OURAY — Ouray County is seeking nearly $16 million in federal stimulus funds to reconstruct and pave County Road 1 over Log Hill Mesa and connecting roads to Highway 62 west of Ridgway.
The Board of County Commis-sioners on Monday approved the final version of a Tiger Grant application, made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, following its review during a special meeting on Sept. 8. The grant application was due Sept. 15.
The proposed 15-mile project would upgrade County Roads 1 from Colona over Log Hill Mesa and CR24 and CR 24-D through the east end of Pleasant Valley. County commissioners conceded after last week’s review that the project could make the route a bypass of Ridgway by funneling traffic off Highways 550 and 62.
“This will be a more efficient bypass road," said Commissioner Keith Meinert last week. But, Meinert noted, issues of speed limits, signage, weight limits and traffic enforcement need to be addressed. “I may lean toward favoring it when these questions are answered. People will need to know what the implications are.”
BOCC Chairman Heidi Albritton said last week that the BOCC will fully field public comment to see if county residents “have the political will” for the project, should funding be obtained.
On Monday, Albritton complimented county staff, in particular Administrator Connie Hunt, for putting the grant application together so quickly and so professionally. Albritton said she knows the project may stir controversy.
“But I feel as elected officials it’s important for us to examine all options that will help the community,” said Albritton.
Meinert echoed Albritton’s comments. “I want to assure the public that it can air any concerns,” said Meinert. “We will hold a public forum … if we get this grant. We are not making a commitment today.”
The grant application cites a potential benefit of creating a more convenient and shorter route (by nearly four miles) than the 19-plus miles on the Highway 550 and Highway 62 corridor through Ouray County.
Other benefits include improving safety for school buses and emergency response vehicles, winter travel and by reducing the number of vehicles that use Highway 62 through Ridgway for commuter or delivery travel between Montrose and Telluride; reducing dependence on oil and gas by providing an alternate route that is about 20% shorter; and enhancing air quality by reducing vehicle emissions and particulate matter from (gravel road) dust and the road-surface placement of sand during winter.
“It was a huge project pulling this together,” said Albritton. “It (the application packet) is really well thought out and pulls the picture together. We have a lot of good information to share at a public forum.”
A complete digital copy of the grant application is available at the Ouray County website: www.ouraycountyco.gov/
— By Patrick Davarn, news editor
Friday, September 18, 2009
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Telluride Property and Water
Written by: Allan Best - Ouray County Watch
Posted by: Erin Eddy
www.ridgwayland.com
www.ourayland.com
With demographers forecasting 35 percent more people in Colorado by 2035 and climate scientists predicting 15 percent less water available in the Colorado River Basin by mid-century, something has to give.
More and more, public officials, business groups and environmental organizations have been talking about additional dams and reservoirs to augment those built in the mid-20th century.
“The water inheritance is running out,” said Josh Penry, the minority leader in the Colorado Senate, in a speech at the summer meeting of the Colorado Water Congress, a consortium of water providers. “Colorado needs to embark on a new round” of storage construction.
“We study too much. We analyze too much,” added Penry, who is from Grand Junction and a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor.
Representatives of environmental groups concede the need for additional storage but also call for restraint.
“There are projects that have significant adverse environmental impact that we could not support,” said Melinda Kassen, managing director of the Western Water Project for Trout Unlimited. “And there are projects that have substantially fewer environmental impacts that we can support,” she said, if mitigation measures are included.
Hovering over these conversations is the ghost of Wayne Aspinall. A onetime schoolteacher and lawyer from the fruit orchards of Palisade, Aspinall possessed neither good looks nor a good speaking voice. He did have a solid command of legislative techniques, however, and an ardent belief in the need to harness and regulate the rivers of the Rockies.
Serving in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1949 to 1973, Aspinall helped obtain authorization and federal funding for a series of major dams in the upper Colorado River Basin. Utah’s Lake Powell was the most massive, but a trio of reservoirs on the Gunnison River also resulted from his legislative perseverance. Today, they are collectively designed as the Aspinall Unit.
Growing populations
But if Westerners saw the yoking of rivers into submission as the major task of the mid-20th century, today a more nuanced challenge exists. The limits of abundance have become more apparent.
Most, if not all, of the best dam sites have been taken. Few reliable water supplies remain unclaimed, and those that are unclaimed, such as on the Yampa River of northwestern Colorado, are far from population centers.
