The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs comes into the discussion
By Mark Reaman
A philosophical discussion on how to approach a strategy to develop so-called community serving spaces took place at the Crested Butte town council work session on Monday, December 15. The council batted around different ideas of what they hoped to achieve with the effort of helping to provide community spaces and were guided by the town community development director Mel Yemma and consulting firm Economic and Planning Systems (EPS) out of Denver.
“This effort is an integrated process with the zoning code update, a five-year community spaces and housing strategy, and the design standards update for Crested Butte,” said Yemma.
EPS principal Brian Duffany said his group has been talking to stakeholders and gathering information for the initiative. He pointed out several challenges with Crested Butte that mirror other mountain resort towns. “Commercial real estate is expensive and in short supply, and it is expensive to build,” he said noting that probably was not a surprise to any of the council members. “What happens is that lower priced businesses get squeezed over time in mountain towns like yours. That impacts the quality of life for residents. There are fewer places to meet socially. You have to travel for shopping and services. Affordable childcare can be an issue.”
Duffany said a positive element for Crested Butte is the number of nonprofit organizations in the valley. “That is a benefit,” he said. “There are opportunities to partner with them and have a clear, articulated strategy. The initial tools could include land use policy, land banking, direct investment and the ownership of facilities. At the same time, you need to limit expectations. This is a town of only 1,700 people.”
Council discussed how wide of a net should be included when defining community spaces. The staff report emphasized how there were two overarching types of community spaces: Those providing core services and those tied to community vitality services. The draft definition described core services as “essential, locally focused businesses, providers, and community organizations that support Crested Butte’s day-to-day functioning and residents’ basic needs.” The community vitality services were described as “the places, both formal and informal, that strengthen Crested Butte’s culture, creativity, and collective wellbeing. While not strictly “essential” they are vital to the town’s identity and resilience.”
“Should the trades be part of core services?” asked councilmember Beth Goldstone. “I don’t use a plumber every day, but I think those types of services should be considered core.”
“You may not use a plumber every day but the collective ‘we’ uses them every day,” said councilmember Gabi Prochaska. “So, I agree.”
“To me it comes down to affordability,” said mayor Ian Billick. “Access to services make it more affordable for people to be able to live here.”
“What is the vision of the community spaces?” asked councilmember John O’Neal. “I wonder if we need more of the vision before trying to figure out how to accomplish certain goals.”
“I think we can focus on cost and affordability,” said Billick. “Looking at Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, we should emphasize basics to start. Basic needs are prioritized over higher needs. Basic health care might be an example.”
“It comes back to the life things as a part of core services. It goes to Maslow’s hierarchy,” agreed councilmember Kent Cowherd. “Certain basic needs should be met. I think we should look for specific examples of each area and not just generalize it.”
“I see it as we have an opportunity to help create opportunities for locals,” said councilmember Kate Guibert.
“What does it mean to the individual citizen?” asked O’Neal. “How can they grow?”
“I feel it’s in the proposed language,” said Prochaska. “We don’t want to make it too complex. I appreciate that if we make it too specific, we can lose flexibility.”
“As for the community vitality spaces, there is a lot of research on community vitality and resilience,” said Billick. “Connected communities for example rebound faster from things like natural disasters.”
“I would want us to drive that more in the strategy documents.”
Goldstone voiced that she liked the idea of emphasizing public and private partnerships.
“The intention is to bridge public, private and nonprofit,” said town manager Dara MacDonald.
The draft guiding principles proposed by the staff for strategy development included: 1) Start small and focus on opportunistic, high-impact solutions; 2) Prioritize where the town can make the biggest difference; 3) Enable community creativity – not replace it; 4) Align tools with balanced outcomes; and 5) Keep solutions locally-serving and locally-grounded.
“There is a real opportunity to be bold and do PUDs (Planned Unit Developments) on town-owned property like at the Four-Way,” said Cowherd. “The principles should be applied to property the town owns.
“On number two, I would add, where can the town make the greatest difference at this moment in time,” said Billick.
“We need to keep in mind how decisions today can benefit the town later in a generation,” said Guibert.
“I agree and that could go to something like land banking,” said Billick.
“Social connectivity is being tested everywhere right now,” said Guibert. “I am so glad we are doing this now. I would like to elevate the goal of improving social connectivity into the higher level of guiding principles.”
“How do we measure how effective we are with the spaces?” asked O’Neal.
“I like these principles,” said Goldstone. “In general, I keep wanting this to keep what we have or get back some of what we’ve lost, instead of trying to build new spaces that bring in what we never had.”
“I love that idea. Maybe it goes to being authentic,” said Billick. “This would be prioritizing our traditions and for me an example would be outdoor recreation. You don’t move here to try and be a professional football player. There is irony in people moving here because they like it and then trying to bring the amenities they left behind.”
“The way we get there might look different than it has in the past,” said Guibert. “For me it might be taking the fire hall and making it a place for restaurant incubators where locals get a chance to own something, and locals can afford a sandwich.”
“I also want to emphasize catalyzing the local nonprofits,” said Billick. “Town can’t afford to do everything we might want on our own, so we need a special call-out to work with local nonprofits. We can catalyze and collaborate with those nonprofits.”
“Is it worth affirming in the strategy that the town’s role is not one of operations?” asked MacDonald. “We can help with facilities but be clear with boundaries. We can help provide opportunity, but not run a business.”
“That’s why I used the word catalyze,” agreed Billick.
Billick also said the strategy should address the opportunity to have long-term impacts on the community. Having families that can bridge generations in the community would be good,” he said. “Are we trying to build a long-term rooted community? Is it something we can do in the strategy and maintain those long-term connections?”
“I like the idea of providing those types of opportunities,” said Guibert. “Someone might come here in their 20s to ski but then want to figure out how to stay here.”
“I too like the idea of supporting rootedness in the community,” said councilmember Mallika Magner. “That’s an important piece. We all know people who move because they feel they have to leave.”
“Maybe it goes to something like the senior services that have come up lately,” said Billick.
“Plus, so many friends struggle with the idea that their kids can’t afford to buy a home in the valley,” added Magner.
Crested Butte Center for the Arts executive director Jillian Liebl said the Center, as one of the larger nonprofits in the community, was excited about the plan. “We have one of the biggest community-serving spaces and we want to help with the plan,” she said. “We might be blind to some possibilities with some of our space. As you work through the strategies, the Center wants to help.”
“This has been a good discussion to build on,” said Yemma who indicated staff will return in February with some draft strategies.
“This will certainly be an ongoing discussion,” concluded Billick.
