CB Council positive on annexation concept

But doesn’t want the “Gang of No” rolling in at the last minute

The Crested Butte annexation proposal that would add 44 acres to town appears to be moving ahead smoothly. With no major objections but significant discussion to move past some lingering initial hurdles, the concept review plan for the proposed annexation just north of town was ironed out between the Town Council and developers Monday evening.

A formal resolution approving the broad concept will be considered at the next meeting on January 20. It will be the first of many formal votes over many months before the annexation is approved or denied.
The two main clarifications that came out of Monday’s meeting were that the council wants commercial lots more compacted into the southwest side of the annexation and the layout will adhere to the town grid. Commercial will essentially be limited to a couple of blocks directly across from the Gas Café on the corner of Gothic Road and Butte Avenue. There was some concern about stringing out commercial development along Highway 135 toward Mt. Crested Butte.
The council, while still split, also agreed to support the staff, which argued strongly that the entire development, including the lots on the east side of the Slate River, be laid out in a grid system.
There will be several opportunities for public comment on the proposal that includes approximately 115 units on 75 lots.
The proposed subdivision is located just north of the current Crested Butte town boundary on the site of the old town landfill. The developers have pledged to clean up the dump, including the part that lies beneath town property at the public works yard.

Council wants to hear from public up-front
“I haven’t heard much about this proposal from people so far but I really want to hear from people who are fundamentally against any annexation,” said councilperson Jim Schmidt, “and I want to hear from them sooner rather than later. I don’t want to expend the time and energy and then have a bunch of people come in six months or a year from now and say we shouldn’t consider any annexation. Let’s get that out right now.”
“I agree that we don’t want the ‘gang of no’ to roll in here at 11:30 on the midnight timeline,” said councilman Skip Berkshire. “Maybe we need to make clear the reasons we think this is worth considering.”
Town planner Michael Yerman re-emphasized that this initial period was an “informal” time for the council to look at the big picture. “Approval of the concept review only allows the applicant to submit a formal application. The next stage will be a pre-annexation agreement touching on features of the proposal that are unique, such as the landfill situation. There are no entitlements given with any concept approval.”
Yerman explained that after the formal application is submitted, the staff would review the document for 30 days to make sure it is complete. The application will then go to the Board of Zoning of Architectural Review (BOZAR) for review and public comment before coming back to the council, who will sit as the Planning Commission in a quasi-judicial manner to evaluate the submittal. Essentially the council will then act as judges. Members are prohibited from being lobbied by the applicants or the public in general about the annexation proposal.
Yerman promised the town website would have a running log of where the annexation was in the process and how the public could participate.

Pulling back the commercial elements
On Monday, the council again debated the merits or lack thereof of allowing commercial development to be placed along Gothic Road. Schmidt and Berkshire were adamantly against the idea of “commercial creep.” Others, including councilperson Glenn Michel, argued that including commercial space would add vibrancy to the subdivision and help grow the town’s budget through sales tax and jobs. The developers had proposed some small retail establishments that wouldn’t compete with Elk Avenue, but would fall into an office space or medical-type buildings category.
“The town code is pretty good and we wouldn’t allow strip malls to be located there,” said town manager Todd Crossett. “It wouldn’t look like the entrance to Montrose. But remember, this would be in town and it could be a mixed use of residential and commercial. It could extend the Sixth Street zoning.”
“I just can’t imagine homes going along the highway,” said Michel. “They’d probably want to berm out the noise.”
“Homes located along that road would have one of the best views in the United States,” countered Schmidt. “Plus, with the approved Sixth Street Station (hotel and retail development) that hasn’t been started and the old bakery building that’s sat empty for the last eight years, I don’t see a big demand for more commercial property.”
“I don’t like the precedent it would set,” said Berkshire. “Drawing a strict line closer to the current town boundary would send a message to the county.”
“If you don’t allow for commercial property in the development, it could create the demand eventually and there is that Spann parcel just north of this that could push that property commercial,” said councilman Chris Ladoulis.
Lee Spann was at the meeting and said he had no comment on the idea of what that property would be used for. “We haven’t thought that far ahead. We are here to listen as interested neighbors,” he said. “We haven’t processed it at all.”
Berkshire reminded the council Crested Butte was a small town. “We are ten square blocks,” he said. “So if you have to walk or ride your townie four blocks to get a cup a coffee, that’s not really a big deal. The scale of town has that walkability without having to have a hot dog stand on every corner.”
“We want to create connectivity,” countered Michel. “We don’t want sprawl but it is an attraction for that area. I think if it’s all residential, it will be a poor choice. We need to consider all the benefits including the economic benefit to the community. To be able to create sales tax and a place for jobs is important. Plus, zoning can be used to step down the size of any commercial buildings as it went north.”

