Butte Avenue bridge will remain closed to auto traffic

CB Transportation and Mobility plan has a lot of stuff in it

By Mark Reaman

The Crested Butte town council decided Tuesday it would not be a good idea to even consider opening the Butte Avenue bridge to vehicles as part of a major transportation overhaul in town. That idea—to allow one-way traffic on the bridge—was included in the so-called third phase kick-off of the town’s Transportation and Mobility Plan. That overall plan was discussed for an hour-and-a-half at a work session Tuesday evening and the council admitted many topics within the draft plan were not even touched upon. 

As part of the public outreach for development of the plan, the Butte Avenue bridge was highlighted as a potential option to move some traffic off the town’s main Sixth Street corridor. But the public response was overwhelmingly negative and was voiced through the town’s survey, letters to the council and by citizens attending the Tuesday meeting.

Noting that the bridge issue itself could occupy an entire meeting and then some, potentially leaving little time for discussion of the rest of the plan’s contents, mayor Ian Billick suggested that community development director Troy Russ make his presentation on the entire draft plan, and then council could decide whether it was worth having a separate work session focused solely on the bridge issue given the volume of public feedback.

Russ said the goal of the work session was to get feedback from council on general strategy. The transportation planning began last January, and the idea is to have a final draft for the council to consider in November.

“Nothing is set,” Russ said. “We are just starting the draft and a steering committee will advise the staff as we move forward. One thing to remember is that you don’t solve transportation, you manage it.”

The plan includes eight success measures and touches on land use changes, such as constructing roundabouts at the three entrances to town and the Four-Way, along with opening the Butte Avenue bridge to one-way traffic.

The success measures include: Ensuring the town remains a 15-mph community; safely embracing congestion on Sixth Street and providing alternatives to it; increasing transit convenience and coverage; managing parking in a way that driving isn’t the first choice; intentionally connecting parks, businesses and school and never dividing town; prioritizing pedestrians on our shared residential streets; elevating the pedestrian on Elk Avenue and strengthening the corridor’s vibrancy and character; and keeping the town’s rough edges and polishing only what is necessary.

The idea of constructing roundabouts brought discussion and Russ made the point that they are “significantly safer” for pedestrians. Russ explained that they also slow traffic but keep it moving. He said the town could work with CDOT and the Gunnison School District to build a roundabout at the Red Lady and Sixth Street intersection when the school expansion begins next summer. Future roundabouts on Gothic Road at Pyramid Avenue, and one on Kebler Pass Road at Treasury Hill could wait for years until the traffic numbers indicated an imminent need. Russ explained that a roundabout at the Four-Way intersection could probably be justified at the same time as the one at the school location, but he suggested waiting given the major impact to town that would come with such a change. 

Councilmember Chris Haver expressed concern that having a stop sign at Sixth and Belleview would stall traffic in the roundabout at the school turn. Russ said that wouldn’t be the case for many years given data projections on the number of cars that would use it. He also said transport of people on buses would be faster since a bus could be allowed to use the shoulder of Sixth Street as a bus lane.

The plan suggested several potential alterations to the Mountain Express route through town. Those included the possibility of buses running both ways on the route or expanding to more side streets to get the buses closer to more residences. The idea is that most people need to be within 500 feet of a bus stop in order to use it.

“We will go to the RTA and Mountain Express to redefine transit by adding things like car and bike share programs and on-demand service so people can live in town without a car,” said Russ. “We will seed different ideas as they discuss ideas for their strategic plans.”

Other ideas included not allowing the Visitor’s Center parking lot to be used as a park-and-ride for skiers. “It shouldn’t be used as a ski area parking lot but should serve the town of Crested Butte,” said Russ, suggesting perhaps it becomes a place for long-term parking by employees who work in town. 

Converting the Third and Elk area to parallel parking instead of head-in parking was also offered as an idea, though Russ admitted it would result in losing 44 downtown parking spaces. Changing town regulations so residents park in the alley behind their houses instead of on the street will be considered. Russ said by using alleys for access to residential parking, vehicles on the main roads would be cut. The town could consider plowing the alleys in the future. 