Coloradans in the future, as is already the case, can be expected to congregate along the urbanized Front Range corridor. More than three-quarters of the state’s residents currently live in a narrow swath less than 200 miles long. The State Demography Office projects that the population, now at 5 million, by 2035 will nudge 7.8 million – an increase roughly the existing size of metropolitan Denver-Boulder.
Even more staggering population growth has been projected by 2035 for what is called the Colorado River system, an area that includes Denver, Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. The existing population of 24 to 30 million people will have grown by another 12 to 15 million. Imagine Las Vegas 11 times over.
In contrast to this uphill population climb, climate scientists see a downward slope for water. Temperature is the major driver.
Computerized simulations differ substantially as to whether precipitation will increase or decrease. Further, existing precipitation patterns could change, as increased planetary heat alters flow of the jet stream. In other words, changes in Vail and Telluride might not be uniform.
There’s more certainty about increased heat. Rising temperatures will produce shorter winters, more evaporation and transpiration, and a substantial reduction of total flows in the Colorado River. Scientists in the last two years have settled on a 15 percent reduction as a central figure.
“We are expecting a 39 percent increase in population and, if you want an average, a 15 percent reduction in supplies,” said Taylor Hawes, of The Nature Conservancy, describing the seven-state Colorado River Basin.
“By most standards, that’s a crisis.”
Managing uncertainty
Further confusing water planning is the prospect of drought. Colorado had several significant droughts in the 20th century, but all are overshadowed the mega-droughts of the distant past. Study of tree rings across the Southwest conducted by Connie Woodhouse of Arizona State University and other dendrochronologists shows clear evidence of extended drought periods, from roughly 1,000 years ago, that lasted up to three decades.
The parched summer of 2002, a time of roaring wildfires near Denver, Durango and Glenwood Springs, caught water managers by surprise. Levels in Lake Powell dropped precipitously in 2003, and by late 2004 had left bathtub rings two-thirds below the high-water mark. Many wondered if the reservoir might actually drop to a dead pool, unable to generate any electricity.
Along Colorado’s Front Range, the situation looked equally bleak. Had it not been for a miraculously wet and heavy snowstorm in March 2003, cities and farmers might have faced another withering summer, hot and dry.
Water managers broadly embrace the theory of human-caused global warming. Their meetings for the last several years have focused on the sharp warnings coming from climate scientists.
“The science is all basically painting in the same direction,” says Eric Kuhn, general manager of the Colorado River Water Conservation District.
But if the all signs point toward hotter and drier, great uncertainty remains. Faced with that uncertain hydrological future, Marc Waage, manager of water resources planning for Denver Water, says he has been “scratching my head for the last two years” about how to create a long-range water plan.
Before, water planning was a lot easier. There was always population growth, of course, but planners assumed a worst-case scenario that resembled a previous drought. Colorado’s documented worst drought came in the mid-1950s – about the time that Wayne Aspinall was proposing to dam the Gunnison, San Juan, and Green rivers.
Now, water planners realize much more serious droughts are possible and that even the average amounts of water will be less. Runoff will occur weeks and perhaps months earlier, leading to much longer, hotter and drier summers. Combined with population growth, all this suggests that the existing water infrastructure may be inadequate.
The elephant of Colorado
Colorado’s big question mark remains the urban Front Range corridor, especially Denver’s southern suburbs that overwhelmingly rely upon underground water that has become steadily more difficult to extract.
Prairie Waters Project, a major new diversion project to be completed in 2011, will draw water from the South Platte near Brighton several dozen miles south for use in Aurora, located on the eastern flanks of Denver. Short as the pipeline is, this project is expected to cost nearly $700 million.
Far more ambitious projects have been conceived. The most spectacular, proposed by former Montrose farmer Aaron Million, would draw water from the Green River near Rock Springs, Wyo., piping it along Interstate 80 and then down to the Front Range.
More recently, a rival plan employing the same idea has begun to emerge from a consortium of water providers in Denver’s southern suburbs.
Another so-called big straw would draw water from the Yampa River west of Craig. That idea comes from the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, the agency responsible for the Colorado Big Thompson project. The project, which takes water from Grand Lake to Estes Park, was described by Telluride native and historian David Lavender as a “massive violation of geography.”
These big straws have mostly been painted as saviors of agriculture. The thinking is that without further Western Slope diversions, the cities will end up buying farms for water.
