The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Segregating park is much cheaper than updating current system
Riverland is a unique industrial park located just three miles south of Crested Butte. It is the only mixed-use development in the Crested Butte Fire Protection District (CBFPD), consisting of 33 developed lots, a dozen residential units and five undeveloped lots.
Since the mostly industrial park was built prior to the adoption of the current fire protection code, neither new construction on those five undeveloped lots nor additions to preexisting lots can take place until the current fire protection code is amended or the park is exempted from it.
There is an aspect of the current fire code that Riverland property owners cannot fulfill: the code requires a minimum flow of 750 gallons of water per minute (gpm), and the park’s system reaches only 500 gpm because the pipes can handle only so much pressure.
To comply with the current code, Riverland property owners have already installed fire hydrants every 500 feet throughout the park and brought in a 35,000-gallon water tank. But these improvements are just not enough.
Crested Butte Fire Protection District fire chief Ric Ems told county commissioners the district will not consider further amending the code—its most recent modification was in 2008. And instead of funding an extremely expensive system upgrade, property owners have suggested county commissioners designate Riverland a “special area” and exempt the park from compliance with the current code.
On Tuesday, January 20, county commissioners began the process of designating that special area. If the area were granted the exemption, the Gunnison fire marshal would decide Riverland’s new safety measures instead of the CBFPD. Commissioner Phil Chamberland said of property owners in the park, “I’d like these guys to start utilizing their property. We’re actually increasing the fire safety for 33 units that have people and children living in them.”
Ems responded to Riverland property owners’ request that the county support the special area designation: “It’s an extreme step but we’ll work with the county,” he said. “They have to put their infrastructure to use… Riverland has to finish that work. If [the county] waives the fire code we would not do any preventive work there, but they would still be in our response zone.”
Commissioners directed staff to move forward with the special area designation, and to send a letter to alert the CBFPD that they are considering another option: repealing the fire code. If that were to happen builders and project developers would utilize the county’s building codes instead of those of the CBFPD.
