The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
New cattle guards and access gate; future decision on closure still in the works
[ By Katherine Nettles ]
After a great deal of community feedback and discourse, some minor changes to the Verzuh public trail are coming together for spring, with a main theme being one of compromise. The current public pedestrian and bicycle access (without dogs) along McCormick Ranch Road will remain unchanged in 2021; however, a gate and new cattle guards will be installed.
Crested Butte town council reviewed these latest developments during their December 7 meeting.
The owners of the Verzuh Open Space, Wynn and Ryan Martens, approached the Crested Butte Town Council in August with a proposal to re-route and reconfigure some of the public trails on their property to better balance wildlife, regenerative agriculture and growing recreation needs. Their property is part of an established easement permitting public use, but the Martens have expressed interest in reclamation work on the wetlands in the area.
The Martens’ proposal included discontinuing public recreational use of McCormick Ranch Road and instead creating a replacement trail route along the north side of the Martens property for public use.
Town staff conducted an extensive stakeholder and community outreach effort to gather input on the Martens’ proposal, which included the Crested Butte Land Trust, the Crested Butte Mountain Bike Association, High Country Conservation Advocates, Trout Unlimited and Western Colorado University. There was also a Paradise Park Neighborhood meeting at the Rec Path Bridge and there were two community-wide meetings to clarify the proposal and gather feedback.
Many of the comments from the community were in opposition to the proposal and the impact a re-route would have on the already bustling Paradise Park neighborhood and the Martens have decided to delay a formal hearing with the Town Council regarding their initial proposal. However, they are not withdrawing their request to move the trail access. The hope is to further consider their proposal and potentially modify it before returning to council at a future date.
Town staff noted that the community and the Martens appear to be aligned on several issues and, as a result, a few ideas are moving forward after a discussion among council members. These solutions include improved pedestrian/bicyclist safety; eliminating dog presence on McCormick Ranch Road; reducing impacts of the Rec Path Slate River put-in on the Paradise Park Neighborhood; and the importance of continued protection of wildlife and wetland resources.
The town and the Martens will coordinate the planning, design and construction of a user gate where the pavement becomes a dirt trail. The gate will accommodate pedestrians and bicycles, to be paid for by the McCormick Ranch HOA with contribution from the Martens. The town will provide new cattle guards this spring.
Crested Butte community development director Troy Russ explained to council members that the road formerly had gates, which were eventually abandoned. The new one, he said, might help establish better practices, as it would bar vehicles from driving down the dirt road but still allow access for bikes and people.
“Do you think right now it’s more about replacing the cattle guards and putting in a gate there?” asked ouncil member Mona Merrill.
“I think for now they are very interested in going further, but they are also very interested in monitoring and managing the number of dogs on their property. So right now they want to see how that goes…so they are sort of on hold right now,” replied Russ.
Merrill said her main concern was that the gate be welcoming to the public.
Russ said the town will also work to make sure that “our rights to that trail are not compromised with that gate.”
The town will utilize its new traffic camera to monitor dog use on McCormick Ranch Road next summer.
The town will also organize a Lower Slate River Working Group to coordinate the planning, design, and construction of the new Aperture Slate River put-in in the winter and spring of 2021 on Pyramid Avenue. The Martens have agreed to participate in that working group. The town will also help coordinate the riverbank restoration with the SOAR Build Project and Rec-Path Slate River access improvements to be done with Crested Butte Nordic Center in the fall of 2021 and summer of 2022.
The outreach process has also shown that the Martens and some community groups do not agree on several issues. As noted in a memo from town staff, these disagreements include the desirability of continued recreational public use on McCormick Ranch Road and the Boardwalk; documented human impact on wildlife; the adequacy of the Martens’ proposed replacement trail route along the north side of their property in lieu of continued public use of McCormick Ranch Road for recreational purposes; and what provisions in the Verzuh Annexation Agreement allow for concerning seasonal trail closures.
In the interim, while the Martens work toward a new or modified proposal, public pedestrian and bicycle access (without dogs) along McCormick Ranch Road will remain unchanged in 2021.
Town manager Dara McDonald said the Martens will abandon the gate between Verzuh and McCormick Ranch after installing one at the new location.
The Boardwalk Trail access will undergo a usual seasonal closure in 2021 for wildlife nesting; and the Martens may formalize a request to the town to close the Boardwalk Trail longer than the seasonal allowance identified in the Annexation Agreement. This closure, if agreed to, would allow the wildlife study by Western Colorado University to be continued and potentially expanded to document human impacts specific to Verzuh Ranch.
While the Martens have maintained that the Annexation Agreement provides for potential seasonal closures of recreational trail use of McCormick Ranch Road, the town staff memo states, “At this time they do not intend to pursue the same in 2021, provided that dog monitoring and enforcement continue as outlined above.”
