Healthy Mountain Communities

HMC Newsletter

I. HEALTHY MOUNTAIN COMMUNITIES NEWS

People and Fire in Western Colorado Research Project underway
HMC is beginning work on a project to learn from people who live and work in Western Colorado about wildfire and fire management.  The project is managed by the Office of Community Services at Fort Lewis College (http://ocs.fortlewis.edu), which is under a service agreement with the Colorado Office of the BLM.  The results of the research will assist public lands managers (Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service and others) improve their fire management and public education programs.  HMC will be identifying individuals and groups in Eagle, Garfield, and Pitkin Counties who have a stake in the way fire is managed on the Western Slope, and holding small-group meetings with these "stakeholders" to learn, face-to-face, their level of understanding, and their opinions regarding fires and fire management. Contact Colin at claird@hmccolorado.org for more information. 


Planners and Managers Roundtable convenes

Planners from land management agencies, local planning departments, Colorado Mountain College and non-profit organizations met March 1^st in Carbondale to share information on local, state and regional planning efforts.  A newsletter with information from the meeting will be online at www.hmccolorado.org/Roundtablepage.htm in the coming week.  The next Planners and Managers Roundtable will be May 31 from 2-4pm at the Glenwood Springs Community Center.  Contact Randy Russell, Garfield County Building and Planning at rrussell@garfield-county.com or 945-8212 or HMC claird@hmccolorado.org or 963-5502 for more information.


National Association of Counties selects regional team from Roaring Fork Valley
Healthy Mountain Communities and Garfield County assembled a team of participants (including the White River Forest, Eagle County, Glenwood Springs, and Basalt) to participation at a NACo Western Community Stewardship Forum to be held in Estes Park April 12-14. Contact Randy Russell, Garfield County Building and Planning at rrussell@garfield-county.com or 945-8212 or HMC claird@hmccolorado.org or 963-5502 for more information.



II. REGIONAL AND STATE NEWS

City Council approves Glenwood Meadows application
Glenwood Meadows, the biggest development in the history of Glenwood Springs, won approval Thursday in a 6-1 vote by the Glenwood Springs City Council.  The approval marked a second-round success for developer Robert Macgregor, who brought a scaled-back version of the development to the city last summer.

The Glenwood Meadows development divides the 345-acre Wulfsohn Ranch into 72 acres for commercial, office and hotel uses, 55 acres for residential neighborhoods and 215 acres for open space and parks.  Zoning approved Thursday will allow 490,000 square feet of commercial and office space and 475 apartments, townhouses and single family homes.  It's about half the density proposed in the first Meadows plan, which faced vociferous opposition and was withdrawn in November 2000 in the face of certain defeat.

City Council approved the plan with 49 of the 51 conditions suggested by the city Planning and Zoning Commission.  City Council members said they supported the proposal because it favors a pedestrian orientation, offers a good mix of residential and retail uses and will give Glenwood Springs a new source of tax revenue.  The Meadows plan came with three enticing benefits: 215 acres of land to be dedicated to the city for open space and park land, the potential for $1 million a year in added sales tax revenues, and $3.25 million pledged by the developer to pay for traffic improvements.

www.postindependent.com            February 8, 2002


Deal sealed on Steamboat's West End Village
A local family company closed on a 30-acre piece of property that, within the next year, could be home to more than 80 families, self-starters and people who are tired of renting condos.  Connell LLC, which has strong family ties to Steamboat, sealed the deal on the land for West End Village, the city's first deed-restricted affordable-housing project, buying it for $850,000 from Bill Moser of Moser and Associates.  Regional Affordable Living Foundation, the local affordable-housing advocacy group, has spent the last two years developing the project.

The project received a development permit and certain concessions from the City Council in December 2000, but potential purchasers failed in their attempts to buy the land. Meanwhile, some of the 75 people who had originally expressed interest in buying homes in the development began to look for other options.

