North Village open house gathers more public feedback

“We really want to get this right”

By Kendra Walker

The North Village partners continue to dive deeper into the opportunities and concerns surrounding the development of the 150-acre North Village parcel in the north end of Mt. Crested Butte, most recently with a second open house for public input held on Monday, March 9.

The town of Mt. Crested Butte, North Village Associates LLC and Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL) hosted the public house, which focused on five main categories based on takeaways from the first North Village open house in February.

Breakout table discussions were divided by each topic, which included workforce housing, trails and recreation, local businesses and economic development, community amenities and conservation.

The public was invited to visit each table to ask questions, provide suggestions or general comment for concern. Approximately 60 people were in attendance, including representatives from each of the three hosting partners.

“This is the opportunity to really give us your feedback—the good, the bad, we want to hear it all out,” said Jennifer Barvitski, Gunnison architect and the North Village owner’s local representative. “This will then help our third open house be stronger.” That open house is slated for the first week of April.

Affordable housing continues to lead the conversation, a top priority among all three partners for that parcel. Comments from the public table discussion included concerns around adequate parking and building design. Several people brought up the stark architecture at other affordable housing complexes in Crested Butte and the desire to add more character and different styles of architecture to the buildings’ designs.

Among concerns from the last open house, access surrounding the Snodgrass trailhead was a high concern. “Access to Snodgrass is not threatened,” said Town Council member and North Village subcommittee member Roman Kolodziej. “There’s a permanent easement and everyone will have access to Snodgrass moving forward.” However, the parking area is currently all on private property and will have to be resolved as interest in using Snodgrass increases and other recreation opportunities develop.

Public comment surrounding trails and recreation included the need for a green space, multi-use park area in Mt. Crested Butte, similar to Rainbow Park. Folks also like the idea of trailhead bathrooms, bike washing stations, camping and ADA-compliant trail systems that connect to current trails in the area.

Conservation values also proved important to the public, including agriculture, recreation, view sheds and wildlife. Public feedback included the need for mitigating any type of sound, light and air pollution, especially during construction. The idea of creating solar farms on some of the spaces not zoned for buildings was also brought to light.

Among potential local business opportunities, folks discussed coffee shops, a grocery store, restaurants and co-working office space. There was some concern about what type of businesses would actually be sustainable in that area of town versus the base area.

Establishing a community core rather than a commercial core has been a high priority for council, and Monday’s table conversations included ideas for what those types of community spaces could look like, including a post office, community garden, community center and a bowling alley/youth space. A school site expansion being located on the parcel was also brought up, which gathered mixed reactions from some thinking it was a great idea to others concerned about the traffic implications.

The North Village team noted that a possible water reservoir and its practicality needs to be addressed as soon as possible. There are currently two different overlapping water rights tied with the potential reservoir, with both Vail Resorts and the Mt. Crested Butte Water and Sanitation District. “We want to engage the interest of the two water rights parties and see what their intentions are,” said Kolodziej. “Right now Vail does not have any plan to explore their water rights so we need to continue the conversation with them… It dictates a big part of what the project is going to look like. We still need to figure out some of the nuances of that topic and what the different water rights mean, as well as what is the perceived need for recreation, snow making and drinking water.”

A North Village subcommittee has been meeting weekly to narrow down top priorities, logistics and financial feasibility for the project, taking into account the public open house discussions. Several stakeholder groups have also formed that include housing, recreation, business owners and land managers.

“We’re hoping by the time we’re through with this [open house process] we’ll have a clearer picture of what you would like to see,” said Mt. Crested Butte mayor Janet Farmer, addressing the public. “We have the opportunity to shape the future of Mt. Crested Butte by what we put on this piece of land that’s part of our community… I see it as a legacy for all of us for what we want the future of Mt. Crested Butte to look like. We really want to get this right.”

A follow-up article detailing Monday’s public input in greater depth will appear in an issue later this month.