Crested Butte continues Community Plan debate

Council and BOZAR members express opinions on zoning plan

By Mark Reaman

Town officials continue to discuss how best to shape the Crested Butte Community Plan (CP) with the hope of having it approved this summer. If that happens the town staff plans to open up a comprehensive revision process to the town zoning codes and begin a detailed five-year plan focused on housing and community spaces.

The CP is meant to identify a long-term vision to improve Crested Butte’s livability, functionality and sense of community by aligning the town’s development regulations with the community’s values and strategic goals. Among the changes being considered is allowing taller buildings along the Sixth Street corridor (see story on page 13) in exchange for more affordable housing units and/or so-called “community-serving businesses”; allowing four story buildings along Belleview Avenue on the south side close to Gibson’s Ridge for the same purposes; allowing property owners in some areas of town to subdivide their lots into so-called micro-lots or condominiumize property to facilitate the building of accessory dwelling units (ADUs); reduce parking requirements to lessen development expense and provide more space for building; and allowing increased density for housing in the Slate River subdivision on the north edge of town.

Town councilmembers and members of the Board of Zoning and Architectural Review (BOZAR) met for a two-hour work session on Monday, May 19 to discuss elements of the draft plan and while there was consensus on the broad goals, there was some disagreement over details.

Crested Butte community development director Mel Yemma gave a history of the plan and explained the need for the changes given the fact town is facing a lot of challenges that are impacting the number of full-time residents in CB. One goal is to stimulate private sector investment in community-serving amenities. “This is a chance to guide the change instead of just watching it and letting it happen to us under the current town codes,” she said.

BOZAR chair Erik Nauman expressed some skepticism asking where such an incentive-based plan had worked before. “My experience is that developers go for the maximum profit, and that’s fine, but that’s what they do.”

“We’ll say they can have more in a development in exchange for the incentives that satisfy what the town wants,” said Yemma.

“If they don’t take the bait, then they would still build to the maximum for the project,” he said.

“The goal is a plan that is transactional with an efficient transactional structure,” said mayor Ian Billick.

“The hope is that the incentives will be enough to have them want to take a different direction,” added town manager Dara MacDonald.

“With a true exchange, everyone needs to look at underutilized resources and how to use them. It’s not just money, it could be a lot of things,” said BOZAR member Ed Schmidt.

“Are we also looking at things like stricter affordable housing (ROAH) fees? Is anything getting more restrictive?” asked councilmember Beth Goldstone.

“Once the community plan is adopted, and we open up the town code, we can look at everything. It’s all fair game,” said Billick noting that some tightening of current regulations is possible. “I see every development proposal as a collaborative process. How we set that up determines what the community is trying to achieve out of the code.”

Four priorities: parking, neighborhoods, Belleview Avenue and Sixth Street

The community plan focuses on four main areas. The first looks at town-wide parking requirements and “rebalancing” those requirements to prioritize people over cars. That could mean requiring fewer spaces for residential and commercial developments.

The council and BOZAR officials had a long discussion over the concept. 

“We don’t want to mandate over-parking, but parking is an issue,” said councilmember John O’Neal. “We want enough but not too much parking.”

Advisory committee member Jim Starr said Crested Butte can handle a lot of people but not a lot of cars. He said a future Brush Creek park-and-ride lot could help address the issue.

BOZAR member Roxana Alvarez Marti said she was not in favor of reducing parking requirements on residential development. “We struggle on BOZAR to make sure there is enough parking, especially in winter,” she said.

“There is a difference between residential and overall town parking,” said BOZAR’s Donny Davol. “If an owner comes to us and wants fewer spaces they can deal with it.”

“Everyone wants to park where they want to park,” said Nauman. “It can be a conflict for people who live here or want to do business here. There are some good ideas here but also some pitfalls.”