But does the water exist?
Whether Colorado actually has sufficient water under the treaty apportioning the Colorado River Compact is open for debate. Kuhn, for example, has long suggested that Colorado has no more than a few hundred-thousand acre-feet of unallocated water. A study to be completed later this year by the Colorado River Water Board will, it is hoped, answer with greater certainty just how close Colorado is to the last drop.
Another set of studies will attempt to push the science of climate change even more rigorously. Tapping the expertise of scientists assembled in the federal laboratories at Boulder, these studies, it is hoped, will provide a better idea of how much water may exist in a hotter and drier future.
The focus naturally is on the Western Slope, where three-quarters of Colorado’s water originates, mostly in the form of snow. The studies will also attempt to predict how much precipitation regimes will change between basins – the San Juan, for example, as distinct from the Eagle.
While this gets sorted out, parallel roundtable discussions have been occurring regarding the state’s major river basins. The intent of these roundtables is to reach some larger consensus about water allocations, perhaps similar to the compacts that govern the Colorado River now.
Friction
If the roundtables have improved dialogue, tempers have occasionally flared. Disagreement was evident in one exchange at last month’s meeting of the Colorado Water Congress. Pitkin County Commissioner Rachael Richards complained that Western Slope water had not been given its due in generating revenue in Colorado’s second largest economic, tourism and recreation.
She got pushback from Rodney Kuharich, director South Metro Water Supply Authority. Aspen, he observed, seemed to have done quite well despite the diversion of waters from the Roaring Fork River and its tributaries that began decades ago. Resorts on the Western Slope, he said, have benefited handsomely from customers drawn from along the Front Range.
As for additional storage, future reservoirs will likely be smaller but perhaps at higher-elevation locations, to minimize evaporation. But whereas the reservoirs of Aspinall’s day were all about commerce, today they will be judged against a greater matrix of considerations.
The Nature Conservancy’s Hawes said her group believes that decisions about storage should be guided by multiple uses, “so that the environmental is part of the planning and not an afterthought.”
Posted by: Erin Eddy
www.ridgwayland.com
www.ourayland.com
With demographers forecasting 35 percent more people in Colorado by 2035 and climate scientists predicting 15 percent less water available in the Colorado River Basin by mid-century, something has to give.
More and more, public officials, business groups and environmental organizations have been talking about additional dams and reservoirs to augment those built in the mid-20th century.
“The water inheritance is running out,” said Josh Penry, the minority leader in the Colorado Senate, in a speech at the summer meeting of the Colorado Water Congress, a consortium of water providers. “Colorado needs to embark on a new round” of storage construction.
“We study too much. We analyze too much,” added Penry, who is from Grand Junction and a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor.
Representatives of environmental groups concede the need for additional storage but also call for restraint.
“There are projects that have significant adverse environmental impact that we could not support,” said Melinda Kassen, managing director of the Western Water Project for Trout Unlimited. “And there are projects that have substantially fewer environmental impacts that we can support,” she said, if mitigation measures are included.
Hovering over these conversations is the ghost of Wayne Aspinall. A onetime schoolteacher and lawyer from the fruit orchards of Palisade, Aspinall possessed neither good looks nor a good speaking voice. He did have a solid command of legislative techniques, however, and an ardent belief in the need to harness and regulate the rivers of the Rockies.
Serving in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1949 to 1973, Aspinall helped obtain authorization and federal funding for a series of major dams in the upper Colorado River Basin. Utah’s Lake Powell was the most massive, but a trio of reservoirs on the Gunnison River also resulted from his legislative perseverance. Today, they are collectively designed as the Aspinall Unit.
Growing populations
But if Westerners saw the yoking of rivers into submission as the major task of the mid-20th century, today a more nuanced challenge exists. The limits of abundance have become more apparent.
Most, if not all, of the best dam sites have been taken. Few reliable water supplies remain unclaimed, and those that are unclaimed, such as on the Yampa River of northwestern Colorado, are far from population centers.
Coloradans in the future, as is already the case, can be expected to congregate along the urbanized Front Range corridor. More than three-quarters of the state’s residents currently live in a narrow swath less than 200 miles long. The State Demography Office projects that the population, now at 5 million, by 2035 will nudge 7.8 million – an increase roughly the existing size of metropolitan Denver-Boulder.
