The Telluride Watch
Published 12/14/07
by Gus Jarvis

After hearing a raft of concerns and negative comments from residents, some members of the Telluride Town Council have agreed that the Lift 7 Subarea conceptual master plan has gotten away its original intention and that the mass and scale of the proposed project has grown too large. Neighbors and other Telluride residents have asked the town to slow the approval process of the subarea master plan so that more public input can be taken. By Tuesday evening, Telluride Building and Planning Director Chris Hawkins told concerned citizens that the town will hold off on completing an economic analysis of the subarea plan to allow for further public comment.

“All of the comments that I have heard have all been very negative,” Councilmember Bob Saunders said at Tuesday’s town council meeting. “Based on this new round of input we have received, it may be time for us to slow down this process.”

Councilmember Andrea Benda agreed.

“I really applaud a slowing with all of this going on,” she said.

Since Oz Architecture presented plans that evolved out of a series of design charettes to the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission on Nov. 15, council has heard comments on both sides of the fence concerning the Lift 7 Subarea Master Plan. Recently though, it seems more comments have come out against the proposed development. Many are concerned about the 60-foot height that has been allowed for the project, the same height that has been allowed for the Element 52 project. The town’s allowed height in that area is 45 feet.

“I would suggest that we look at a lower lever from 40 to 42 feet,” Councilmember Thom Carnevale told Hawkins at Tuesday’s meeting. “I have not heard one person say that ‘I support what the council is doing.’”

Hawkins presented a history of the Lift 7 Subarea Master Plan to council on Tuesday to make clear to new councilmembers and residents where the project got its conception and to show how it got to where it is currently.

In the fall of 2006, council set its priorities and goals for 2007 with affordable housing being its number one goal. Creating a subarea plan for the Lift 7 area was also identified as a high priority. Council subsequently adopted the 2007 budget, which included a line item of $58,000 for the subarea planning process.

On Dec. 5, 2006, town staff presented council with the initial subarea planning process. To accomplish the master plan goal of creating a subarea master plan at Lift 7, council adopted the following specific objectives:

- Guide the town and private property owners on how to best utilize their property;

- create a conceptual development plans by community design charettes;

- create redevelopment concepts/policies;

- develop infrastructure improvement plan;

- guide land use decisions;

- identify opportunities for public-private partnerships

- create a revitalization plan for the Lift 7 Base Area;

- recommend changes to the Telluride Land Use Code and the Design Guidelines for Building in Telluride to implement the Plan;

- identify future site for affordable housing; and;

- create an identity or a sense of neighborhood.

On March, 7, 2007, Oz Architecture and Raymond Lutkeman Associates were selected to assist the town in creating the subarea plan based on their experience in master planning and designing ski base areas and mountain communities, according to Hawkins’s report to council on Tuesday. A public steering committee was created, which then worked with the town’s staff, Telluride Ski and Golf Co. officials, and Oz Architecture to come up with a conceptual design for the land’s use. This process included a three-day design charette that was attended by approximately 50 citizens.

Initial Plans Lost?

But for councilmember David Oyster, throughout the process, the initial plans have been lost.

“Our top priority, affordable housing, it seems to me, is not a top priority with what I have seen in existing plans,” Oyster said Tuesday. “I think we have wandered very far and I think we need to get back to the first direction. In 1993, I attended a charette meeting in Longmont and it was extraordinary. I would say that process was inspired and I would encourage us to have this process to be inspired by the staff, council and the designers.”

During Tuesday’s council meeting, some residents and staff members expressed concern that a large number of public comments have come in at such a late hour in the planning process. Telluride resident Wes Perrin told council that he hopped the planning process wasn’t too far along for things to be changed.

“I hope this isn’t the eleventh hour,” Perrin told council during the public comment period. “I would say slow this process way down and then determine what is possible. We need to wait until we have additional information outside the charettes and then we can go forward.”

Chuck Burr told council that the size of the subarea plan with the various additions is not solving the affordable housing problem. He believes that the plans will create more of a need for affordable housing.

“I believe you are all accelerators and we have no brakes,” Burr said. “The logic we have going here is false. We are talking hundred and hundreds of additional affordable housing units we will need.”

Only Watch publisher Seth Cagin spoke in favor of Lift 7 redevelopment, stating that he was among the participants in the charettes who favored greater density and arguing that the town had in fact undergone a lengthy process, although, he added, additional public involvement was necessary and worthwhile as the process went forward. Cagin also argued that the town’s economic sustainability was at stake.

“I hope all of you have your trust funds in order,” he said, “because you’re going to need them to survive here” if Lift 7 redevelopment is stopped.

On Tuesday evening, This Republic CAN held an informal meeting at the Sheridan Opera House for residents to gather information on the Lift 7 Subarea plan. Again, many residents expressed concern about the size and environmental impacts of proposed development. There were others who spoke to concerns of losing the project as well.

One Lift 7 resident at the meeting told those in attendance that Telluride has a resort economy and places for tourist visitation to be economically sustainable.

“People are worried about the economy here,” she said. “Telluride needs bodies. If we don’t have bodies, we can’t exist. We need daycare. Mothers are desperate for them. I would say voice your opinion on this, but don’t be so divisive.”

Also in the mix of the subarea controversy, is that the town has written a letter of intent to the Telluride Hospital District that the town plans to a parcel of town-owned land on the San Miguel River south of the Pearl Property, which is included in the Lift 7 Subarea Master Plan, to be used for a new Telluride Medical Center.

Sharon Grundy, the medical director of primary care at the Telluride Medical Center, told attendees to the Tuesday night meeting to be careful not to lose this site for a new medical center.

“We need to be very careful to look forward with healthcare in the future,” Grundy said. “I don’t think we have done this. We need to get away from this fear factor. It’s great that this community has an emergency center in it and we will need it. I want to see as many affordable housing units as possible. There are ways to have that done. You need to have a balance of development to get the things we need in this community.”

After listening to public comment at both the town council meeting and the This Republic CAN meeting, Hawkins said told residents that, “We are going to hold off on doing any more economic analysis.”

The current Lift 7 Subarea plans can be viewed at the town’s website at www.town.telluride.co.us.