Contents

Local and State

• Colorado Center for Healthy Communities introduces the Colorado Smart Growth Scorecard

• Boom(er) towns: Affluent second-home owners changing face of mountain counties

• Durango sees hope in Grandview

• Bayfield about to see big changes

• Bank extends housing help to employees in Greeley-Ft. Collins

• Vail Valley Chamber and Tourism Bureau forms local insurance group

• Sunburst plans scrapped, resubmitted and approved as Villages at Hayden

• Estes Park Annexation: a plan to pull together

• Steamboat Council OKs 90-day Big-box moratorium

National

• Community-run stores a growing trend

• Stretch of Colo. land becomes battleground

• All Eyes Are on Maine's New Universal Care System

Resources and Tools

• Office of Smart Growth Issues Model Water-Efficient Landscaping Ordinance and Best Practices Manual

• Does Growth "Pay for Itself" through increased revenue or decreased costs per person? An Analysis of the City of Colorado Springs, 1980-2000

• Matching the Scenery: Journalism’s Duty to the North American West

Local and State 

Colorado Center for Healthy Communities introduces the Colorado Smart Growth Scorecard

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Boom(er) towns: Affluent second-home owners changing face of mountain counties

Colorado mountain resort counties are braced for a surge of second-home buyers in the next two decades as more baby boomers near retirement. "There is going to be a major change in Colorado, as we know it," said state demographer Jim Westkott. "The people who've been complaining about the highways not being wide enough will start complaining about the bike paths not being wide enough."

Already, 60 percent of the housing units in Eagle, Grand, Pitkin and Summit counties are second homes, said Gary Severson, executive director of the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments. The agency's ongoing study of second-home trends is focusing on social and economic impacts for a chapter to be released in summer 2004.

The two-year study already has debunked one myth of second-home ownership, Severson said. "A large number of second-home buyers are buying not because of the ski industry but because of other amenities," he said. "It's a wonderful area to live."

"Recreational amenities" is the leading reason by 10 percentage points for buying in the mountains, followed by skiing and scenery. If you think Colorado resorts are crowded now, just wait 20 years.

"There isn't going to be any developable land that hasn't been spoken for by second-home occupants or retirees or the businesses and their employees that serve them," Westkott said. "There'll be homes, hospitals, schools and the malls that people expect."

See full article by Joel Garner - www.rockymountainnews.com, 1.31.2004
Visit Northwest Colorado Council of Governments for more information on the results of the Second Home Study - www.nwc.cog.co.us

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Durango sees hope in Grandview

After three years of hearings, the Durango City Council, unanimously approved an epic plan that will turn the direction of Durango's growth sharply southeast.

The plans, if realized, will be the leading exemplar of new urbanism in the country, said project designer Jeff Speck, also design director for the National Endowment for the Arts.

It would also mean a new Durango, perhaps one with double its current housing stock of roughly 5,500 homes.

City government, the Southern Ute Tribe and Catholic Health Initiatives have joined forces to annex and transform a 6-square- mile settlement called Grandview, now a rural hodgepodge of scattered residences, businesses, vacant land and crops a few miles southeast of Durango.

The tribe's proposed centerpiece development, 682-acre Three Springs, would create a $76 million regional hospital on a 60-acre campus, shops, offices, a school or two, acres of parks and ballfields, civic centers, a few thousand homes and even a few gas wells.

Mercy Medical Center, now bursting at its seams on a cramped campus in the heart of Durango, would have a solution to overcrowded and aging facilities.

It will be the presence of Mercy and its almost 800 employees at Three Springs, on land largely donated by the tribe, that will make it a true antidote to suburban sprawl, said Speck, who was working with Duany Plater-Zyberk and Co. during the design.

Mercy would anchor a diverse and pedestrian-friendly community of small houses, big houses, row houses and granny flats. Planning Director Greg Hoch said 2,238 homes could be built over the next 30 years at Three Springs.

See full article by Electa Draper, www.denverpost.com, 1.23.2004

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Bayfield about to see big changes

Developers are turning an eye to Bayfield as the next hot spot for residential and commercial activity. There are enough projects on the horizon to double the size of the town within the next few years, said Mayor James Harrmann. Some have already won approval, while others are still on the drawing board or in their infancy, he said.

Developers say Bayfield is at a crossroads. It is too big to be considered a little hamlet yet too small to attract significant retail stores, restaurants and jobs.

"It's kind of stuck in a precarious middle road," said Bradley Elder, a Durango developer proposing to build up to 200 homes on 80 acres in north Bayfield.

