The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Both processes in the early stages
By Katherine Nettles
Gunnison County is approaching a major and widely anticipated undertaking for corridor planning between Gunnison and Mt. Crested Butte. Planning officials expect to begin the process in earnest this spring starting with stakeholder meetings, and in the meantime, they are wrapping up a Gunnison Area Plan and getting started on short-term rental (STR) regulations. There has been talk of North Valley moratoriums, however, for which the town of Crested Butte is advocating (see page 5).
During their regular meeting on March 11, Gunnison County commissioners heard updates from several county departments, including community and economic development, about how to meet their various strategic planning goals. Assistant county manager for community and economic development Cathie Pagano described several areas she and her staff are working on at the moment, related to the commissioners’ strategic plan results for STR regulations and Gunnison area/Highway 135 corridor planning.
Pagano reviewed that STR regulations are on the county’s strategic results docket for 2025, and that she, county planning director Hillary Seminick and building/environmental health official Crystal Lambert have had a few meetings to get a general plan together.
Pagano said she had also met with county manager Matthew Birnie for some general direction and would put a brief overview together for commissioners, “to give you a sense of what we think we want to do and get your input and feedback,” she said. That will be coming in the next two to three months.
The other strategic result Pagano is focused on is that by the end of 2026, the county aims to create a review process for putting essential housing projects in designated areas, as a use by right or administrative review process through the Land Use Resolution (LUR), and develop a corridor plan from Gunnison to Mt. Crested Butte.
Pagano noted that a subgoal of that corridor planning includes the Gunnison Area Plan that is currently underway. She said the goal is to complete that before tackling the larger corridor plan, and there was a six to eight months pause last year while the city of Gunnison analyzed its utility system capacities.
“We did have a lengthy pause in 2024 on the Gunnison Area Plan,” said Pagano, but she noted that the county understood the reason for and importance of the delay. The city came back with some data and the county is now working with them to consider utility constraints in developing outside the city of Gunnison. The idea is that adding more utility users to that area will make them more cost-effective for everyone.
Pagano said the larger corridor planning has already involved some initial meetings beyond individual meetings with commissioners as well, particularly with the town of Crested Butte. “We’re working on putting that information together and we’ll have a meeting for the core stakeholder group initially, which will include the towns, city of Gunnison, RTA (Rural Transportation Authority), Mountain Express and CB South POA (Property Owner’s Association) to work through how we’re going to collaborate.” She said once they determine the potential scope of work there will be more opportunity for others to participate. She said that outreach to stakeholders to plan a meeting could start in April, but she wants to avoid having too many planning projects happening at once.
The concept of a potential development moratorium for the North Valley did not come up in the conversation, but the CB town council has formally asked the county to consider such a measure since it has not yet gotten to a corridor plan and in the meantime several major impact development applications have come through. The county cannot hold existing applications to new standards it may adopt after an application has already come to its planning department.
Commissioner Jonathan Houck expressed appreciation for the planning department’s adaption to increasing development and new codes while continuing permitting services to the public and working with commissioners on their strategic planning goals.
Commissioner chair Laura Puckett Daniels agreed. “I appreciate the steady communication you have with us around the different planning efforts and where we’re at and allowing us to provide feedback to you on what we’re hoping for as outcomes,” she said.
