The State of the Valley News is a periodic newsletter from
Healthy Mountain Communities and the
Watershed Collaborative. Valley News contains information on
initiatives, trends, ideas, and events impacting the Roaring Fork and
Colorado River Valleys.
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Happy Thanksgiving! |
All the best to you and your family this holiday season.
-- Healthy Mountain Communities
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Coming soon ... thousands more homes |
Up and down the Roaring Fork Valley, at least 6,650 homes are
ready to be built, with only minor government review.
In theory, at least, builders and developers could decide
tomorrow to exercise their rights and break ground on all of these
homes. All they would have to do is go to their respective
building departments in Garfield, Eagle or Pitkin counties.
It's an impressive number, but it doesn't account for the job
growth expected over the next two decades in the region.
Within the next 25 years, according to planners, growth
pressures from the resort economies of Eagle and Pitkin counties
could triple the population of Garfield County, which is
sandwiched between the two growth-generators.
That means Garfield County, with some 50,000 people today,
could balloon to 150,000 by the year 2030, if current trends
continue unabated.
In the same time frame, Pitkin County is expected to grow from
16,000 to as many as 26,000, while Eagle County is predicted to
increase from 48,000 today to as high as 88,000 by 2030.
The numbers come from The Watershed Collaborative, an ongoing
cooperative planning effort by the three counties, the
Healthy Mountain Communities organization and the
Colorado State Demographer's office.
The a copy of the report is available online at
http://www.hmccolorado.org/watershedcollaborative. htm.
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Garfield County Socio-Economic Study gets underway |
A major Socioeconomic Impact Study is just getting underway that
will look at growth and development issues in the region and
fiscal impacts on jurisdictions within Garfield County.
The study is being overseen under the auspices of the County's
Energy Advisory Board.
The contract award was recently let to
BBC Research & Consulting, a Denver based economic and
planning firm that has a long track record of work in the region.
Steve Mullen, from
Foresee Consulting and a mapping/visualization expert and Mark
Chain, who until recently was the Director of the Carbondale
Planning Department, will join the BBC team for this effort.
The study will review growth numbers recently developed in a
Watershed Collaborative effort between Eagle, Garfield and
Pitkin County and take that process to the next step of projecting
sub-area allocations.
The study will result in a model that can be used by local
jurisdictions for forecasting, and predicting fiscal impacts
looking at revenue and expenditures. "We want this to be a shared
tool, that's relatively easy to use and replicate. We also want it
to be capable of plugging in anyone's future oil shale scenario,
and booms and busts whether in gas, tourism or second home
development! It should be valuable for a broad range of users,
including planners, managers, developers and industry," said Long
Range Planner Randy Russell.
Principle County contact for this study is Jesse Smith,
Assistant County Administrator who will head up this effort for
Garfield County in the interim, as the county's Oil and Gas
Auditor, Doug Dennison, has left to take a position with
Occidental Oil in Grand Junction. Charles McClean from Denver
Research Group, Inc. and Randy Russell, Long Range Planner, will
provide technical assistance.
Garfield County hopes to have Dennison's position filled in
January. Representatives on the Technical Advisory Board are in
place for Eagle, Pitkin and Rio Blanco Counties to ensure a
regional perspective and connectivity. First phases of this study
are anticipated to take 9 months.
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Valley town managers predict booming economy for area |
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Town managers in the Roaring Fork Valley are optimistic the future
can hold only tremendous prosperity, as sales tax revenue
completes its rebound from the recession that followed the Sept.
11, 2001, attacks.
The valley's five town managers voiced their confidence at the
Carbondale Chamber of Commerce Annual Business Conference this
month.
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Eagle County citizens appoint Charter Commission |
By a 4,075 to 3,850 vote, local residents agreed to form a
commission that will draft a new charter for the county. That
charter must pass another election to become law.
Supporters have said a home rule charter could increase the
number of county commissioners and create specific voting
districts those commissioners would represent, giving a more
effective voice to residents.
Some county positions -- such as sheriff and assessor -- could
become appointed rather than elected. Opponents have said that
could create the possibility of political patronage jobs. They
also said more commissioners on a board doesn’t necessarily mean
better decisions would be made.
