It's a brave new web address for HMC as well as new resources online. Our new web location is www.hmcnews.org. It's shorter and easier to remember. Email stays almost the same - claird@rof.net continues unchaged, but add hmclaird@hmcnews.org to your address book. As for the new resources online, they include:

• Growth Scenarios Project
  There is a lot of growth occurring in the region - from retail to gas development. We're trying to create a resource page of all the studies and reports aimed at understanding what is happening in the region. Learn more >>
• SIRFI Initiative
  After a number of months fostering dialogue, the Aspen to Parachute region Supporting Immigrant and Refugee Families Initiative (SIRFI) begins work on a number of goals focused on building relationships between immigrant and community members. Learn more >>
• State of the Valley 2006
  Speakers Luther Propst of Sonoran Institute, Tim Watkins of Envision Utah, and Ford Frick of BBC Research. Learn more >>
• Watershed Collaborative Water Committee
  Under the leadership of the Roaring Fork Conservancy, Pitkin County, and USFS, an ongoing set of "Water Issues" has brought together key agencies, conservation groups and others to look at water quality and water quantity issues in the region. The Water Committee is part of the larger Watershed Collaborative. Learn more>>

The Town of Vail is moving forward with a plan to provide wireless Internet access in Vail Village and Lionshead. Free access would be available on benches, in parks and near windows in buildings.

The move is intended to provide limited, free service for guests and may also offer inexpensive service for local residents and businesses.

The town is looking to select a company to install, operate and maintain the system. The town would lease space for the company to put its equipment. The cost for the installation of the network is between $150,000 and $250,000.

Installing wireless means keeping competitive with other ski resorts. Whistler, British Columbia, and Mammoth Mountain in California have wireless.

Several governments in Colorado are already involved in wireless service, including: Denver, Aurora, Routt County, Steamboat Springs, Canon City, Boulder, Colorado Springs, Glenwood Springs, Pueblo, and Summit County.

After a few years of economic stagnation resulting from tough new rules on development and the lingering hangover from 9/11, Basalt is booming again.

The new year has started with a bang, with four major development projects under government review in the town of nearly 3,000 people.

• A 54-unit, 48,000-square-foot condominium-hotel project received approval from the Town Council on Jan. 24.
• The proposed expansion of the private Roaring Fork Club golf course and high-end residential project.
• The Stott's Mill project would add 28 multifamily apartments or townhouses; between 54 and 74 single-family homes of between 2,200 and 2,700 square feet; and seven single-family homes on larger lots. The project will also include a 3,000-square- foot "corner store" designed to serve the neighborhood with groceries and other essentials.
• Sopris Chase proposal, on the downvalley side of Basalt High School, would include 73 single-family homes and condominiums and replacement housing.

The developments coincide with a 14 percent growth in sales tax revenues last year. The town collected $2.01 million in sales tax revenues in 2005, compared with $1.77 million in 2004.

Buoyed at least in part by a switch to free service, Ride Glenwood Springs saw a 43 percent boost in passengers in 2005.

Ridership numbers more than doubled the last two months of the year, compared to November and December of 2004.

The increases follow a decision by City Council early in the year to eliminate fares, increase route frequency and reduce the coverage area to the core parts of town. Total ridership in 2005 was more than 210,000, compared to 146,361 the previous year. In December, 24,274 took the in-town bus, up from 11,277 in the same month a year earlier.

Early last year, City Council decided to make Ride Glenwood Springs free, discontinue service to the residential portion of south Glenwood Springs, concentrate on service to the main corridors and increase route frequency to every 20 minutes.

An agreement to lease mineral rights held by the City of Rifle to Antero Resources Corporation could mean money to fund a new wastewater treatment plant — lessening the financial impact to city residents.

The Rifle City Council members recently considered entering into an agreement with Antero Resources Corporation to lease about 122 mineral acres under the Garfield County Airport site and 17 mineral acres near Beaver Creek, under the old city landfill, where the city’s water treatment plant and the south wastewater treatment plant is located.

In return the city would receive a total signing bonus of more than $198,000 plus 20 percent in royalties on gas from the leases.

Such revenue would help offset the costs of constructing a new wastewater treatment plant within the next several years at a cost estimated at between $8-$10 million.

