Crested Butte Council voices budget wish list for 2014

Parking structures, locker rooms, designer snow banks?

During their first foray into the 2014 budget season, the Crested Butte Town Council members outlined some of their priorities for the upcoming year.
Among the items mentioned was a five-year development master plan for the town and specifically a traffic study that some council members felt could possibly lead to a parking garage in town.

Other items mentioned included an upgrade to affordable housing enforcement in Crested Butte, expansion of the Warming House and/or locker rooms at Big Mine Park, improvements to nearby trail signage, a potentially better bus-stop building by Clark’s Market, better holiday lights and even how to preserve snow banks on Elk Avenue in the winter.
Mayor Aaron Huckstep said the idea behind the discussion was to share with town staff the council priorities for 2014. Putting those priorities at the top of a budget make them more likely to be accomplished.
Councilperson Jim Schmidt said paving some of the town parking lots would be a priority of his. “Maybe we do the one at the Four-way Stop and leave a circle for the Vinotok fire,” he suggested.
“Parking overall and all the associated options is a real discussion,” said public works director Rodney Due.
 “We may have to do more than pave at the Four-way,” Due continued. “It may be getting time for a garage. It was amazing trying to find a parking place over Arts Festival weekend.”
“I think we need a five-year development plan of what we want to pursue in that area,” said Councilperson Roland Mason. “Summer is super-crowded. We really need to look at parking. Before we pave the Four-way, a parking garage may really be needed. I’d like to see money in the budget set aside for master planning. Look at a parking garage. Look at vehicle bridges over Butte or Gothic. Look at access up and down Elk Avenue.”
“A traffic pattern plan would be useful,” agreed Schmidt. “We should be looking at options and phases—bridges, parking structures and such.”
“We are facing problems we didn’t see three or four years ago,” said Mason.
“Getting such a plan is a great idea,” said Huckstep. “Is the Four-way the appropriate place for a structure? That’s a community discussion. It impacts everyone.”
“It should look at pedestrian flow, too,” added Councilperson David Owen.
The rest of the council felt such a master plan should definitely be a budget priority for 2014.
Councilperson Shaun Matusewicz said he thought increasing enforcement of affordable housing in Crested Butte would be money well spent. “We should be making sure that the people who are supposed to be in those units are there in those units,” he said. “Capturing the existing units would be a much cheaper contribution to affordable housing than building new units.”
Town building and zoning director Bob Gillie said the town relies on homeowners to provide information about their deed-restricted units. “If we start knocking on doors we might get some pushback,” he said. “What does increased enforcement really mean?”
“I don’t think we’ll ever solve it 100 percent,” Matusewicz. “But it’s a priority for me. If we capture three units that are out there but not being used, it’s cheaper than building one more unit.”
“Yes, but we can’t make people rent those units,” responded Gillie. “We can’t control the rents. I don’t think we want to get into qualifying renters. I think we have probably an 80 percent compliance rate. There will always be 10 percent we can’t find. So we’re talking another 10 percent. Let me think about it and see if there are better ways.”
Schmidt said relieving some pressure on the overcrowded Big Mine Park Warming House was a priority. “Even installing temporary locker rooms would be a good step,” he said.
“I’m in favor of that,” seconded Owen.
“But maybe instead of putting something like a $50,000 Band-Aid on the locker rooms this year, we suffer through another season of congestion and fix it better in two years,” said Councilperson John Wirsing.
“It’s a tight space and whatever we put over there may be permanent,” said parks and recreation director Jake Jones. Jones said he is confident a GOCO (Great Outdoors Colorado) planning grant will be obtained and actually help plan the Big Mine Park area into the future.
“We know the issues over there but having a solid plan will prioritize how to proceed,” Jones said. “Could we get a plan and get something over there by the fall of 2014? That’s possible. There are a lot of issues over there. The Warming House, locker rooms, a skate park renovation.”
Mason insisted that it was time to have an enclosed bus stop at the Clark’s waiting area. “We’ve talked about that a lot and we should do something,” he said. “Maybe we should also look at how better to use the Visitor’s Center over at the Four-way bus stop.”
Gillie said the town could perhaps move the current Four-way bus stop building to Clark’s and design something new at Sixth and Elk.
Matusewicz wanted the town to purchase more and better Christmas lights. He also wanted to budget money to keep the snow banks along Elk Avenue in the winter.
“There’s council disagreement on that issue,” pointed out town finance director Lois Rozman. “If you want to keep the snow banks off Elk it will probably take less staff and thus less money. If you want designer snow banks, it might take a lot of staff and money.”
Councilperson Glenn Michel said his “Christmas wish list” for the budget could be compared to a pair of socks. “It’s boring but we need to catch up to some deferred maintenance we have put off,” he said. “Every department has cut and cut and pushed back needs. It might be time to address some of those needs.”
“Dovetailing on that, we should have money for staff education and professional organizations,” added Huckstep. “It’s in the town’s best interest to keep the staff up to speed.”
“That makes us a better community going forward,” agreed Michel.
The council also agreed to update their grant request procedures as part of the budget process. The council will hold several meetings over the next three months to get into the nuts and bolts of the 2014 budget.
“We’ll revisit all these items in the budget process, which is just beginning,” promised Huckstep.