Relocating the fire station
As part of the commercial discussion, the idea of relocating a five-bay fire station from town to the development was discussed quite a bit. There were concerns with locating it directly on Gothic Road from a safety and snow plowing perspective. Councilman Roland Mason pointed out the extended response time an emergency vehicle would have getting to the northwest side of town. “We might need a bridge over Coal Creek and that’s a whole new can of worms.”
So was the idea of locating an emergency light to serve as a stoplight when the vehicles were dispatched. That idea went over like a lead balloon. The council asked that the pre-annexation agreement stipulate that the developers do everything possible to avoid a stoplight being part of the development.
Mason again suggested that another civic building might work better than a fire station. “Maybe it’s the library that would attract people there,” he said.
 In the end, annexation attorney Marcus Lock suggested shifting some proposed high-density affordable housing with some commercial lots and focusing any commercial on the southwest side. The council agreed generally with the idea of keeping the commercial lots, including a potential fire hall or civic building, limited to the area across from the Gas Café.

Grid wins out
When it came time to again discuss allowing a more “natural” layout of home sites on the east side of the Slate River versus a grid system, the staff argued strongly in favor of a grid.
They said the wetlands issues would be pretty much the same with either option and not a major factor. Fifty more feet of pavement being needed with the grid system didn’t seem to be a large factor, but veering away from the town’s traditional grid layout was a huge issue with the staff.
“There’s the practical element of having an alley in the grid system to better lay out utilities. There’s the idea of creating a place in town that encourages front-loaded lots with garages at the front instead of porches,” said Yerman. “BOZAR would probably have to create new zoning to go with the ‘natural’ style. The staff feels we would lose a lot of the look and feel of what makes the town unique.
“One of the things that makes towns like Crested Butte iconic is the front porches that lend themselves to neighborhood communication,” Yerman continued. “The core concept was that the town was laid out so that people arrived on the train and then could walk the grid. To go away from that history would break my heart as a planner.”
Berkshire said his main concern was wetland protection. The staff assured him that wetlands would feel the same minimal impact with either proposal.
“You can avoid the wetlands with the grid, too,” emphasized town building and zoning director Bob Gillie. “Understand that most of Coal Creek running through town is on private property but people can’t just go and build in it.”
But it was the small-town Crested Butte vibe that made Gillie argue most passionately for retaining the grid. “Crested Butte has a unique sense of place and it starts with the grid,” he said. “It is one of the things people don’t think a lot about but it adds to the sense of community and place. Why would we want to deviate from that? Why put Silver Sage in town? The council has said it doesn’t want that area on the east side of the river to become a special ‘enclave,’ so then do things that make it less of an enclave. The grid is one defining characteristic of our town.”
“This feels like the philosophical Waterloo,” said Ladoulis. “We are allowing the opportunity to extend town beyond the current borders but we want it to look exactly the same. The grid looks a bit out of place there to me.”
“Zoom out from that one drawing and look at it from the whole town and the grid fits right in,” said councilman Shaun Matusewicz.
“It took me years to see this but one of the finest features of town is there are hard edges to town,” said Gillie. “It is defined and then there is open space. It is one of the best things about town.”
Schmidt argued that the “natural” layout more closely followed the contours of the land.
Mayor Aaron Huckstep leaned toward the “natural” layout, along with Schmidt. “The grid isn’t the Holy Grail,” he said. “There are some issues and problems with the proposal on that side of the river with the grid that will have to be addressed in the future.”
But the majority of the council felt comfortable with the staff recommendation to have the developers work with the grid on the entire development.

Public comments
A few members of the public weighed in about the proposal. Gwen DesCognets, who resides near the proposed annexation property, said a big concern was tampering with the old landfill. The idea of digging up tons of waste and polluting the air during the remediation process was a major issue to her and her neighbors. Huckstep assured her that while no final details have been approved, the council had a comfort level with the consultant hired to remove the dump.
Schmidt, who resides in the same area, pointed out that approximately 24,000 cubic yards of material would have to be relocated.
Resident Sue Navy expressed her concerns about protecting wetlands and wildlife corridors in that area.
Lock said the developers were doing everything possible to protect both.
“I want to follow the process,” said Navy. “It’s a big deal to the town. The public should be involved and help shepherd this.”
“There will be a lot of different opportunities for the public to access it,” promised Crossett.
Navy also requested that the closer the development gets to the cemetery, the less impact it should have.
Yerman outlined the next steps, including the ideas to be included in a pre-annexation agreement. Again, he emphasized that the developer would have no entitlements with either the pre-annexation or conceptual review agreements. They are, in essence, road maps to guide the early process.
“Our actual annexation and land use guidelines and regulations are pretty strict,” Schmidt told the developers. “I want to make sure you’ve read them and understand all the goodies we expect in areas like parks and open space that come as part of the process.”
The developers all nodded in agreement.
“It’s sort of like the doctor saying to the patient ‘This might hurt,’” quipped Ladoulis.
“We appreciate all the interaction and positive feedback we’ve had from the town staff and council,” said Lock.
The council directed the staff to prepare a resolution of support approving the concept review aspect of the annexation. They will consider and vote on it at the January 20 meeting.