Center for the Arts preparing for spring BOZAR process

Parks consultant looking at site plan

The concept of an expanded Center for the Arts in Crested Butte is gearing up. In a report to the Town Council last week, town planner Michael Yerman said the Center hopes to engage BOZAR (Board of Zoning and Architectural Review) as soon as this April to begin the formal design review process for the new building.

In the BOZAR process the public will be able to comment on the specific plans of the expansion. The council will take a hands-off approach with that process, since any appeal that would come to them would be considered “quasi-judicial” in nature. The idea is to get BOZAR approval this year and have a groundbreaking in 2016. Construction is expected to take 12 months.
Yerman said the Center is picking up a $5,000 tab to hire parks consultant Mundus Bishop Landscape Architects and Planning, an award-winning Denver landscape architecture firm established in 1999, that is preparing the Big Mine Park master plan. Tina Bishop, a founding partner of Mundus Bishop, will look at the Center expansion and its impact on the surrounding park space. She will form plans on how best to integrate the expansion and park area. The council will see a presentation on the concept this Monday.
“We want her to take a holistic view of the park,” said Yerman. “We don’t want to cut ourselves short so we felt this was money well spent. We thought it pertinent to look at the whole site with a building of this size and expense.”
Yerman said the Center and town staffs have been talking the last four months about the proposed expansion. When the formal process begins, Yerman said BOZAR would first look at the concept review, where feasibility and potential problems are identified. “It is critical to have the board and public involved early in the process to avoid wasting time and resources and to focus the discussion on key items,” Yerman told the council in a memo. “It may be that there is more than one meeting in the concept review phase.”
The memo also states the general plan and building permit review would be “the meat of the review process and will deal with traffic/parking, landscaping, architectural review and site plan.”
Yerman said as the project progresses, the council will be engaged on possible funding discussions, grant opportunities, review of the business plan and financials and possible renewal of the lease agreements.
The town currently owns the facility. That gives some leeway when it comes to certain requirements such as parking.