Half of the units in the development - potentially as many as 83 - will be available to people who make 120 percent of the area median income or less. The "affordable" homes, including units in a multifamily development, duplexes and detached single-family homes, could go for between $120,000 and $175,000, prices unheard of in the local duplex and single-family housing markets.  The multifamily development, which still needs to be approved by the City Council, could sell for as little as $110,000 per unit.  The project could break ground as early as April.

www.steamboatpilot.com            January 16, 2002


Target a go: Silverthorne gives store final OK
It took 15 months, eight meetings and some financial wooing, but the town of Silverthorne appears finally to have gained a Target store.  The town council Wednesday unanimously approved the final site plan for the 126,500-square-foot store at Highway 9 and Annie Road.

Target is expected to bring about $1 million in sales tax revenue to the town. By comparison, the Silverthorne Factory Stores collectively added $2.3 million to Silverthorne's coffers in 2001.  Despite the benefits Silverthorne expects to see from Target, some people said Wednesday they're worried about projected pay scales.  A labor study conducted by the retailer shows an average retail salary for Summit County of less than $18,000.  Target plans a spring 2002 groundbreaking in Silverthorne, and a March 2003 opening.

www.summitdaily.com            January 23, 2002


La Plata County Commissioners approve Ignacio-sized town approved next to Bayfield
La Plata County Commissioners approved a proposal to build 245 new homes off U.S. Highway 160 a mile west of Bayfield.  Because the homes will be adjacent to an already approved subdivision of 75 homes, the new development is equivalent to building an Ignacio-sized town next to Bayfield. 

Commissioners unanimously approved the conceptual development plan for Village East, which has the same name as an already-approved adjacent subdivision by the same developer. When built, the two developments will look like one small town with up to 310 new homes. Many of the homes are likely to be modulars - manufactured housing built off-site and brought in on flatbed trucks.  The home/land packages would cost in the $100,000 range.  Over the past two years, median house prices in Durango have increased about $30,000 each year to $238,750 last year.

The Town of Bayfield and the school district have expressed concerns in writing, but no one from either agency has addressed commissioners during the public hearing process.  Bayfield's concerns include highway access, traffic, water, law enforcement, lighting and the visual impact on the area. The school district has said it hopes to negotiate impact fees with the developer to offset the effect of an increase in the number of families with children in the area.

www.durangoherald.com         February 26, 2002


American Farmland Trust study notes high costs of sprawl in Grand Valley
A study released by the American Farmland Trust shows open space isn't the only thing sprawl would slowly consume if development goes unchecked on the Western Slope -- it would also eat up money.  A landscape dotted with low-density growth could cost local communities up to $82 million more than development centered around existing urban areas.

The results came after a 2-year study of potential growth in Mesa, Montrose, Delta and Ouray counties.  Jeff Jones, regional director for the trust, said most communities have provisions in place to protect agricultural land, but more must be done.  The study suggests cities use policies such as grouping rural developments to provide for more open space, protecting productive agricultural land, and focusing development within urban boundaries.  The report also suggests ways to support an agricultural economy and encourage farmers to keep their land productive. Agricultural land, the report says, would save communities from having to pay for the infrastructure linking one remote subdivision to the next.  The benefits go beyond preserving open space. Agriculture pumped $482 million into the local economy and produced more than 9,000 local jobs.

Given the 300,000 people estimated to move to the region in the next 25 years, the trust has been working with officials from the four counties of the Grand Valley to see if a regional approach to agricultural land conservation is possible.  To obtain a complete copy of the study on the Internet, go to www.farmland.org.

www.dailysentinel.com           February 21, 2001


Hayden, Routt County, and Steamboat Springs to keep talking about regional housing authority
Despite reservations, the Hayden Town Board gave tentative approval to joining Routt County and the city of Steamboat Springs to further discuss a multi-jurisdictional housing authority.  Trustees offered objections to the plan that might provide more affordable housing throughout the Yampa Valley, but agreed they should stick with the dialogue a while longer before making a definite decision. "If we were to stick our heads in the sand and hope for the best, I'd think we'd lose," Trustee Ken Gibbon said.

