C.B. building department currently seeing a lot of action

Looks like a busy summer ahead

As Crested Butte councilperson Jim Schmidt noted Monday, “If you can swing a hammer, you can probably get a job in town next summer.”

Town Building and Zoning director Bob Gillie told the council his department has been very busy. And if his department is busy now, it will be busy everywhere in a few months.
“There are lots of things going on in the building department,” he reported. “It’s going off.”
Gillie said the owners of the old Slope Building (another subsidiary of Eleven—in this case, Icehouse LLC) hope to beat the rising spring water table and dig out a basement beneath the structure in March. Gillie said that would require the building, located at the corner of Third and Elk, to be lifted up. Work will encroach on some public space. “We are trying to make sure they don’t have a big impact on March visitors but they are trying to beat the spring water issue,” Gillie said.
He said the project shouldn’t have an impact on the old town hall bus stop, but given the size and type of project, there “could be some issues. We want to accommodate them but not impact Elk Avenue too much.”
There will be space for pedestrians to walk around the work, which, Gillie said, would likely go into the summer season as well.
Gillie also reported that local developer Bill Coburn is revisiting with the town the idea of constructing a mixed-use building on the lot behind Clark’s Market, at the corner of Fifth and Belleview. That was at one time proposed as a spot for a bowling alley.
And Gillie said the Sixth Street Station developers are talking to the town about altering or resubmitting new plans for that development, which was approved for a hotel and retail development on the northwest side of Sixth Street.
Gillie reported the town had received a $186,000 grant that will allow for the completion of the Depot renovation. That project will start up again and finish this summer.
And don’t forget that the Building and Zoning Department is involved with talks and negotiations over the proposed annexation. “We have a lot on the plate right now,” Gillie said.
In a similar vein, town planner Michael Yerman told the council that the Center for the Arts brought in some preliminary site ideas for its proposed expansion. The town wants to utilize the parks consultant working on the Big Mine Park master plan, Mundus-Bishop, to review the ideas and see what impact the expansion would have on the surrounding parkland by the center.
BOZAR will review the actual Center for the Arts design, expected to come before BOZAR by next fall.
Throw in some new residential building along with remodel proposals in Crested Butte, a proposed commercial building by Kochevar’s and talks about how to regulate VRBOs, and “there is no lack of things to talk about over here,” Gillie concluded.