Briefs Crested Butte

Temporary pot moratorium
The council agreed at its Monday, May 20 meeting to put a temporary moratorium on the application for any retail marijuana establishments and any new medical marijuana licenses in town. The council wants to see how the new state regulations shake out on the matter of allowing recreational marijuana sales. According to a staff memo, the town wants to have time to come up with its rules governing recreational marijuana and “avoid confusion and additional work.” The moratorium is set to last until October 1. Councilmembers Jim Schmidt and Shaun Matusewicz voted against the moratorium idea.

Cart controversy
Despite a protest from cart vendor Shawn Mast, the council will not review its recently amended ordinance that allows carts in town to be 24 square feet as opposed to the previous size limit of 20 square feet. Mast, who owns Sock It To Me food cart, told the council that the rule change gave any new vendor an unfair advantage to current cart owners. The councilmen understood his position but declined to review any new revision to the recently changed ordinance.

Summer grant requests
Town finance director Lois Rozman reported that she has received 15 applications from nonprofit organizations seeking grants in the summer review cycle. The groups are asking for a total of $61,400; the town has budgeted $17,295 for the summer grant cycle. A subcommittee will gather to review the requests before making recommendations to the entire council.

Keep it quiet(er)
The council approved an ordinance that amends the town’s noise regulations, reducing the allowable noise level during the day from 70 decibels in the commercial and business district to 60 decibels. Matusewicz voted against the measure, saying it was simply an enforcement issue and the town didn’t need tighter restrictions.

Zoning clarifications…
The council agreed to recommendations from the staff to start making some zoning changes in the town code. The issues range from clarifying the definition of what can be built in the mobile home districts to defining how a shower can be installed in commercial office buildings and how to define a building’s width.

Council ready for its close-up?
Councilperson Matusewicz returned from the big city of Salida with some interesting comparisons on how their town council meetings are conducted as opposed to Crested Butte. The Crested Butte council will explore projecting the council agenda on the wall so citizens can more easily follow council proceedings. Matusewicz also came back somewhat astonished that at least 60 people were in attendance at the Salida meeting and close to a dozen made comments during the session. He reported this to his fellow councilmembers, three staff members and those citizens in attendance at that time in the Crested Butte meeting (me). After some discussion, the council decided it would explore the idea of broadcasting the Crested Butte meetings on the Internet to perhaps generate more interest in the Monday extravaganzas. Look out, Ryan Seacrest!