The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Digging deep into core values and vision
[ By Mark Reaman ]
A major effort to develop a comprehensive plan for Crested Butte that can be aligned with Mt. Crested Butte and Gunnison County planning efforts will kick off later this year. The goal is to end up with a document known as the Community Compass that will be the framework for future decision making by the town.
The Crested Butte town council got an overview last spring of what is involved in the Community Compass from community development director Troy Russ. “Ultimately this is the chance to create a rational nexus for any decision you make as a council,” he said. “At the highest level it’s a vision of the community built on the community’s core values. This is meant to be an aspirational framework for the town.”
Russ and town staff plans to delve into the community to get as much feedback as possible. Starting in September, there will be a month-long education and community recruitment effort to explain to people what is involved, what is the ultimate outcome and how to participate.
“We are doing this on a similar timeline as Mt. Crested Butte and Gunnison County as they too are trying to update their community and strategic plans,” Russ said. Russ explained that there have been discussions with the other government entities on how best to collaborate to update the plans in tandem as they relate to the North Valley. Russ assured the council however that while there is likely to be some overlap expressed in the values of the final documents, each community would end up with a plan that reflects their individuality as well as similarities.
“Since people live and work in both ends of the valley, the City of Gunnison should be part of this since collaboration is important,” suggested councilman Will Dujardin.
Near the start of the process next fall a major joint planning retreat will take place with elected officials. Other large-scale events will be held along with more intimate meetings. Russ said the town would endeavor to reach out to the community for opinions and not just wait for citizens to come to them.
“The policy document will explore not only the vision and core community values of the community, but it will also establish success measures which will ensure positive outcomes,” Russ wrote the council in a memo. “The community will identify likely trade-offs that it is willing to make in order to achieve its long-term goals for the type of place the community wants Crested Butte to be. It will not be a ‘to-do list’ that many communities typically include in their comprehensive plans. Rather it will be a document that describes the aspirations of the community that will inform future decision making instead of creating an extensive list of specific actions to pursue.”
“We have a lot of different plans,” commented mayor Jim Schmidt. “Traffic plans, parking plans, climate plans. How does zoning fit in?”
“Zoning is very important,” said Russ. “It is the town’s promise to the private sector on how they can invest in the community.”
When asked how conflicts get resolved under such comprehensive plans when some people come to the valley for different reasons – whether it is to be a ski bum or to try and make money, Russ said there is probably a shared belief in core values for the place. Using those as the foundation of addressing situations, he said there can be different solutions to the same problem, but the important thing is to retain the values and vision.
“If we don’t confront this holistically, you will continually be dealing with symptoms,” said Russ.
“Given the histories of the different communities it is obvious each town has different visions for the future,” said Schmidt. “This won’t be an easy task.”
“You are right, but the conversation needs to be had,” said Russ.
Crested Butte parks and recreation director Janna Hansen mentioned that she has heard anecdotally that people get a good feel for Crested Butte’s values when they first drive into town. There is a school, green space, affordable housing. “It communicates who we are and it is important to preserve,” she said.
If all goes as expected, the deep planning process will commence in the fall. Russ said he not only hopes to involve local adults, but school kids as well.