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Final Draft of the 2005 Eagle County Comp Plan Online |
The Eagle County Planning Commission and the Roaring Fork
Valley Regional Planning Commission have recently completed their
final review and edit of the soon-to-be-adopted 2005 Comprehensive
Plan. Upon adoption, this plan will replace Eagle County's 1996
Master Plan. The new Comprehensive Plan incorporates many exiting
Master Plan policies, and introduces a variety of new policies and
strategies that reflect current data and current public sentiment.
Eagle County Planning Commission will consider the final
adoption of the Comprehensive Plan on December 7, 2005.
To provide comment, or for further information, please call
Cliff Simonton, Senior Planner, at (970) 328-8751 or send an email
to compplan@eaglecounty.us
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Workers in short supply in a hot economy |
The Western Slope oil and gas boom, coupled with surges in the
region's retail development and construction markets, has left
many Roaring Fork Valley employers desperate for help.
Businesses have cut days and hours of operation, boosted pay
and offered signing bonuses to manage in the near term, but
several regional officials say the situation is the start of a
long-term problem that must be addressed with additional
affordable housing and guest-worker visas.
At the new Glenwood Meadows big-box development, Target, Petco
and Lowe's, which employ more than 300 people, are all up and
running. A manager at Target said there had been fewer applicants
than expected and that workers had to be drafted from the Grand
Junction store for the local opening.
Creating further worker demand is the region's energy boom. A
record number of new drilling permits have been issued this year
in Garfield County, and demand is high for mechanics and rig
workers.
After the resignations of several employees, including drivers
and mechanics, the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority board
last week approved a 4 percent cost-of-living increase and
reinstated several perks, including signing bonuses.
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Zoned Out: Regulation, Markets, & Choices in Transportation & Land
Use |
In Zoned Out, Jonathan Levine argues that the debate about
transportation and land-use planning in the United States has been
distorted by a myth--the myth that urban sprawl is the result of a
free market.
According to this myth, low-density, auto-dependent development
dominates U.S. metropolitan areas simply because that is what
Americans prefer.
Professor Levine confronts the free market myth by pointing out
that land development is already one of the most regulated sectors
of the U.S. economy. Noting that local governments use their
regulatory powers to lower densities, segregate different types of
land uses, and mandate large roadways and parking lots, he argues
that the design template for urban sprawl is written into the
land-use regulations of thousands of municipalities nationwide.
These regulations and the skewed thinking that underlies current
debate mean that policy innovation, market forces, and the
compact-development alternatives they might produce are often
"zoned out" of metropolitan areas.
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New Partners fro Smart Growth, Jan. 26-28, Denver |
The New Partners for Smart Growth Conference is the "premier"
smart growth conference held each year. The strength of this
conference comes from the variety of participants and speakers who
cross disciplines to share experiences and insights, and valuable
tools and strategies to encourage smart growth implementation and
"get it done."
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AVLT to host Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts' conference |
Aspen Valley Land Trust will host the Colorado Coalition of Land
Trusts' winter conference February 27 and 28 at the Hotel Colorado
in Glenwood Springs.
The first day of the conference will include a tour of oil and
gas development in the Silt and Rifle area, followed by sessions
on conserving land in regions with oil and gas potential. The
second day will be devoted to water issues and how to assure that
water is available to preserve conservation values on conserved
properties.
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Population Projections Interim Report Online |
The Growth Scenarios Project grew of the work of the
Watershed Collaborative to better understand how the region
will grow in the coming decades. The Project was formed by local
planning staff to review and update or revise the population
forecasts for Eagle, Garfield, and Pitkin Counties and consider
the implications of county forecasts for sub- areas within the
region.
At a mid-point in the project, Garfield County chose to
undertake a larger Socio-Economic Impact Study to address many of
these issues in greater detail (see associated story). As a
result, the Growth Scenarios Project chose to limit itself to the
preparation of an initial set of population forecasts for each
county.
This Report represents that interim work, and stands as a
Working Report until further refined.
Read the report . . . |
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