The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
30 new housing units, seven new guest cabins, 35 new RV sites and wastewater treatment
By Katherine Nettles
Harmels resort along the Taylor River is on track for a major expansion and renovation, as a major impact expansion for commercial lodging, camping and employee housing was approved to proceed to preliminary planning last month by Gunnison County commissioners.
Harmels is located on 146 acres along County Road 742 near Almont. The resort was purchased in 2021 by Teri and David Reynolds, who operate it as Harmels on the Taylor LLC. The existing Harmels infrastructure includes a restaurant, 39 cabins, two bunkhouses, two outbuildings, one shed, a laundry facility, three horse corrals and a stable. Some of the structures date back to the 19th century when the shop was first built en route to Tin Cup for gold and silver mining operations.
Proposed changes
The Reynolds family has been working on a smaller scale in recent years to refurbish areas of the resort that had fallen into disrepair, including renovations to the restaurant, bar, cabins and event venue.
The Reynolds submitted the major impact application to the county in April 2024, and after two work sessions and a site visit with the county planning commission in late summer and fall the planning commission held a joint public hearing with county commissioners in November, continued to January and at that point recommended sketch plan approval.
There are multiple septic systems and drain fields on the site which the application states need to be replaced by a new wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) under state mandate, regardless of the application.
The proposed changes also include removing two bunk houses and two outbuildings. The plan is to then construct seven new guest cabins, convert another bunkhouse and a seven-unit lodge into employee housing, construct four workforce housing lodges (providing 22 new units,) replace the existing laundry and bathhouse with a new bath facility and two laundry facilities and build a new shop.
Additionally, the proposal calls for adding 35 RV sites to be used for long-term visitors, and installing a new soccer/basketball volleyball court, a new horse corral and a new picnic/recreation space on the grounds. Four glamping sites were originally part of the sketch plan application but the Reynolds have stated they are not pursuing those at this time.
The net impact, according to the applicant’s representative Jacob With of Law of the Rockies, would be an estimated 30% increase in visitor capacity during peak season and housing for approximately 40 employees, plus more off-season site use with potential to accommodate ski resort employees in winter. Some cabins are envisioned to remain operational year-round for Harmels employee housing and off-season guests.
Public and commissioner feedback
During the public hearing portion of the review process, more than 50 public comments came forward in the form of written comments and verbal commentary during the meetings. Many concerns brought forward were related to the impact that adding RV sites might have on traffic, noise and safety in the area, and concerns about the new WWTP and potential to deplete water for others in the area. Some comments also expressed appreciation for the Reynolds family’s approach in the past few years to refurbishing Harmels in general, and positive interactions with the family.
County commissioners took that input into consideration when discussing the planning commission and community and economic development staff recommendations to approve the sketch plan application on February 4. They debated extensively whether to hold another public hearing before deciding to vote on the application.
County planning director Hillary Seminick noted that there has been a particularly high public interest, and commissioner Liz Smith contemplated the importance of public input and listening, but also the fact that at sketch plan phase most of these concerns could not yet be addressed. Commissioner Jonathan Houck agreed, using wastewater treatment and water availability for increased visitation as such an example.
“That comes into play at the preliminary planning process when engineering and focused studies have been done,” he stated.
“I disagree, but I hear where you’re coming from,” said commissioner chair Laura Puckett Daniels. She argued that the public hearings at the sketch plan phase of a major impact project is the time for the public to ask all their questions and give the applicant an opportunity to hear the concerns and understand what to work on. She said she thought the high level of public interest met a threshold to allow the applicant to hear and fully process the feedback prior to preliminary plan.
Houck said he didn’t hear a lot of new concerns at the continued public hearing in January, and in the interest of being efficient and timely, he suggested that they move forward with the approval.
The commissioners approved the sketch plan application unanimously.
“This action still leaves a wide, wide opening for public engagement and public input as we move through a process,” said Houck. “This is not an approval of the project; this is an approval that the project has enough of the ingredients to move into the phase where the level of detail, at the time and expense to the applicant, becomes much deeper and starts to paint a bigger picture…We recognize that there is going to be a much deeper dive that is going to happen now before we take any further action.”
The Crested Butte News reached out to the Reynolds family about their plan and application and received a press release. It stated, “We (Dave and Terri Reynolds) have been coming to the Gunnison Valley since we were in our teens and we’ve always known that we would one day make it our full-time home.”
They expressed that while they have not managed to make the Gunnison Valley their full-time home, they spend almost all their time here and love working and recreating in the outdoors.
“Harmels resort is very much a family operated resort, and we like to think that the work we’ve been doing reflects our family’s commitment to not only the resort but the community,” continued the press release. “The property has received a tremendous facelift and neighbors and guests continue to express appreciation for everything we’ve done.”
Regarding the proposed changes, the press release stated, “We want Harmels to be a great place to be, and that includes for our employees. As part of our pending land use change process with the county, we are working hard to add new housing for our employees to live in both during our season and during the winter. We are also hoping to expand our ability to accommodate existing demand. Some of the families we have that come and stay are too big for our older, smaller cabins and many of the cabins do not have proper utilities, insulation and other modern building features. Our commitment to Harmels means working to improve the quality of the existing cabins and meeting existing customer requests for some slightly larger cabins.
“We have also noticed that there are a very limited number of RV sites in the canyon that provide full-service hookups and many of those were developed many years ago and are in some cases functionally obsolete. Because of some unique topography on Harmels, we believe that we can provide a limited number of RV sites that will be very hard to see from outside of the resort. These sites will not only address some of the existing needs, but also provide some seasonal housing for our staff, who often work in other resorts during the winter and then stay seasonally at our resort.”
Last, they stated they are preparing a preliminary plan to submit to the county and substantial onsite and offsite engineering as well as traffic studies will hone the final numbers for the RV sites and other components of the project. “We hope to provide some additional depictions as part of that process to help the community visualize what we are proposing,” according to the release.
“We are very excited about our proposed project as we believe it provides a genuine opportunity for the community to address existing infrastructure concerns, existing demands and plan for future growth in an area that is of unique beauty and recreation in our community,” it concludes.
