The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Many Marble landowners do not approve, but their Town Council does
By Adam Broderick
Despite much opposition from property owners around the town of Marble, off-road vehicles such as ATVs, OHVs and UTVs are now allowed on the portion of County Road 3 that stretches about 0.7 miles from Beaver Lake at the town limits of Marble to the bottom of Daniel’s Hill.
The Board of County Commissioners agreed on Tuesday, July 7, that it is in the best interests of the public and Gunnison County for such authorizations to be established.
Marlene Crosby, public works director for Gunnison County, told commissioners that property owners believe the new easement will affect the number of OHV (off-highway vehicle) users on the road.
“Is their thinking that it brings more ATVs,” asked commissioner Matthew Birnie. “Because that’s totally not the case.”
“It generally brings really quiet, good drivers,” said commissioner Paula Swenson.
“Who drive around, eat lunch and spend money,” added commissioner Phil Chamberland.
“Yes, but [property owners] just can’t accept that,” Crosby said. “They think it’s going to bring more tourists.”
County Road 3 has seen a lot of travel and the road desperately needed repairs to improve safety as well as to protect the rights of private landowners. Crosby used a particular example of an issue on Daniel’s Hill that she has been working on.
“It’s a very gnarly road because there’s a shale bank that comes out, then you have an open ditch on the side that’s drinking a lot. It’s an open well. There are a few wide spots where you can turn off to pass. The adjacent property owner filled all of those pullouts with rocks two weeks ago because his property was being damaged from people going around, and the Forest Service went in and moved mud and rocks with a backhoe from where a landslide was near the town of Crystal,” Crosby said.
Crosby said there has been a significant campaign started to reclaim the byway by property owners, but that the Marble Town Council was in support of the easement. Signage directing permissible road use is now in place to help keep users in line and off of private property surrounding the road.
