The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Council to consider bungalows and condominiums
[ By Mark Reaman ]
A proposal to build what amounts to an eight-building boutique hotel type of development was approved by the Crested Butte Board of Zoning and Architectural Review (BOZAR) last week and will now go to the Town Council for consideration on January 19, with a public hearing scheduled for February.
The Planned Unit Development (PUD) would be located at the west end of the Crested Butte Academy lot at Fifth and Whiterock, which is in the T-zone. Basically the Academy Place development would be a dozen short-term rental units, an administrative building, a deed-restricted affordable housing unit, an owner-occupied housing unit and a publicly accessible community space.
Under the town code, so-called Short-Term Residential Accommodation (STRA) uses are allowed as a conditional use in the T-Zone. It is different from a standard short-term vacation rental. Formed when the Sixth Street Station was proposing a condo-hotel development along Sixth Street, the code allows these proposed STRA bungalows and units to be owned by various individuals but rented under the umbrella of a management company.
The Academy Place project will have common reservation and cleaning services, combined utilities, housekeeping services, on-site meeting room space, maintenance, management and reception services, and an on-site lobby with appropriate on-site desk service.
“This land use will function much like a small boutique hotel,” said Crested Butte community development director Troy Russ. “Also no existing or potential housing units are being replaced with the proposal.”
Neighbors have brought up concerns primarily having to do with the parking situation on adjacent lots and snow storage that depends on the alley. The parking area on the east side of the Academy lot that faces Sixth Street across from the Center for the Arts will remain in place. That property is privately owned but, other than during construction of the project, will be available for the town to lease.
As for the individual condominiumized units, Russ explained that the owners of the STRA units are eligible to occupy their units free from the town’s sales tax obligations for up to 90 days in a calendar year; no stay can extend more than 30 days consecutively. The STRA units will be available to the general public for short-term rental and subject to the town’s sales tax requirements for a minimum of 275 days in a calendar year; no rental can exceed 30 days consecutively. Russ said the concept is very similar to the previously proposed Sixth Street Station hotel although the density is much lower and the Academy Place proposal fits with the surrounding neighborhood.
Russ said BOZAR approved the General Plan on December 22 and recommended the council approve the PUD. That PUD Ordinance will be heard by the Town Council on first reading January 19 and the public hearing will be held February 8.
The developer has indicated they hope to begin construction of the project in 2021.