Alvarez Marti said in winter the streets near Elk Avenue can be congested with vehicles from residents, tourists and workers. “What does it mean down the road as we get bigger, especially if we allow more ADU housing units nearby? It can be extremely stressful,” she said noting she and her employees tallied hundreds of dollars in parking fines last winter.

Billick wondered why employees weren’t told to park in the free public lots a few blocks away to keep parking spaces open and turning over near businesses.

Councilmember Mallika Magner was clear that if loosening parking regulations meant more ADUs might be built, she was all for it. “For me, I would allow greater density and more affordable housing in town,” she said. “We are looking at ways to figure out housing that is affordable and in town. We may have to pay the piper in the future with things like paid parking or permits but for now, it’s worth it.”

“I agree that our goal is to increase affordable housing so workers can live closer to where they work and don’t have to park,” said Goldstone.

“We are talking about trade-offs and the point is what are we after and that is affordable housing,” said councilmember Gabi Prochaska.

“We aren’t getting rid of all the parking requirements but we’re just loosening them, and we can figure it out,” said O’Neal. 

Belleview Ave.

While the most friction came over the Sixth Street corridor (see story page 13), the idea of transforming Belleview Avenue, the town’s primary industrial area, also raised some red flags. Most, but not all of the officials were comfortable with allowing four story buildings along the south side of the street near The Bench in exchange for community housing or community-serving businesses, but mixing industrial and residential uses was a concern.

“The goal is to maintain light industrial and commercial in that area,” said Yemma.

“The low-hanging fruit would be to expand the current 600-square-foot residential units allowed on top of businesses,” said Nauman. “I don’t think you have to allow more height over there to get that done. Belleview is starting to trend toward having more offices and is going away from the trades so I’m not willing to give up height for unknown benefits.”

Alvarez Marti said the advisory committee seemed agreeable to allowing that extra height in exchange for community benefit.

“My fear is developers come in and automatically go for the more stories and levels,” said BOZAR member Luz Spann-LaBato. “I think we can accomplish the housing goal without adding more height.”

“The south side of Belleview is the one place in town I’m willing to give more height but only in exchange for 100% deed-restricted housing or community-serving businesses,” said Davol. “And we can’t bring the trades back there. I’m in the trades and it’s just too expensive anymore.”

Schmidt liked the idea of expanding the model of the building at Fifth and Belleview that houses business, residential and office spaces. “Again, you could offer a little less parking, a little less setback and get more affordable units,” he said. 

“Having grown up in that area and living there now, I worry about the congestion,” said councilmember Anna Fenerty. “There are always big trucks dropping things off and there is less respect for noise limits. Pushing residential on top of industrial will come with problems. That is my caution with the Belleview area.”

Goldstone said she felt Belleview incentives should focus on attracting the community-serving businesses over more housing given its industrial history and location.

Micro lots

The majority of officials liked the idea of allowing micro lots on residential properties to encourage ADUs and perhaps other accessory buildings as long as neighborhood character was preserved.

“I greatly support the flexibility being proposed,” said Davol.

“There’s some good ideas and some bad ideas,” said Nauman. “I can see some success with micro lots but increasing density can be a slippery slope.”

“I’m excited about this proposal, particularly micro lots,” said Alvarez Marti. “The size of construction would be compatible with the size of town. I do have a concern about rents being affordable.”

Schmidt said micro lots offered great potential for town. He suggested regulations could be tweaked for such projects to enhance the density. “Give a little in places like height or setbacks and you can get back a lot,” he said. “These are the kind of underutilized resources we have. Another thing that could be added to that is taxes and fees involved in such projects. All those add to the cost of the rents.”

O’Neal and Prochaska also suggested not limiting the minimum size of a unit which currently is set at 400 square feet. In a similar vein, Davol suggested loosening some design guidelines to make such small units more livable and cheaper.

The development of the draft CP cost $350,000 with $200,000 of that offset by a state grant. Yemma and the planning team will take the input, refine the draft and come back to council for plan approval in June.