The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Ideas from density increases, to community serving businesses, to protecting renters
By Mark Reaman
Members of the Crested Butte town council and Board of Zoning and Architectural Review (BOZAR) began initial talks on October 6 on how to go about changing the town zoning code and five-year housing and community space strategies. The idea is to update the codes to reflect values in the recently approved Community Plan. While the council didn’t make any decisions in the two-hour work session, they discussed initial philosophical directions such as allowing multi-family units and ADUs to be built as a permitted use in single-family neighborhoods.
In a memo to the council, community development director Mel Yemma said instead of zoning being a barrier used to guard the unknown, “the plan calls for zoning to become a proactive tool that reflects community values and facilitates investment in the housing and services the community needs.”
Staff laid out five initial points for zoning code changes. They include simplifying and streamlining the code, protecting and celebrating neighborhood character, strengthening historic preservation tools, modernizing land uses to serve the community and linking zoning to community benefits.
BOZAR chair Erik Nauman said while a good general start, he saw some conflicts arising. “Who doesn’t want to simplify and streamline rules? But I anticipate some friction when implementing protecting neighborhood character while expanding land use. We need a good definition of community servicing businesses. Balance is important.”
Councilmember John O’Neal agreed. “There will be friction between preserving and protecting elements while encouraging significant change,” he said. “I think we need clearly stated objectives of what we are trying to accomplish. We need to answer why we are doing all this stuff.”
“The intention is to feed the ideas back to the Community Compass and make sure the actions are supporting that,” said BOZAR member Ed Schmidt.
“People want flexibility in zoning and meshing it all can be difficult,” said BOZAR’s Donny Davol. He wanted to ensure the town’s Climate Action Plan played a role in the code updates.
“Part of the process is figuring out what is important to the community and focusing there,” said mayor Ian Billick.
Yemma said a goal was to modernize land uses to serve the community. For example, she said town could allow multi-family units and Accessory Dwelling Units as a permitted use in neighborhoods currently zoned single-family.
“That makes sense to expand housing potential,” said councilmember Beth Goldstone.
“The challenge will come when neighbors say that doesn’t protect the character of the neighborhood,” said Nauman. “I’m not saying that’s a good or a bad thing, but is it a worthwhile sacrifice? That’s the friction I mentioned. There will be some people against the idea. Is more housing worth it?”
“I could argue we lost the neighborhood character with empty houses sitting there as second homes,” countered councilmember Gabi Prochaska. “Having people around protects neighborhood character. It is the feel of the neighborhood.”
Town attorney Karl Hanlon said if the council directed him, he could craft regulations allowing increased density in town if it is tied to long-term housing for year-round residents.
“It seems more year-round housing is a community benefit we’re interested in,” said Billick.
“Would affordability be considered a community benefit,” asked councilmember Anna Fenerty.
“It could be,” said Yemma.
The officials discussed the idea of potentially expanding home occupation uses in residences. Fenerty suggested, for example, that some artists work from home given financial realities of renting space so it would be good to allow them to show and sell their art to people from their home.
Other topics included making permanent a regulation allowing people to live in vans in residents’ driveways with permission, finding ways to connect pedestrian pathways through town using alleys and commercial properties, and perhaps allowing small stick-built homes in mobile home zones.
Yemma said the town plans to reach out to the community for lots of public feedback on all the topics.
As for encouraging “community serving spaces and businesses” everyone agreed that needed to be clearly defined. “This is unchartered territory for us,” said Yemma.
“There are a lot of things to figure out, but we’re generally headed in the right direction,” said Billick.
“For me it comes down to ‘must have’ services versus ‘nice to have’ services,” said Goldstone.
“When we look at need, proximity seems to be part of it,” noted Schmidt. “Elder care needs to be close as opposed to an electrician that can get to town. There is always lots of discussion about town providing incubator space for some businesses.”
“For me, a community garden is a ‘must have’ but a lot of people would probably put it on the ‘nice to have’ list,” said Fenerty.
“For me, the ‘must haves’ all have to do with health. Physical health, mental health, relationship health,” said O’Neal. “It seems like we as humans are becoming more disconnected every day. We need places of connection and relationship.”
“In the big picture, should we as a town be looking to acquire more property for community spaces even if we don’t yet know exactly what it might be used for,” asked Billick.
“The only way for town to control things is by the town owning property,” suggested Nauman. “If we can control that, it is a win.”
“I’m not sure that should be a priority. Maybe it is better to leverage the free market through zoning,” suggested Goldstone.
“I agree town couldn’t just build out properties. The idea would be to look for good collaborators to partner with in the future,” said Billick.
“Having spaces provides flexibility,” agreed BOZAR’s Roxana Alvarez Marti. “And selling town property stock is not something I could support.”
As for future housing strategies, Fenerty brought up looking at affordable housing rules to better allow people to move around in the affordable housing units. “How can a couple that is ready to downsize connect with a couple ready to expand and start a family,” she said.
“I like the direction we are heading with ADUs and micro-lots,” said O’Neal. “It comes back to the why. Do we believe a community with more year-round residents is better than a community with people leaving?”
“Perhaps town could help with incentives like plowing the alleys where ADUs are located,” suggested Nauman. “Free market home ownership is so out of sight for most locals that the idea of allowing ADUs or micro-lots to be sold could be helpful but there would just be a few winners.”
“When town does housing, we pay more than $500,000 in subsidies per unit,” said Billick. “So even if we incentivize five or 10 such parcels that could be considered a win.”
“People in my age group are accepting they will probably never own property here and just have to rent,” said Fenerty. “So, protecting renters is important.”
Officials discussed the idea of having some deed restricted units in the town portfolio based not on employment but on community participation.
Billick concluded that this was the beginning of the zoning and five-year housing strategy conversation. There will be community outreach and more official discussion.
