The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Not interested in becoming a developer
The County Commissioners are looking to designate parcels of land in Gunnison County for light industrial use. Under their direction, county staff has identified two areas near Riverland Industrial Park and Signal Peak that could be well suited for light industrial uses, and they are moving forward with a designation process.
The goal, according to assistant planning director Neal Starkebaum, was to find land that has highway access and is adjacent to existing industrial use. That led staff to the John Rozman property adjacent to Riverland, and a portion of Gunnison Valley Partners land near Signal Peak.
“The land owners have been contacted and are interested… The next step is to get [the land] designated as appropriate,” Starkebaum said.
A designation would act as a signal to developers that the county had deemed the land appropriate for industrial uses. Potential developers would still have to work out an agreement with the landowners to purchase or use their land and go through the county approval process prior to development. But the commissioners want to give developers some assurance about project compatibility before starting that approval process.
“The county does not want to be a developer. We’re not going to develop industrial parks—we already have one,” Starkebaum said.
County staff met with the Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday, July 24, to determine next steps. The main challenge was determining the level of detail required for a designation.
“We’ve stated that we want to secure areas for industrial use before they are completely surrounded by residential areas,” said Mike Pelletier, the county’s GIS (Geographic Information Systems) manager. “That’s one step. The next step is like Gold Basin Industrial Park, where it’s subdivided out and the rules and regulations are waiting to go—waiting for people to locate there.”
Pelletier pointed out that it could be difficult to determine the rules and regulations for an industrial area that hadn’t yet been subdivided. County planner Cathie Pagano agreed, adding, “That’s one of the difficult questions to answer, is what level of detail to go to if we don’t know lot sizes or the uses being contemplated.”
The commissioners urged staff to limit the process to a simple designation rather than developing rules and regulations. “I am a very simple man, thinking in simple terms, and I didn’t see this needing to be as complicated as we seem to be making it,” Commissioner Phil Chamberland said. “Let’s look at this [land] and designate it as an industrial area, not precluding it from being residential… but saying in our minds this is an appropriate place for industry.”
Pagano pointed out that a designation wouldn’t necessarily simplify or shorten the application process. “It would still be going through a major impact subdivision application process,” she said.
“But by having that designation, even though it could still take one to two years, it should shorten it because we don’t have to have the conversation of ‘Is this appropriate?’” said Commissioner Paula Swenson.
According to Joanne Williams, county planning director, the designation would likely be done by adding it to the locational standards of the county’s Land Use Resolution. That process would require a joint public hearing between the Planning Commission and the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC), after which the Planning Commission would make a recommendation to the BOCC.
The commissioners’ desire to keep the designation process simple raised some concerns from the public. Warren Wilcox, Planning Commission member and candidate for county commissioner, said he thought the county was overlooking critical factors “like how close it is to the water table, taking land out of agricultural production and visual impacts.”
“I agree with Warren. That’s a very difficult aspect of this analysis, but there are not many areas in the county adjacent to existing industrial uses that have highway access and the infrastructure you’re looking for,” Starkebaum told the commissioners.
Richard Karas, former chairman of the Planning Commission, said he liked the idea but also felt the commissioners needed to consider impacts like ground water, traffic and airflow. He also cautioned the commissioners, given their track record in other land use regulations.
“I’m hearing some of your discussion as almost analogous to earlier discussions on comprehensive operation plans on developing oil and gas fields. In that you also wanted some certainty for the developer,” Karas said.
And local landowner Butch Clark believed the commissioners needed to take into account population growth. “I think that in this process you need to also consider what happens if you have major population growth directly and indirectly related to natural resource extraction,” he said, referencing exploratory drilling near White Pine for molybdenum and near Powderhorn for rare earth minerals.
But the commissioners seemed determined to continue the designation process. They asked staff to determine the proper process and clarify what activities might or might not be appropriate for the specified areas.