Even more staggering population growth has been projected by 2035 for what is called the Colorado River system, an area that includes Denver, Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. The existing population of 24 to 30 million people will have grown by another 12 to 15 million. Imagine Las Vegas 11 times over.
In contrast to this uphill population climb, climate scientists see a downward slope for water. Temperature is the major driver.
Computerized simulations differ substantially as to whether precipitation will increase or decrease. Further, existing precipitation patterns could change, as increased planetary heat alters flow of the jet stream. In other words, changes in Vail and Telluride might not be uniform.
There’s more certainty about increased heat. Rising temperatures will produce shorter winters, more evaporation and transpiration, and a substantial reduction of total flows in the Colorado River. Scientists in the last two years have settled on a 15 percent reduction as a central figure.
“We are expecting a 39 percent increase in population and, if you want an average, a 15 percent reduction in supplies,” said Taylor Hawes, of The Nature Conservancy, describing the seven-state Colorado River Basin.
“By most standards, that’s a crisis.”
Managing uncertainty
Further confusing water planning is the prospect of drought. Colorado had several significant droughts in the 20th century, but all are overshadowed the mega-droughts of the distant past. Study of tree rings across the Southwest conducted by Connie Woodhouse of Arizona State University and other dendrochronologists shows clear evidence of extended drought periods, from roughly 1,000 years ago, that lasted up to three decades.
The parched summer of 2002, a time of roaring wildfires near Denver, Durango and Glenwood Springs, caught water managers by surprise. Levels in Lake Powell dropped precipitously in 2003, and by late 2004 had left bathtub rings two-thirds below the high-water mark. Many wondered if the reservoir might actually drop to a dead pool, unable to generate any electricity.
Along Colorado’s Front Range, the situation looked equally bleak. Had it not been for a miraculously wet and heavy snowstorm in March 2003, cities and farmers might have faced another withering summer, hot and dry.
Water managers broadly embrace the theory of human-caused global warming. Their meetings for the last several years have focused on the sharp warnings coming from climate scientists.
“The science is all basically painting in the same direction,” says Eric Kuhn, general manager of the Colorado River Water Conservation District.
But if the all signs point toward hotter and drier, great uncertainty remains. Faced with that uncertain hydrological future, Marc Waage, manager of water resources planning for Denver Water, says he has been “scratching my head for the last two years” about how to create a long-range water plan.
Before, water planning was a lot easier. There was always population growth, of course, but planners assumed a worst-case scenario that resembled a previous drought. Colorado’s documented worst drought came in the mid-1950s – about the time that Wayne Aspinall was proposing to dam the Gunnison, San Juan, and Green rivers.
Now, water planners realize much more serious droughts are possible and that even the average amounts of water will be less. Runoff will occur weeks and perhaps months earlier, leading to much longer, hotter and drier summers. Combined with population growth, all this suggests that the existing water infrastructure may be inadequate.
The elephant of Colorado
Colorado’s big question mark remains the urban Front Range corridor, especially Denver’s southern suburbs that overwhelmingly rely upon underground water that has become steadily more difficult to extract.
Prairie Waters Project, a major new diversion project to be completed in 2011, will draw water from the South Platte near Brighton several dozen miles south for use in Aurora, located on the eastern flanks of Denver. Short as the pipeline is, this project is expected to cost nearly $700 million.
Far more ambitious projects have been conceived. The most spectacular, proposed by former Montrose farmer Aaron Million, would draw water from the Green River near Rock Springs, Wyo., piping it along Interstate 80 and then down to the Front Range.
More recently, a rival plan employing the same idea has begun to emerge from a consortium of water providers in Denver’s southern suburbs.
Another so-called big straw would draw water from the Yampa River west of Craig. That idea comes from the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, the agency responsible for the Colorado Big Thompson project. The project, which takes water from Grand Lake to Estes Park, was described by Telluride native and historian David Lavender as a “massive violation of geography.”
These big straws have mostly been painted as saviors of agriculture. The thinking is that without further Western Slope diversions, the cities will end up buying farms for water.
But does the water exist?
Whether Colorado actually has sufficient water under the treaty apportioning the Colorado River Compact is open for debate. Kuhn, for example, has long suggested that Colorado has no more than a few hundred-thousand acre-feet of unallocated water. A study to be completed later this year by the Colorado River Water Board will, it is hoped, answer with greater certainty just how close Colorado is to the last drop.
