The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Combining preliminary and final plans Tuesday, October 8
By Katherine Nettles
Gunnison County’s Whetstone Community Housing project may be entering its final planning phase next week as Gunnison County commissioners and the Gunnison County planning commission hold a joint meeting and public hearing for the project Tuesday, October 8. The county has been working for more than two years on an essential workforce residential development just south of Crested Butte and this meeting will be an opportunity for public comment and for county commissioners to review both the preliminary and final plans for the project.
The meeting will take place at the Gunnison County Courthouse in the commissioners meeting room at 1 p.m.
The 13-acre parcel on the west side of Highway 135 across from Brush Creek Road is planned to hold 252 residential rental units with 476 bedrooms proposed and 421 parking spaces. Approximately 80% of the units would be restricted for local workforce housing with 40% of the units deed restricted for residents earning 120% AMI (area median income) or less; 10% of the units restricted for residents earning 170% AMI or less; 30% of the units restricted with a local workforce requirement but not a specific AMI limitation and 20% of the units would be “free market” without a specific commitment to local employment or AMI requirements.
The applicant team, comprised of Gunnison County assistant county manager for operations and sustainability John Cattles, developer Angel Rivera of the Irving, Texas-based company Servitas and representative Elena Scott of Denver-based design firm Norris Design, is expected to be in full attendance at the meeting Tuesday.
The county approved of the project, which is a major impact land use change, in sketch plan phase in February 2023. In January 2024 commissioners granted a one-year extension for the project’s preliminary plan submission. The town of Crested Butte approved a utility extension agreement for the development in August of this year, and an amended version will be considered by town council on Monday, October 7. The county was recently awarded a substantial $15 million grant which will, in part, be used to create a roundabout at the Brush Creek intersection and pedestrian underpass to cross the highway.
The planning commission held a work session and site visit with the applicant at the end of August and assessed key changes between the project’s sketch plan and the preliminary plan. These include a unit count increase from 231 units in 30 buildings to 252 units in 23 structures, reducing the number of buildings and increasing density to preserve more site area for amenities, snow storage and stormwater retention.The parking ratio has decreased from 1.8 to 1.67 spaces per unit, and the plan now includes a central park design with a multi-use field.
The planning commission asked the applicant to submit a parking management plan, revised renderings and details on storage space and lease terms prior to the public hearing next week.
The applicant has requested that preliminary and final plan hearings be combined at this meeting, which Cattles has said is not uncommon for projects of this scale. According to Gunnison County assistant county manager for community and economic development Cathie Pagano, “There have been eight major impact applications submitted since 2001. I have not had a chance to research each of those applications but as I recall several of them were processed with a combined preliminary/final plan.”
Pagano said that there are some benefits to the county combining preliminary and final plans, but it does not prevent due diligence or public input. “From a process perspective, the combination of preliminary/final plan eliminates one to two work sessions. The final plan requires submittal of final documents such as the final plat, final covenants and final cost estimates. Whetstone is not a subdivision and therefore a final plat and final covenants are not required documents. The applicant has already submitted final cost estimates,” she said in an email to the Crested Butte News last week.
Cattles said the estimated hard costs for the project are about $96 million, which is $297 per square foot, but he said when all soft costs are included it’s $370 per square foot. The county estimates the total project scope at about $130 million.
That estimate does not include the roundabout at Brush Creek or the underpass, which will be paid for using other funding.
Pagano noted that if the preliminary and final plans had not been combined, the preliminary meeting would look much the same as this upcoming one and then the final plan would be reviewed later in a regular meeting by county commissioners with no public hearing for that final aspect of the planning process. “Combining the preliminary/final plans does save some time but does not reduce the public hearing opportunities nor change any standards for review,” she said.
Public comments during the public hearing portion of planning commission meetings have historically been limited to two to three minutes per person. Pagano said that the planning commission chair, Roland Mason, will have the opportunity to make that decision at the hearing. People who cannot attend next week can submit comments to planning@gunnisoncounty.org or to bocc@gunnisoncounty.org.
More information on the project can be found at whetstonehousing.weebly.com