As for the Butte Avenue bridge issue, Russ explained how that ties into decisions relating to Sixth Street. “We need to understand the council’s goals for Sixth Street,” Russ said. “Butte Avenue and the bridge is directly tied to what we want to do with Sixth. We are trying to extend the life of Sixth Street as a two-lane road. That comes in part by getting local traffic off that regional road. We would add traffic calming measures to those other local streets. It’s a balancing act.”

He said parking management is the most powerful tool to manage traffic in town. Increased transit would be necessary to serve the growth and regulatory changes would be needed to influence the future. He said town also would leverage major projects with infrastructure changes.

Council thoughts on the bridge

After the staff presentation, council went to the bridge issue. “We have received a lot of feedback on the Butte Avenue bridge,” said Billick. “Does council feel it is worth holding a work session on just that issue?”

“I respect all the letters we have received,” said councilmember Gabi Prochaska. “Can’t we do other things first before considering the opening of the bridge to cars? It seems opening that is the opposite of what we’re trying to accomplish.”

“I was compelled by the fire district argument to open it up so they could have a quicker route to that side of town once they have their new station,” said councilmember Anna Fenerty. “But it feels counterintuitive, and I am not a fan of that idea. There are some valid arguments to open it up but what about to just emergency vehicles?”

Russ said that was not a controllable option at the moment.

Councilmember Mallika Magner said she would be open to listening to more about the bridge “but there are so many things to talk about with this plan. It might make sense for this issue to be delayed. There are other things that could be a better use of our time and resources right now.”

“This is a great plan but there has been an overwhelming response to the bridge idea,” said councilmember Jason MacMillan. “There might be an opportunity to strengthen the pedestrian/bike aspect of that street.”

“I’m happy to take it off the table for now,” said councilperson Beth Goldstone.

“I’m for delaying it,” added councilmember Chris Haver. “I don’t see how more access for cars improves the pedestrian and bike aspect. Down the road we might have to reconsider it. I appreciated the fire district letter.”

“I agree it’s not time to talk about opening the bridge,” said Billick. “The town needs to build credibility with other items before opening the bridge to auto traffic. We need to show we are moving in the right direction.”

That council consensus effectively took the idea of opening the bridge to traffic off the table for the immediate future.

Council thoughts on other things

“Why can’t we stop the speeding,” asked Magner.

“People always make bad decisions. You can’t stop all speeding. You can try to manage it, but people will speed,” said Russ.

Prochaska said reducing the number of cars coming into town would be hard but is important. “How can we handle tourists not driving into town as well as valley residents,” she asked. Russ said the objective was to grab people outside of town and put them on the RTA before getting into town.

Prochaska also had concerns about adjusting Elk Avenue and taking out the grass section along the street.

Fenerty latched onto the idea of “experimenting with a festival street.” That idea would test a temporary weekly closing of sections of Elk Avenue to provide more pedestrian and bike only opportunities in the street outside of special events. Fenerty suggested taking that to the next level and doing it with streets throughout Crested Butte. “Don’t just do it on Elk Avenue,” she suggested.

“A lot of these ideas look great but how is the match with keeping the character of Crested Butte,” asked Goldstone. “My biggest concern is polishing the edges of Crested Butte,” said Russ. “We don’t want Mayberry, we want Crested Butte. Growth changes everything and you are the keepers of the character.”

Council admitted there was still a lot to discuss over the plan. They agreed to write their thoughts to the advisory committee that is being formed to help guide the administrative process. They then hope that committee will vet the feedback before returning ideas to the council based on the plan. Billick made it clear that while the goal was to consider a final plan in November, given the impact of the plan, that timeline could take longer if council had not settled all its concerns.

Russ promised that as the plan review continued into the fall, the public would continue to have the opportunity to provide feedback.