Elder believes town officials stand a good chance of being "blindsided" by the amount of growth headed their way in the next few years.

There are at least 600 acres in or around Bayfield that are looked upon as being developable. Some of the land is already experiencing growth, some of the land has been annexed, and some landowners are waiting for the right time to pitch their plans.

Though new development proposals are keeping the town busy, town officials say the growth is not out of control. Bayfield is working to preserve the character of the town while allowing for housing and retail opportunities, said Town Manager Brett Boyer.

Boyer believes the burden on existing infrastructure like water, sewer and roads, and the impacts on the school system, would slow things down before the population doubles.

"We want to make sure there are housing choices for folks that want to live here, but do it in a smart way," Boyer said. "We're not just accepting and approving everything that comes to the town."

See full article by Shane Benjamin, www.durangoherald.com, 11.16.2003
 
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Bank extends housing help to employees in Greeley-Ft. Collins

Greeley-based Union Colony is the first company to adopt the Employee Home Ownership Program as a worker benefit in the Greeley-Ft. Collins region.

Under terms of the EHOP, orchestrated by Fort Collins-based Funding Partners for Housing Solutions, Union Colony employees who are first-time homebuyers can receive up to $10,000 from the bank toward their home purchase.

"Basically, it's a loan to them that is forgiven 20 percent a year," Kersgard said. "So, if they remain with the bank an additional five years after closing, it would be totally forgiven."

Funding Partners, a non-profit support agency for affordable housing causes, introduced EHOP last year and recently received a federal service mark -- the equivalent of a corporate trademark -- for the EHOP system.

On that basis, Funding Partners plans to license the EHOP system nationwide to companies seeking to add employer-assisted housing as a benefit. EHOP licensees like Union Colony receive management software, an operating manual and loan policy guidance from Funding Partners.

"It just seemed to make good business sense," Kersgard said. "We have a fairly low turnover, but we are a recognized leader in Colorado for our family-friendly policies," which includes child-care assistance for Union Colony workers.
In its October 2003 edition, Colorado Parent magazine ranked Union Colony among the state's top family-friendly companies.

"Down the road, besides retention, it's also a great recruiting tool for us," she said

See full story by Robert Baun, Northern Colorado Business Report, www.ncbr.com, 2.20.2004

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Vail Valley Chamber and Tourism Bureau forms local insurance group

Starting April 1, The Vail Valley Chamber and Tourism Bureau will offer it's new Vail Valley Chamber Health Care Plan to members of the bureau, their employees and dependents. Price increases for health insurance have outpaced virtually all other individual expenses in the Vail region and health insurance is often the key employee benefit offered by employers.

The new plan is a bulk discount through PacifiCare, which insures 3.4 million individuals and businesses in eight Western states. Its cost is based on a group policy provided to VVTCB members, and by the size of the potential employer/employee pool in the area. The cost of individual plans will be determined by the standard factors such as age, sex, type of job and other factors.

Thirty-two months in the making, the plan may be the first of its kind in Colorado offered by a chamber-like organization, said Robin Litt, business services manager for the tourism bureau.

Getting to this point wasn't easy, said Kim Wolfe, vice president of human resources for Slifer Designs, who helped develop the plan.

"It was one step forward and two steps back," said Wolfe. "We ran up against legislation designed to protect the health car insurers. The regulations for small groups are so difficult. That's the biggest hurdle we've been working through."


See full article by Cliff Thompson, www.vaildaily.com, 11.24.2003
For more information on the plan contact jtomlinson@visitvailvalley.com or call 970-476-1000.

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Sunburst plans scrapped, resubmitted and approved as Villages at Hayden

The 900-acre Sunburst Ranch residential and commercial subdivision is no more. The new plan, being proposed by a smaller subset of the original development group, is to rename the project The Villages at Hayden, annex almost 680 acres before any construction begins and avoid placing a mobile-home park near the north entrance, as planned in Sunburst.

Though the layout of The Villages is different from Sunburst Ranch, the subdivision's contents are essentially the same -- about 2,000 homes, most in the $100,000 to $200,000 range; an 18-hole golf course; lakes; trails and common areas.

The Hayden Planning Commission approved a recommendation to the Hayden Town Board on March 12 to proceed with annexing 676 acres on the south side of town for a residential subdivision and golf course.

The annexation request received mixed reaction from Planning Commission members and residents during public comment, but the motion passed 4-2.

