Council approves vacant lot purchase on Sixth St.

Spending some of the town reserves

[  By Mark Reaman  ]

The Crested Butte town council approved spending $2,325,000 to purchase the vacant lot on the southeast corner of Sixth St. and Gothic Ave. That is the space where there is normally a jeep on the property advertising rentals. An appraisal of the lot came in at $2.45 million.

The lot along Sixth Street is in the B-2 zone and was owned by John and Sandra Cosentino. It is 24,654 square feet in size with 18,730 of that being “unencumbered.” Part of the property is dedicated to parking, trash and snow storage for the adjacent Ore Bucket condo building. It is anticipated the site could hold a building between 9,365 to 11,987 square feet in size and provide between 19 and 26 parking spaces.

In a memo to the council, town manager Dara MacDonald said that “based on the size of the lot, the site could accommodate some public use as well as affordable housing units and possibly limited public parking and snow storage.”

“We should be clear that we are not buying this for any particular projects,” said councilmember Chris Haver. “We are investing in future town needs. It is always good to have land in the bank.”

“This allows for future flexibility,” agreed mayor Ian Billick. “Until we go through the Community Compass there is nothing specific being planned for this.”

 Money to pay for the property will come out of the town’s general fund reserves which is sitting at about $10 million.