Another set of studies will attempt to push the science of climate change even more rigorously. Tapping the expertise of scientists assembled in the federal laboratories at Boulder, these studies, it is hoped, will provide a better idea of how much water may exist in a hotter and drier future.
The focus naturally is on the Western Slope, where three-quarters of Colorado’s water originates, mostly in the form of snow. The studies will also attempt to predict how much precipitation regimes will change between basins – the San Juan, for example, as distinct from the Eagle.
While this gets sorted out, parallel roundtable discussions have been occurring regarding the state’s major river basins. The intent of these roundtables is to reach some larger consensus about water allocations, perhaps similar to the compacts that govern the Colorado River now.
Friction
If the roundtables have improved dialogue, tempers have occasionally flared. Disagreement was evident in one exchange at last month’s meeting of the Colorado Water Congress. Pitkin County Commissioner Rachael Richards complained that Western Slope water had not been given its due in generating revenue in Colorado’s second largest economic, tourism and recreation.
She got pushback from Rodney Kuharich, director South Metro Water Supply Authority. Aspen, he observed, seemed to have done quite well despite the diversion of waters from the Roaring Fork River and its tributaries that began decades ago. Resorts on the Western Slope, he said, have benefited handsomely from customers drawn from along the Front Range.
As for additional storage, future reservoirs will likely be smaller but perhaps at higher-elevation locations, to minimize evaporation. But whereas the reservoirs of Aspinall’s day were all about commerce, today they will be judged against a greater matrix of considerations.
The Nature Conservancy’s Hawes said her group believes that decisions about storage should be guided by multiple uses, “so that the environmental is part of the planning and not an afterthought.”
Friday, July 3, 2009
Mining Claims
Posted by: Erin Eddy
www.ourayland.com
www.ridgwayland.com
Panel hears strong pros, cons on proposed Alpine Zone regs
New rules for building home on mining claim parcels in the Alpine Zone need more refinement, according to the county's Planning Commission (OCPC).
A draft of proposed changes to the Land Use Code (LUC) regarding residential development on mining claims and other parcels in the southern end of the county, including creation of a new South Alpine Zone, was tabled by the OCPC following a contentious public hearing on June 18.
Under consideration were modifications and additions to existing zoning regulations and boundaries.
But more than 50 people appeared at the public hearing and at least 22, many of whom own mining claims in the county, spoke in opposition to amending the LUC. Several claimed that language of the proposed regulations was overly broad, constitute an infringement on private property rights and is lacking in protection for miners. Several miners said that the entire document should be scrapped, arguing that their property values will decrease.
"Patented claims are private property. Every person has a right to do what he wants with this property. I don't agree with any of it; we have enough government already. The higher you go the worse it gets," said Ron Williams, who has worked with his son, Ron Jr., in the mining industry for several decades.
Several provisions in the draft document generated criticism from patented mining claim owners - who spoke in solidarity. The 12% maximum limit for the grade of the access road (even though the owner may seek a variance) is too restrictive and arbitrary; the limit of one-half acre for a building footprint should be expanded; the prohibition of construction of a new road or improvements to existing roads on the subject parcel (except where there is no existing access to that property) could impact those who wish to install roads for exploratory drilling; and the maximum, or base allowance, for a house being limited to 2,500 square feet of footprint for the total acreage.
The three principal partners of the Tisdel Law Firm in Ouray - Mike Hockersmith, Mark Howe and Andy Mueller - also were present at the hearing.
Hockersmith said the maximum limit of 7,500 square feet for a home where two or more parcels can be included in the calculation is "a huge issue that ought to be addressed."
Howe, who participated in the workshop discussions as an OCPC member, recused himself at the beginning of the June 18 public hearing due to any apparent conflict of interest. The firm represents some mining parcel owners.
Mueller argued that the regulations are) too cost prohibitive for an applicant. "The cost of studies, site plans and geotechnical prevents someone from being able to afford a house in that zone," he said.
Mueller also said that the standards in the document for items such as site plans, lack specificity and that staff in the county's Land Use Department office would be vested with "too much sole discretion" in their decision-making. He also expressed dismay that fencing restrictions were inappropriate for mining claim properties that have a home situated on it: "Now you're telling owners you can't fence your property. That's not okay."
