Town outlines its concerns over Sage Creek subdivision

First subdivision reviewed under Area Plan

While the Crested Butte Town Council is not taking a formal position for or against a new 24-lot subdivision two miles south of town, the council is sending a letter to the Gunnison County Planning Commission outlining deviations in the subdivision proposal from the town’s Area Plan.

Density, the amount of open space and the amount of affordable housing are the main issues cited in the letter.
Mike and Renee Wright are proposing to subdivide their 19-acre parcel near Brush Creek Road. The Larkspur subdivision is located to the north, Butte Pastures to the east and a 13-acre parcel owned by the county, the towns of Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte and Crested Butte Mountain Resort sits to the west. The proposal calls for 19 single-family lots and five duplex lots, with the average size of the lots being approximately one-third of an acre.
The Wrights plan to build five halves of the duplexes as affordable units and sell them to qualified locals. The Wrights are also planning to provide a trail easement and other recreational amenities to be determined. Mike Wright has also indicated he would offer an easement along the border of the publicly owned 13 acres and allow access to that property through his Sage Creek subdivision. In addition, he would install infrastructure compatible with future plans on the public property for a bus stop and some affordable housing.
In Colorado, municipalities can put together an Area Plan that takes into consideration new development outside its boundaries but within a three-mile radius of the town. Those plans generally outline the types of development and mitigations the town feels is appropriate.
In theory, the county planners who ultimately approve or restrict the proposals are to take into consideration the issues of the municipalities. While the towns do not have formal jurisdiction over proposed developments, they are supposed to have a greater voice in the early part of the process, since the developments will be located so close to the town.
In a letter drafted by the Crested Butte town staff, the town cites areas of Sage Creek that deviate from its Area Plan. According to the town guidelines, there should only by one unit per 35 acres unless “significant amounts of open space are preserved…”
With the number of units being proposed, under the town plan, “74 acres of land in the north part of the valley should be preserved as open space. The applicant proposes to preserve 5.8 acres. Preserved land can be any open space in the County north of Round Mountain including mining claims,” the letter states.
The letter also recommends that some land should be set aside to be dedicated for area schools and general public, in addition to land specifically for parks. If such land is not available on-site, the town would have the developer  purchase it somewhere else in the area.
Given the developments adjacent to the proposed Sage Creek subdivision, the town cites both the possibility of utilizing larger lots than currently proposed and smaller, more clustered lots than proposed.
“While the one-third-acre lots in this proposal may seem small at the county level, they are very near Crested Butte where the average building site is about one-seventh of an acre. If the lots were more clustered and smaller, then the increased amount of open space would compensate for the dissimilarity with some surrounding larger lots. We note that the adjacent Butte Pastures is much more clustered than the Sage Creek proposal,” the letter states. In a separate section of the letter to the Planning Commission, the letter also states the subdivision plan “would be more consistent with the Area Plan if lots on the south side were significantly larger.”
On the affordable housing issue, the letter states that the Town believes “40-percent of all new residential units that are not within town, but within three miles of Crested Butte should, at a minimum, be permanently deed-restricted to a variety of mixed income people who earn at least 80 percent of their incomes in Gunnison County. The developer proposes that 17 percent of the units be deed restricted.”
The letter goes on to say the council recommends that at least 40 percent of the Sage Creek dwelling units should fall into those deed restrictions.
In order to minimize viewshed impacts, the town is asking that development on ridges be discouraged. The town has suggested the developer might consider excavating part of the property to lower the profile. The displaced dirt could be used as an additional berm to shield development.
The letter also asks for more snow storage areas.
Town planner John Hess said that this is the first subdivision to come under the Area Plan since it was recently revised and adopted by the council.
Mike Wright said he has been a little frustrated but is trying to work with the town process for his county development. “I approached the council to look at this plan and members of Town Council and staff came out a couple of times to look at the property,” he explained. “But the town seems very resistant to the proposal. Under their rules, by the time you set aside deed restricted lots, provide open space, buy mining claims for additional open space, provide trails and easements, you can’t really even do the project.”
As an example of trying to be creative and work with the council, Wright explains his idea for addressing affordable housing. “I plan to build five duplexes and sell one half of each unit on the open market and the other half as a deed restricted unit,” he said. “In my opinion, offering a finished unit instead of just dirt that is deed restricted is helpful to what they are trying to achieve. I’m not sure they’ve looked at the big picture. This is a plan that could take ten years to complete and this proposal isn’t any get rich quick proposal.”
Wright will be meeting with the Gunnison County Planning Commission to go over his sketch plan in early July. The town will send the letter to the county Planning Commission this week.