CB council on board with Facilities Use Plan for town

Focus on creating hubs of vitality

By Mark Reaman 

The Crested Butte town council has approved an official Facilities Use Plan. The plan separates priorities into those in the short-term of five years or less from other priorities beyond 2028. Generally, the idea is to provide “hubs” that inject vitality within the town facilities and the town itself. That could mean a new library and information center at the Four-Way or a business center in the current Fire Station and 308 Third Street building that provides co-working space along with offices for local nonprofit groups. 

Among the short-term priorities in the new plan approved in June is the goal to help the post office move from Elk Avenue when its lease expires in 2025 to the so-called Cosentino Property at Sixth Street and Gothic Avenue. The idea is that the new post office building would include some affordable housing units. Other stated five-year goals include facilitating affordable housing at Sixth and Butte and fostering a partnership for potential childcare and healthcare on nearby parcels in the Slate River subdivision. The plan envisions expanding Parks and Public Works department offices into the current bus barn once Mountain Express moves into a planned new facility in the Whetstone Industrial Park.

Other short-term goals include master planning an improved municipal center at Crank’s Plaza, including a redeveloped Marshal’s Station, as well as working with the library to determine if a different facility is needed and if the town could play a role to facilitate that development. And finally, master planning a “downtown community space/co-working hub at 308 Third Street, the Fire Station, and the parking lot for non-profits and community members, providing a space where community members could gather and collaborate downtown” is another short-term goal in the plan. The fire department is developing a new campus and headquarters just north of town on Gothic Road.

The town has an inventory of more than 65 buildings ranging from administrative offices to storage sheds. The plan focuses on the use and management for 18 of the most used of those 65 buildings and three town-owned vacant lots.

Longer term, the facilities plan includes a re-envisioning of the east side of the Four-Way to accommodate a visitor education and stewardship resource location to promote collaboration among public land agencies and the Chamber to provide active stewardship education. A library could also eventually be located in that Four-Way space. Supporting an arts/cultural hub through a redevelopment of the old Center for the Arts building to “provide flexible space for arts and culture organizations to collaborate, perform and create” is also on the list. So is facilitating improvements to the Mallardi Theatre to provide flexible space to house both the Crested Butte Mountain Theatre and the Crested Butte School of Dance.

The general Facilities Use Plan strategy is to “concentrate town facilities into hubs and leverage town facilities to become focal points that promote community vitality and collaboration.” One consideration is to also look at “alternative ownership structures for town facilities on a case-by-case basis in the future.” In that regard, an informal estimate by a local realtor placed the value of the 303 Third Street building at $1.2 million.

Councilmembers said they appreciated the development of the plan to pull all the information together. More discussion is anticipated over what the town’s role is in the detailed mechanisms to support local nonprofits.