CB council is gearing up to consider new annexation plan

How will the council handle the annexation legally?

The Crested Butte Town Council will soon be preparing to deal with an annexation proposal. Dallas-based Cypress Equities Group has officially met with town staff and is tweaking its initial plan before coming to a conceptual review meeting on Monday, December 1.

The 44-acre parcel of land is located north of the town boundary, essentially across from the Gas Café. The current proposal calls for 75 new lots with 115 units. A portion of the primarily residential development is situated on what was known as the old town dump. The previous developers who had brought “The Foothills” plan to the council said the old dump contained everything from old refrigerators to tires and probably paint cans.
At a November 17 council meeting, council member Jim Schmidt recalled that the previous developers had contended that the town had some legal liability with the old dump and might be responsible for helping to pay for part of any clean-up.
“Before we have any meeting with the proponents, I would like to know the liabilities to the town of Crested Butte with the old dump,” Schmidt said. “I think we should be briefed about the situation before meeting with the developers.”
“The dump will probably be addressed in this conceptual review meeting and that would be a good time to talk with the applicant about the concerns,” town planner Michael Yerman told the council.
“I want to know our legal position on this from the town’s perspective before we sit down with them,” said Schmidt.
The rest of the council agreed with his request and town attorney John Belkin, who was not at the meeting, will be instructed to investigate the legal issue with the old dump site.
Belkin has also made it clear he wants to hold a work session with the council before any meeting with the developers to lay out his reasoning to have the council tackle the annexation in a quasi-judicial manner instead of legislatively. Taking the quasi-judicial path limits how much the council members can talk about the proposal outside of official meetings. A legislative path allows for more flexibility and negotiating, and provides an opening for individual councilpersons to be lobbied outside of meetings.
Schmidt is pushing to allow the town to act legislatively, which is how the town handled the Verzuh Ranch annexation. The Foothills has been handled by the council in a quasi-judicial setting.
Belkin plans to detail the pros and cons of both paths at the December meeting.