Eight individuals, including Tammy Randall-Parker, Ouray District Ranger for the U.S. Forest Service, spoke in favor of the proposed mine land regulations. But some recommended that the regulations be made more clear and include other considerations. Randall-Parker suggested that the county add language to clarify snow maintenance; the USFS is in the process of developing regulations to require permits.
Howard Greene, a former OCPC member, said the current draft "neither prevents mining or home construction. In fact, (it is) more permissive than in other counties, allowing larger homes and easier variances. They are not a denial of rights and are not a taking."
A six-month moratorium set by the Board of County Commissioners on the construction of residences on mining claims in Ouray County expires July 26.
The BOCC did not take any action during its June 22 meeting to extend that deadline.
Following last week's hearing the OCPC scheduled another workshop on July 9 to discuss whether or not to rewrite portions of the document.
The OCPC wrote the draft proposals pursuant to a request from the BOCC. A total of six workshops were conducted, beginning 18 months ago.
The BOCC asked that the Planning Commission hold another public hearing regarding the proposals on July 21.
- Story by Christopher Pike, correspondent
www.ourayland.com
www.ridgwayland.com
Panel hears strong pros, cons on proposed Alpine Zone regs
New rules for building home on mining claim parcels in the Alpine Zone need more refinement, according to the county's Planning Commission (OCPC).
A draft of proposed changes to the Land Use Code (LUC) regarding residential development on mining claims and other parcels in the southern end of the county, including creation of a new South Alpine Zone, was tabled by the OCPC following a contentious public hearing on June 18.
Under consideration were modifications and additions to existing zoning regulations and boundaries.
But more than 50 people appeared at the public hearing and at least 22, many of whom own mining claims in the county, spoke in opposition to amending the LUC. Several claimed that language of the proposed regulations was overly broad, constitute an infringement on private property rights and is lacking in protection for miners. Several miners said that the entire document should be scrapped, arguing that their property values will decrease.
"Patented claims are private property. Every person has a right to do what he wants with this property. I don't agree with any of it; we have enough government already. The higher you go the worse it gets," said Ron Williams, who has worked with his son, Ron Jr., in the mining industry for several decades.
Several provisions in the draft document generated criticism from patented mining claim owners - who spoke in solidarity. The 12% maximum limit for the grade of the access road (even though the owner may seek a variance) is too restrictive and arbitrary; the limit of one-half acre for a building footprint should be expanded; the prohibition of construction of a new road or improvements to existing roads on the subject parcel (except where there is no existing access to that property) could impact those who wish to install roads for exploratory drilling; and the maximum, or base allowance, for a house being limited to 2,500 square feet of footprint for the total acreage.
The three principal partners of the Tisdel Law Firm in Ouray - Mike Hockersmith, Mark Howe and Andy Mueller - also were present at the hearing.
Hockersmith said the maximum limit of 7,500 square feet for a home where two or more parcels can be included in the calculation is "a huge issue that ought to be addressed."
Howe, who participated in the workshop discussions as an OCPC member, recused himself at the beginning of the June 18 public hearing due to any apparent conflict of interest. The firm represents some mining parcel owners.
Mueller argued that the regulations are) too cost prohibitive for an applicant. "The cost of studies, site plans and geotechnical prevents someone from being able to afford a house in that zone," he said.
Mueller also said that the standards in the document for items such as site plans, lack specificity and that staff in the county's Land Use Department office would be vested with "too much sole discretion" in their decision-making. He also expressed dismay that fencing restrictions were inappropriate for mining claim properties that have a home situated on it: "Now you're telling owners you can't fence your property. That's not okay."
Eight individuals, including Tammy Randall-Parker, Ouray District Ranger for the U.S. Forest Service, spoke in favor of the proposed mine land regulations. But some recommended that the regulations be made more clear and include other considerations. Randall-Parker suggested that the county add language to clarify snow maintenance; the USFS is in the process of developing regulations to require permits.
Howard Greene, a former OCPC member, said the current draft "neither prevents mining or home construction. In fact, (it is) more permissive than in other counties, allowing larger homes and easier variances. They are not a denial of rights and are not a taking."
A six-month moratorium set by the Board of County Commissioners on the construction of residences on mining claims in Ouray County expires July 26.
The BOCC did not take any action during its June 22 meeting to extend that deadline.
Following last week's hearing the OCPC scheduled another workshop on July 9 to discuss whether or not to rewrite portions of the document.
