CB council ready to spend $2 million on empty lot along Sixth St.

Possible P.O. relocation, housing, parking, snow storage site?

[  By Mark Reaman  ]

The Crested Butte town council agreed on Monday to take a major step to purchase an oversized empty lot at the southeast corner of Sixth St. and Gothic Ave. for $2.3 million. Council will be asked to officially allocate funding for the purchase at the February 22 council meeting.

Located across from the Crested Butte Bank, the lot is the one that often has a jeep advertising rentals parked on it and is used for storing snow in the winter months. The council authorized town manager Dara MacDonald to sign a contract to purchase the property from John and Sandra Cosentino during the consent agenda portion of the meeting. 

According to a memo to the council from MacDonald “staff has long considered that this parcel could be an ideal opportunity to relocate the post office off Elk Avenue to a site with sufficient size and parking. The current post office is 3,300 square feet in size, on a 12,500-square-foot parcel; with 13 parking spaces,” she wrote. “The Cosentino parcel is 24,654 square feet in size … Based on the allowed floor area ration, the site could hold a building between 9,365 to 11,987 square feet in size, with between 19 and 26 parking spaces.”

How that might manifest itself has not been addressed. Town is getting an appraisal done on the site and it should be completed by February 14. 

In the memo to council, MacDonald said the town is projected to end 2021 with approximately $10 million is cash reserves in the General Fund so she is recommending using some of that cash for the purchase. 

The report to council also indicated the size of the lot could accommodate some affordable housing units in addition to a post office and perhaps even some limited public parking and snow storage.

While no council or public discussion was held concerning entering into the contract, the expenditure will be discussed at the next council meeting on February 22.