CB council approves annexation concept

Town dump will be a big part of the pre-annexation agreement

The Crested Butte Town Council has approved a resolution giving the thumbs-up to the annexation concept proposed by Cypress Foothills, the group hoping to annex 44 acres of land into town. The land is located north of Crested Butte between the Gas Café and the cemetery.

The council gave the okay at the January 20 meeting and now the town staff, attorneys for both sides and the developers will begin work on a pre-annexation agreement. That document is expected to come before the council in March.

Public comments
During the council meeting, Moon Ridge subdivision resident Maureen Hall wanted the council to be very aware of the elk herd migration. “I’m not against this development but I think you need to be aware that the elk go through that annexation property,” Hall said. “I see the elk struggle so hard to get through there. I just hope the issue doesn’t go to the bottom of the barrel. It’s an important issue.”
Jesse Irons, who was born in Crested Butte and has lived in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., expressed concern with the proposal. “I want to ask you to protect this town,” he said. “Mammoth Lakes started letting developers do whatever they wanted and that ski town went into bankruptcy. This can feel like déjà vu. You can’t undo this, so think everything through, please.”
Resident Molly Murfee said she had read the proposal in conjunction with the council’s stated town values. “I’m a candidate for affordable housing and I want to encourage a lot of variety and options out there,” she suggested, such as “some rentals, some purchase property, some self-help building opportunities. I wouldn’t want to see the developer build and pay for all the affordable housing. That might work for rentals but not for someone wanting to build a home.”
Murfee encouraged the council to require “green,” energy-efficient building standards. “That will help keep affordable housing affordable,” she said. “I’d like to see Crested Butte stay on the forward path of energy efficiency. That makes a good statement.”
Murfee also asked the council to maintain strict environmental rules and keep building outside of a 100-foot buffer from the wetlands. She also expressed concern with water capacity and the additional strain on the wastewater treatment plant.
“And finally, recognize that as we grow, we need to pay attention to our backcountry.” Murfee said. “We need to address how growth impacts our backcountry.”

Council comments
Councilman Jim Schmidt expressed some concern about snow storage taking away additional space from the public works yard. That area is already being squeezed for parkland if the developers clean up the old dump under the town-owned property.
“My gut tells me when we do the calculations, they’ll need more space for snow storage,” said town planner Michael Yerman. “We’ll look at that in a facility master plan.”
Councilman Skip Berkshire stated strongly he was against any “commercial creep” up Gothic Road. “I have real heartache with that and I wouldn’t vote for the plan if the commercial goes beyond what was discussed in that first block.”
Schmidt concurred with that thought.
Town building and zoning director Bob Gillie told the council he had touched base with representatives of the Crested Butte Fire Protection District and was told the board was open to possibly relocating a new fire hall in the proposed annexation “but they would ideally like it located as far north in the development as possible. Further discussion is obviously necessary on that issue,” he said.
The council voted 6-0 to approve the non-binding annexation concept plan. Councilperson Shaun Matusewicz was not at the meeting.
Town attorney John Belkin said he would begin drawing up the pre-annexation agreement and that would take about 60 days.
“I’ll work 23 hours a day every day to get it done sooner,” responded Cypress attorney Marcus Lock. “It’s up to you.”
“It comes down to how quickly the applicant can work through the dump issues,” responded Belkin. “That will likely be the key issue. I think two months is being realistic.”
Belkin also recommended the town hire a special lawyer and consultant to provide input to the town over the dump clean-up. The council agreed and the developer will pay for the additional staff.