The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Town also allowing parklets by Sherpa Café at the Four-Way
By Mark Reaman
Crested Butte’s Elk Avenue business core could have a bit of a different look this summer as town is stepping away from planting flowers in most of the flower boxes near the downtown parklets. Instead, the nearby businesses will be tasked with keeping up the boxes even it if it means doing nothing with them, getting creative with different sorts of decorations, planting their own flowers, or using them for business purposes such as a bussing station.
The town will still manage flower efforts on the Elk Avenue barrels, the Third Street flower boxes and traffic calming boxes elsewhere in town. In a memo to the council, staff said the town is not only constrained by the increasing expense of purchasing flowers, “but even more by the brief time available to get the boxes planted each summer.”
The memo states the content of the boxes “could be left up to the individual businesses who could choose some creative use or decoration aside from flowers that reflects their business brand or style. Staff would create some parameters around size of anything in or on the boxes similar to the size of the flower displays.”
Town manager Dara MacDonald said the town simply doesn’t have the personnel or money to plant and maintain all the flower boxes in town. “Right now, we can’t put anything in the boxes on Whiterock Avenue and we are pressed for time to just deal with Elk,” she said noting that the Secret Stash has in the past requested they be allowed to cover the top of a nearby flower box and use it for a bussing station.
“I’m okay with them using it as a bussing station,” said councilmember Gabi Prochaska. “I would rather see the town put flowers in the traffic calming boxes on the other streets. The one by my house had looked like an empty coffin in the street. I’m fine not having a continuity of flower boxes on Elk. We can look at it in a year and see if it works.”
“I too am okay with it. And I’m fine not dictating that businesses have to put something in them,” said councilmember Beth Goldstone. “We just should be clear who is responsible for cleaning them out at the end of the season.”
“I’d rather try something and fix it if it needs it than just argue against doing something different at all,” said mayor Ian Billick.
“It sounds like generally the council is good with transferring that responsibility and the businesses can do what they want with them, including nothing.”
The transfer of responsibility will be reviewed to see how it went after the summer season.
Four-Way parklets…and two-hour parking?
Council agreed to try another one-year experiment this summer by allowing parklets in the northwest parking area at Sixth and Elk by the Four-Way Stop. That request came from the Sherpa Café and would take up two of 29 parking spaces in that lot. Parklet fees are $3 per square foot for the summer season.
The council was presented with the idea of implementing a Four-Way parklet policy for both that lot and the one by the Alpineer but after public feedback and discussion, the council agreed to just allow parklets in the northwest lot.
Town clerk Lynelle Stanford said only the Sherpa Café had made the request, but staff figured to be fair, the council should consider a policy for the other Four-Way lots. She used the example of the Alpineer as a potential business qualifying for a parklet on the other side of Elk.
“I support helping the Sherpa Café,” said councilmember John O’Neal.
“My slight hesitation is that we are pushing cars to that area with the idea they can park there without the two-hour parking limit,” said Goldstone. “That area is long-term parking.”
Councilmember Kent Cowherd suggested making the spaces on the west side of the lots two-hour parking and the other spaces closest to Sixth Street, long-term parking.
“Just keep it simple and make all the spaces two-hour parking,” suggested O’Neal.
“That is a larger conversation to have since that wasn’t on the agenda tonight,” said Billick.
P.J. Hildebrandt of the Alpineer said while appreciative of the chance, the business would likely not use the parklet opportunity. “I have concerns given the size of that lot,” he said. “My gut says we wouldn’t use the parklet but the idea of two-hour parking is good. Parking is a huge issue. We need more of it.”
Billick suggested “splitting the baby” and allowing parklets on the northwest lot and not allowing them on the southwest lot.
The council was good with that direction and will evaluate how that worked after the summer season as well.
A bigger discussion will be held by the council on whether to implement two-hour parking in those lots that currently are not time restricted.