Two planning commissioners opposed the recommendation because they wanted to see the impacts of the proposed development plugged into the town's CommunityViz model before moving forward. CommunityViz is planning software, which an outside consulting firm is using to create a model of the town. Another opposed the recommendation because several people in the Hayden Community Video mentioned "slow and managed growth." The Hayden Community Video is another planning tool the town of Hayden is using to analyze how the residents want the community to grow.

See full articles by Nick Foster, www.steamboatpilot.com, 3.4 & 3.12.2004

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Estes Park Annexation: a plan to pull together

See full article by Christine Metz, www.steamboatpilot.com, 3.17.3004

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National                                                                                                                         
 

Community-run stores a growing trend

When the Powell, Wyoming clothing store closed, residents such as Ken Witzeling put up money to start their own shop, ensuring that they wouldn't have to leave Powell to buy a dress shirt for work or trendy jeans for school.
   
Hundreds of people bought shares in the business, believing they were investing in more than just a clothing store.

"We sold this as, 'You're investing in Powell,' " said Witzeling, a retired pharmacist and member of the board that oversees the Powell Mercantile.

Community mercantile stores are slowly appearing in other parts of the West, where communities with small populations and uncertain economic futures struggle to attract new businesses, and where shopping centers are often a long drive away.

Leaders of existing stores in Montana and Wyoming say they field calls from people around the country interested in the idea. Residents of communities in at least two states in the Northeast are also discussing the potential for mercantiles there.

That level of interest "tells me our communities are trying -- themselves -- to make themselves successful. There is a lot of community spirit in our rural areas," said Frank French, general manager of an implement dealership in Plentywood, Mont., who helped develop Little Muddy Dry Goods and the community mercantile idea in early 1999 with a local doctor, Kirk Stoner.

Since then, similar stores have opened in Malta and Glendive in Montana and in Powell and Worland in Wyoming, although shares have sold for far less, generally $500 each. Boards of directors oversee the businesses; store managers deal with daily operations. The mercantiles sell name brands that clothing shoppers would tend to find in mall department stores.

At the Powell Mercantile, for example, a pair of men's Wrangler jeans costs about $25 and a pair of women's Tribal jeans costs about $60.
   
Witzeling, a member of the Powell Mercantiles board, said the store, which opened in July 2002, met its target of about $500,000 in sales its first year, and continues to grow.

"It might be too early to predict. But I think this thing, looking down the road, is like a fire department," he said. "It's something the town needs."

See full article by Becky Bohrer - AP, The Salt Lake Tribune, www.sltrib.com, 2.7.2004 [www.sltrib.com/2004/Mar/03072004/utah/145484.asp]

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Stretch of Colo. land becomes battleground

At the base of the 3,500-foot-high cliffs of the Roan Plateau sit dozens of gas wells, evidence of an energy boom in western Colorado.  Laced by creeks and canyons, with broken carpets of sagebrush, aspen and fir, the mostly undeveloped Roan boasts one of the richest collections of plants and animals in western Colorado.

Deep beneath the plateau rests 5.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, enough to heat 2.5 million homes for 20 years. Drilling on the plateau for natural gas, which the Bush administration has signaled it favors, would bring jobs and more than $100 million for the local county. So it is supported by some local chambers of commerce and regional government associations.

But local opposition here is surprisingly strong. The town council in Rifle and other communities, hunters and recreational users who treasure the Roan as an unspoiled preserve fear the Bush administration will ignore their concerns when it proposes a plan for the Roan in the next few weeks.

"I'm not sure I would be able to find someone who is 100% enthusiastic unless you talk to industry people," Rifle Mayor Keith Lambert says.

The Republican Bush administration has reversed many of the conservation policies of President Clinton's Democratic administration to side with those who want to expand the commercial use of publicly owned forests, rangeland, parks and water resources.

Both the Clinton and Bush approaches have caused controversy in the West, where public land is a source of livelihood and a recreational backyard for many residents. The federal government owns nearly half of the land in the eight non-coastal Western states.

A generation ago, the federal government's massive oil shale project was to be developed on the Roan, with predictions that huge quantities of oil would be extracted by crushing and cooking the plateau's shale.

This part of Colorado's western slope began to boom. But on May 2, 1982 -- known as Black Sunday -- the project collapsed because of technical hurdles and falling oil prices.

Overnight, Rifle and other nearby communities plunged into an economic tailspin that lasted for years as workers fled and the real estate market collapsed.