Routt County commissioners and Steamboat Springs city councilmen outlined how a housing authority could offer more affordable housing to residents who live within the authority's district. The presentation in Hayden followed meetings in Yampa and Oak Creek, which extended similar invitations for the town boards to participate in discussing the possibility of a housing authority in the Yampa Valley.

A multi-jurisdictional housing authority would be able to impose taxes and issue tax-exempt revenue bonds and use the revenue to create affordable housing options. Any tax increase, however, would require the approval of voters who live within the authority's district boundaries.

www.steamboatpilot.com            February 22, 2002


Montrose City Council to review lighting ordinance draft
A draft of a proposed lighting ordinance for the City of Montrose is making its way to the Montrose City Council.  A lighting ordinance has become important for Montrose as more people continue to move into subdivisions on the outer reaches of the city. As more people populate subdivisions and street lighting is added, the rural enjoyment of a dark night sky is more likely to be compromised.  The development of a lighting ordinance will help create standards and provide some continuity for local developers and the Delta-Montrose Electric Association.

The city currently has no lighting ordinance other than a few guidelines under its subdivision regulations. The ordinance's purpose is to provide more specific regulations and guidelines to maximize the effectiveness of site lighting. The ordinance also would avoid unnecessary upward illumination and light trespass; reduce glare; promote safety, security and energy conservation; and enhance nighttime enjoyment of property.

www.montrosepress.com             February 20, 2002



III. NATIONAL NEWS

Measuring the cost of growth in Georgia
Houses may be cozier than an office complex, a wide-open field, or a stand of cedars - but a recent University of Georgia study says they don't set municipal budgets at ease.  In four Georgia counties, housing developments were far more costly than either business development or farms and forests. Though commercial, industrial, and natural space brought in more money in taxes than they lost through the cost of public services such as schools, road maintenance, and emergency protection, subdivisions were a net loss in 1999.

The infrastructure necessary to support and satisfy humans at home is far more elaborate than the network for farmland or business: Georgia housing developments cost from $1.23 to $2.07 for every dollar of revenue they brought in. "Cows don't go to school, and tractors don't dial 911," explained Gerry Cohn, director of the Southeast Region for the American Farmland Trust.

The cost difference is due, in large part, to the financial drain of schools - but even discounting the price of education, new developments are a fiscal loss. In Cherokee County, Ga., for instance, the service cost for housing, even without schools, was $1.44 per $1 of revenue, but a mere 31 cents for business development, and 52 cents for farms and natural landscapes.  Subdivisions, of course, will keep cropping up, encroaching on forests and municipal finances. Jeffrey Dorman, a University of Georgia economics professor who helped direct the study, suggests that new development stick to areas where public service comes at minimal cost, and follow a high-density model to minimize price while preserving green space.

www.csmonitor.com          February 6, 2002


Getting to Smart Growth:  100 Ways to Make It Happen
Getting to Smart Growth:  100 Policies for Implementation is a new publication from the Smart Growth Network and the International City/County Management Association (ICMA). The policy guide was officially released at the Partners for Smart Growth conference by EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman on January 24, 2002. 

The document provides ten policy options to achieve each of the ten Smart Growth Principles endorsed by the Smart Growth Network.  For example, to achieve the smart growth objective of mixed land uses, communities are offered policy options ranging from efforts to encourage employees to live near their work, to the adoption of parallel building codes to foster more innovative design, to the conversion of declining commercial centers into mixed-use developments.  The publication is available free of charge online at www.smartgrowth.org  or www.epa.gov/smartgrowth.   


Community Rules: A New England Guide to Smart Growth Strategies
Written by the Conservation Law Foundation and the Vermont Forum on Sprawl, Community Rules, is a guidebook for volunteer board members, planners, concerned citizens, and others who want to achieve smart growth in their communities through better planning, zoning, and permitting. Community Rules is full of examples of communities in New England and elsewhere that have laid the groundwork for smart growth through sensible planning, zoning, and other strategies.  Go to www.clf.org  to order online.