the private road—will be resurfaced.
“We had certainly hoped that Solstice would have been under way by now and Solstice would have replaced what is known as Crested Mountain Lane,” he said. “Clearly that hasn’t happened and we’ll need to do further repair work.”
Councilman Danny D’Aquila, who is also a member of the local fire department, mentioned that he had tried to back a fire truck up in Crested Mountain Lane the week before and found it to be in really bad shape. “I really hope you can look into that sooner rather than later,” he said.
The capital plan sounded good to a majority of the council; however, there was one contingency: the Crested Mountain Village condominium association board of directors hadn’t approved the plan and no expenditures could be made on the upgrades until it was  approved.
“However, we feel confident that it will get approved by the board of directors,” Meredith said. “I would end by saying that we’ve gone out and done what we’ve said we were going to do. We’ve looked at it and come up with a plan that we feel we can accomplish.”
Councilman David O’Reilly thanked Meredith and Divine and said, “We talked about generating some traction and I think you did that. I know you did that. We asked for a hand-out and you provided that. Thank you. I appreciate what you’ve done.”
The sentiment was echoed by other council members and it appeared to score points for the Solstice PUD extension, as no one had any concerns about the details of the plan.
Councilman Chris Morgan was only concerned that the council would be extending a right to build to someone else if the property were sold. Mayor Buck remained uneasy about the extension with the current condition of the mall and conference buildings. “Those are the properties on our doorstep,” he said.
The council voted 5-2 in favor of the extension.