The OCPC wrote the draft proposals pursuant to a request from the BOCC. A total of six workshops were conducted, beginning 18 months ago.
The BOCC asked that the Planning Commission hold another public hearing regarding the proposals on July 21.
- Story by Christopher Pike, correspondent
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Telluride Real Estate News
See Forever Village Takes New Tack in Marketing Resort Real Estate
by Greta Stetson Jun 25, 2009
Posted by Erin Eddy
www.ourayland.com
Real estate buyers have until August 14 to name their own price on seven pre-furnished luxury residences in Mountain Village. That is, as long as the price they name is $2 million, or more.
The last seven vacant condominiums at See Forever Village at The Peaks are on the market this summer by way of an online bidding system.
See Forever developer John Abrams hopes his “Developer Celebration Sale” will inject some new enthusiasm into the Telluride real estate market and establish a new mechanism for the purchase of resort property.
Just north of The Peaks, See Forever Village is a set of 24 condominiums and four freestanding residences that overlook the Telluride Valley Floor. The units, fully furnished by The Decorator's Unlimited, are also managed by The Peaks, a contract that gives See Forever Village owners access to housekeeping services, maintenance, membership to the Golden Door Spa, and other amenities.
Construction, which was divided into three phases, started on the project in 2002, and units started selling in 2004. Now, to sell the last seven, Abrams is responding to a changed market.
“It's no longer a seller's market,” he says. “It's a buyers market.”
Abrams believes that there are still buyers who would like to own Telluride real estate, but they haven't gotten the push they need: a good deal. Marketing consultant Lynette Hegeman says that, rather than just lowering the price, See Forever's new bidding system allows interested parties to name a price they think is reasonable.
Under the system devised by Abrams and Hegeman, buyers can start making bids online after they submit a $25,000 deposit, which is fully refundable if they don't submit a bid that is accepted. Four of the units' starting bids are $2 million, two of the others start at $2.7 million, and the final one is $2.8 million. The condos range from 2,580 to 3,441 square feet.
Abrams also has also established a maximum price for each of the residences; if a buyer reaches the reserve price, the bidding will stop and they will get the condo immediately. Otherwise, the residences will go to the highest bidder, but even that doesn't guarantee a unit. Just because bidding for a unit starts at $2 million doesn't necessarily mean that Abrams will accept that price.
“John Abrams isn't here to give away units,” he says. “I didn't work this hard to sell these units at a ridiculously low price.”
Abrams adds that he isn't desperate to sell the rest of See Forever; since the units are fully built and his construction loans are paid off, he is not losing money while the condos are vacant. Rather, Abrams wants to sell because that's what developers do.
“My incentive is to turn over units and invest the money in other projects. I'm not in the business of sitting on real estate,” he says. “This is not a distress sale. This is a marketing model.”
Hegeman adds that anyone considering buying luxury real estate could probably afford one of the condos without the sale.
“A lot of [potential buyers] don't have to worry about financing,” Hegeman says.
The difference, now, is that these “smart, savvy” buyers are getting a good deal by being able to choose their price, Hegeman says, and if wealthy potential buyers see a good deal, they'll take it.
And in a low-price market, Abrams knows that buyers won't bite without “all the bells and whistles,” including spacious rooms, furnishings and views.
Abrams entered the real estate market in Mountain Village 15 years ago, when he bought and later sold a penthouse at The Peaks. He went on to build ten homes in Mountain Village and The Lodge at Mountain Village. He started building See Forever Village seven years ago, with the pitch that owners there would be liberated from the chores that go along with owing a single-family home.
“There are a lot of second-home buyers that want the convenience of not having to worry about things like summer yard work and mechanical engineering,” Abrams says. “They simply buy a unit and move in.”
Hegeman suggests that the online bidding model for marketing resort property could help stimulate the slow economy. While many developers have cut back on marketing, Hegeman hopes the Developer's Celebration Sale will make waves beyond See Forever Village.
“Other developments might see some response,” she says. “If we sat around and did nothing, nothing would happen.”
Along with advertising in local media, See Forever Village is offering lodging discounts to any buyers who want to visit Telluride to physically tour one of the units. It's also including local brokers, offering them a four percent commission for any of the seven units they sell.