Sunlight Mountain Resort, just southwest of Glenwood Springs, is for sale and the potential for change to the small ski area and the surrounding area is enormous.

Sunlight sits up a windy, close to capacity, two-lane road outside of town. It is one of Colorado's most affordable ski areas, with daily lift tickets that cost $39 this winter, compared with $78 at nearby resorts like Aspen.

Although a rural valley, the land at Sunlight's base is zoned for up to 780 residential units and a retail village (small Snowmass Village anyone?). An adjacent 1,317-acre parcel is also for sale, along with water rights for substantial development.

Sunlight also holds U.S. Forest Service permits that would allow it to add 2,000-plus acres of skiable terrain.

The ski area has been owned by a group of 32 investors since 1992. They decided last fall to sell the property instead of investing the more than $10 million needed to update its infrastructure. The listing price is $50 million.

The last official land rush in the U.S. took place in Oklahoma in 1893, but the tradition lives, albeit in a more organized fashion, in some western communities.

175 people recently submitted applications to be one of seven lot owners in Aspen-Pitkin County Housing Authority's upcoming lottery. Five resident-occupied lots are priced at $150,000 and two are are priced at $119,400. Lot buyers can begin construction in July. Houses may be up to 2,200 square feet, plus a 500- square-foot garage. Construction costs for each of the five resident-occupied lots cannot exceed $640,000, and costs for the Category 6 lots are capped at $428,100.

The 2003 median sales price for home in Aspen in 2003 was $3.18 million.

The recommendations made by the Economic Roadmap Group in December have generated much discussion at Carbondale Trustee meetings over the last few months.

At their February 14th meeting, trustees voted to move on a number of the recommendations including:

• Asking staff to draft language for a 60,000- square-foot cap on building sizes for consideration by the town's Planning and Zoning Commission.
• Forming a blue ribbon committee to investigate other sources of revenue for the town, like increases in property taxes, sales taxes and fees, to pay for a list of proposed capital improvement projects.
• Moving forward with a land trade with the Re-1 school district and the Carbondale Council on Arts and Humanities to acquire the Carbondale Elementary School property.

The town is also continuing to negotiate toward a design charrette for the Crystal River Marketplace property with developer Brian Huster.

The RMG document available on-line at www.carbondalegov.org.

Pitkin County officials are leaning toward restrictions on monster homes by tentatively agreeing to limit mansions to 15,000 square feet.

The decision came at the land-use code revision meeting between the Board of County Commissioners and the Planning and Zoning Commission, and means that the construction of compounds the size of Saudi Arabian Prince Bandar's 55,000-square-foot palace will be forbidden once the new law takes effect later this year.

According to Community Development Director, Cindy Houben, one to two submittals are made annually for homes exceeding 15,000 square feet, which is roughly the size of the Pitkin County Courthouse.

The maximum square footage permitted for a home in Pitkin County, precluding the purchase of transferable development rights (TDRs) or meeting growth management requirements, is 5,750 square feet. Before the revision adoption, there was no cap on the size of a house.

The land-use code revision is an ongoing process between the BOCC and Planning Commission in an effort to update current code.

Revision meetings will continue into March, and dates and times can be found on the county Web site at www.aspenpitkin.com.

Many locals know the challenges of finding an affordable home in the Roaring Fork Valley. Now it looks like the traditional stock of affordable housing in the Colorado Valley is in short supply as well. Houses less than $200,000 are sparse at best in Rifle, Parachute and Battlement Mesa, and it's rare for those homes to be on the market more than a week.

Garfield County is close to completing a housing needs assessment that will offer more details on the housing market in the county and examine options for fostering affordable housing.

Each year, the Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute puts on the largest land use law conference in the United States.

The 2006 conference includes speakers such as Dr. Patrick Gregory Moore, co-founder of Greenpeace; Dick Lamm, former Governor of Colorado; and, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Dean of the University of Miami School of Planning and a Principle of the New Urbanist planning firm Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ).

A moose is on the loose in Garfield County - again.

Given the number of sightings in the area recently, either moose like what they see in the county or someone is giving them muffins. The most recent moose sighting is of an animal that is part of the population reintroduced to the Grand Mesa (hence yellow tag with number 12 on its ear). The reintroduction program began early last year.