Here and in many parts of the West today, another energy boom is building, pushed by an administration determined to expand oil and gas drilling to help make America less dependent on foreign sources. Unlike the Clinton administration, it is seeking development of sensitive areas such as Montana's Rocky Mountain Front and Wyoming's Jack Morrow Hills.

Here in Colorado's Garfield County, energy companies insist that they can drill the Roan Plateau while protecting wildlife, and they promise to reclaim the land when they're done in 20 years or so.

"We work hard to minimize the disturbance," says David Cesark, an environmental specialist with Williams, one of two big energy companies operating near the Roan. "We believe there can be some natural gas development on top of the Roan Plateau, and there needs to be to meet America's huge appetite for energy."

The money that flows from Garfield County's 1,800 existing wells provides major benefits to residents. More than a quarter of the county's property tax revenue comes from gas companies. The county's share of state and federal severance taxes and royalties has provided $2.7 million for two new schools and more than $1.1 million toward a local college and fire and water districts.

"We profit from the industry, but the message I'm trying to send is, how do we develop it?" says Dan Richardson, one of seven members of the Glenwood Springs City Council who voted unanimously to oppose drilling on top of the Roan. "The energy hawks in D.C. say it's all or nothing."

See the full article by Tom Kenworthy, www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-03-04-colo-land_x.htm

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All Eyes Are on Maine's New Universal Care System

States around the nation are watching as Maine's new, universal health care system, Dirigo, swings into action this summer, reports the Associated Press.

"No other state currently has as far reaching a plan as Maine," said Howard Berliner, a health policy professor at the New School University in New York.

The private-public partnership plans to insure 31,000 people this summer and cover the remainder of Maine’s 130,000 uninsured by 2009. The program will be funded by subsidized premiums paid by employers and employees, and by expansion of the state's Medicaid program, though other revenue sources are needed.

Maine's Democratic Governor John Baldacci is counting on the plan to stimulate free-market competition. The state is "in a financial crisis largely due to health care," said Bangor businessperson David White, who is on a Dirigo advisory board. White gave up pay for six months to maintain the health coverage of his three employees. Jay Wolfson, professor of public health and medicine at the University of South Florida said, "Making something like this work anywhere is an experiment. And we will all learn in the process."

For more information on Maine's insurance efforts visit www.maine.gov/governor/baldacci/healthpolicy

For the full article by Glen Adams, visit,  www.CoverTheUninsuredWeek.org, Glenn Adams, 2.27.2004

 

Resources and Tools

Office of Smart Growth Issues Model Water-Efficient Landscaping Ordinance and Best Practices Manual

The Office of Smart Growth in the Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) has issued a new Water-Efficient Landscape Design model ordinance and best practices manual to assist local communities in their efforts to encourage the use of drought-tolerant landscaping.  The model landscaping ordinance and best practices manual were developed as part of a DOLA Colorado Heritage Planning Grant to the municipalities of Lafayette and Erie.  

Water-Efficient Landscape Design provides municipalities and counties with a template for incorporating drought-tolerant landscaping (also known as “xeriscaping”) into their design codes.  This ordinance was produced in conjunction with the development of the City of Lafayette’s landscape design code. 

The companion document to the model landscape ordinance is the WaterWise Landscaping Best Practices Manual.  The manual includes tips on irrigation and drainage design techniques, soil preparation, water budgeting and a list of drought-tolerant plants, shrubs and trees.

The model landscape ordinance and best practices manual can be obtained from the Office of Smart Growth website at www.dola.state.co.us/smartgrowth or by calling 303.866.4552.

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Does Growth "Pay for Itself" through increased revenue or decreased costs per person? An Analysis of the City of Colorado Springs, 1980-2000.

For a free PDF copy of the report visit http://web.uccs.edu/ccps/

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Matching the Scenery: Journalism’s Duty to the North American West

Most daily newspapers in the American West are neglecting the region's "big story" of growth and development, according to an Institutes Journalism & Natural Resources (IJNR) report that was released on September 14.

The 135-page report, "Matching the Scenery: Journalism's Duty to the North American West," was based on a two-year study of Western newspapers by IJNR's Wallace Stegner Initiative. It examines causes and consequences of the widespread neglect of the West's major evolving story—the struggle with profound environmental changes spurred by growth and development.

Visit www.ijnr.org/wsi/index.html to read the full report.  A summary is available in the Institute's recent newsletter, www.ijnr.org/newsletter/

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Colorado Center for Healthy Communities
A Healthy Mountain Communities Project
P.O. 1582, Carbondale, CO 81623
info@coloradocenter.org / 970.963.5502 / www.coloradocenter.org