The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Ground could be broken next year but 2019 more likely
by Mark Reaman
The proposed Crested Butte Hotel under the Sixth Street Station development has cleared another major hurdle at the Crested Butte Board of Zoning and Architectural Review (BOZAR).
Being approved for the second of three major BOZAR reviews, the hotel project now goes to the final step of the PUD (planned unit development) process that is the “building permit review.” A meeting addressing that aspect of the project is slated for July 19 from 6 to 9 p.m.
Phase one was the concept plan review, while the recently completed phase two part of the BOZAR review included things like massing and scale of the project.
The development essentially will include two large hotel buildings, both above- and below-ground parking and five rental cottages that basically stretch along Sixth Street from the lots just north of the Gothic softball field to the end of town across from the Gas Café.
Crested Butte community development director Michael Yerman explained the configuration.
“Block D is situated next to Gothic Field and will have parking and open space/park space and snow storage in the winter. Block C will be the next block to the north and will have the ‘annex building,’ which will be 26,653 square feet, while Block B will be the next block to the north and will have the ‘hotel building’ that will be 27,771 square feet. And then Block A is the farthest north across from the Gas Café and will have five cottages ranging in size from about 1,200 square feet to 2,200 square feet.”
The project is a condo-hotel development so there will be a total of 33 condominium units that can be sold. The condos are configured so that they can have lock-offs and thus there will be 67 total “keys” or rentable hotel-room–type units. There are also three affordable housing units in the hotel meant for employee housing.
The developers tried to step down the big buildings slightly in the back since they come up against a residential neighborhood. The project has a larger setback in this area and will include fencing to help shield the area from the residential neighborhoods to the west.
Yerman said the neighbors have been kept abreast of the meetings and plans as they have changed. As for variances that were granted, the only blocks that go “to the lot line” are Block B on the south and Block C on the north at Teocalli Avenue.
“The BOZAR process was really good for the design of the hotel,” said Crested Butte Hotel development partner Bruce MacIntire. “It is a fairly long expensive process, but our team is really happy with the result. We continue to work with the town on a couple of detailed issues, and anticipate resolving those by the end of August. We will have a great deal of work to do once the approvals are complete. Sunlit Architecture will need to turn our current high-level plans into detailed construction drawings to be bid, probably modified and re-bid.”
“The proponents have developed a pretty comprehensive plan to have snow storage, snow removal and snow melt,” said Yerman. “Parking includes some above-ground spaces but also the stacked parking idea that will be located underground. We calculate that 89 spaces are required and they have provided 105 spaces [21 surface spaces in Block D and 84 underground stacked spaces]. Four public spaces were lost due to the valet located on Teocalli Avenue but they will be located in the block next to Gothic Field. So this makes 12 extra spaces.”
Yerman said public amenities of the project include public restrooms, a public waiting area for the bus, a conference room available to the public and bike racks.
As for when you might see construction start on the project, ”The optimist in me hopes we can break ground a year from now. The realist says that we will break ground in the spring of 2019,” said MacIntire.
The final step in the PUD process, the building permit review, will start at the meeting scheduled for July 19 from 6 to 9 p.m. Final approval could come in August.