Early in the sale, two of the seven available units have received bids. Hegeman explains that one reason the sale is summer-long is so potential buyers have time to do their “due diligence,” and research other real-estate opportunities. She adds that the sale, which began Monday, June 15, has received positive feedback from current See Forever residents and past prospective buyers.
Telluride Properties agent Brian O'Neill, who lists condominium units at the Capella Telluride, says that while the online bidding system is not necessarily a new idea, it is a creative one that might turn the market “a little bit.” At the Capella, units range from $850,000 to $7 million and 850 to 4,500 square feet.
“Two-million is a great value for one of those units,” O'Neill says.
To entice buyers, Capella is offering a 20 percent discount on the price of the condominium, a year's worth of free homeowners association dues and other benefits. O'Neill says that numerous guests have expressed interest in buying Capella condos, but that interest doesn't necessarily lead to a sale, especially when buyers think that prices could drop even further.
“I'm worried about people actually buying,” he says. “It takes quite a while for people to believe that we're actually at the bottom.”
Abrams agrees that now is a good time to buy Telluride real estate. Because of the slow economy, new properties are not being developed, so once all the available properties are sold, prices will increase dramatically in the three to five years it takes for developers to bring new inventory on the market. He adds that, in his 15 years of real estate experience, he has seen the market cycle from high to low at least three times.
“Once you see the low-lying fruit taken off the market you'll see prices go up.” Abrams says. “I've seen that the market goes down, corrects, and then goes up even higher.”
For more information on the See Forever Village Developer's Celebration Sale, go to www.seeforevervillage.com.
by Greta Stetson Jun 25, 2009
Posted by Erin Eddy
www.ourayland.com
Real estate buyers have until August 14 to name their own price on seven pre-furnished luxury residences in Mountain Village. That is, as long as the price they name is $2 million, or more.
The last seven vacant condominiums at See Forever Village at The Peaks are on the market this summer by way of an online bidding system.
See Forever developer John Abrams hopes his “Developer Celebration Sale” will inject some new enthusiasm into the Telluride real estate market and establish a new mechanism for the purchase of resort property.
Just north of The Peaks, See Forever Village is a set of 24 condominiums and four freestanding residences that overlook the Telluride Valley Floor. The units, fully furnished by The Decorator's Unlimited, are also managed by The Peaks, a contract that gives See Forever Village owners access to housekeeping services, maintenance, membership to the Golden Door Spa, and other amenities.
Construction, which was divided into three phases, started on the project in 2002, and units started selling in 2004. Now, to sell the last seven, Abrams is responding to a changed market.
“It's no longer a seller's market,” he says. “It's a buyers market.”
Abrams believes that there are still buyers who would like to own Telluride real estate, but they haven't gotten the push they need: a good deal. Marketing consultant Lynette Hegeman says that, rather than just lowering the price, See Forever's new bidding system allows interested parties to name a price they think is reasonable.
Under the system devised by Abrams and Hegeman, buyers can start making bids online after they submit a $25,000 deposit, which is fully refundable if they don't submit a bid that is accepted. Four of the units' starting bids are $2 million, two of the others start at $2.7 million, and the final one is $2.8 million. The condos range from 2,580 to 3,441 square feet.
Abrams also has also established a maximum price for each of the residences; if a buyer reaches the reserve price, the bidding will stop and they will get the condo immediately. Otherwise, the residences will go to the highest bidder, but even that doesn't guarantee a unit. Just because bidding for a unit starts at $2 million doesn't necessarily mean that Abrams will accept that price.
“John Abrams isn't here to give away units,” he says. “I didn't work this hard to sell these units at a ridiculously low price.”
Abrams adds that he isn't desperate to sell the rest of See Forever; since the units are fully built and his construction loans are paid off, he is not losing money while the condos are vacant. Rather, Abrams wants to sell because that's what developers do.
“My incentive is to turn over units and invest the money in other projects. I'm not in the business of sitting on real estate,” he says. “This is not a distress sale. This is a marketing model.”
Hegeman adds that anyone considering buying luxury real estate could probably afford one of the condos without the sale.
“A lot of [potential buyers] don't have to worry about financing,” Hegeman says.
The difference, now, is that these “smart, savvy” buyers are getting a good deal by being able to choose their price, Hegeman says, and if wealthy potential buyers see a good deal, they'll take it.
And in a low-price market, Abrams knows that buyers won't bite without “all the bells and whistles,” including spacious rooms, furnishings and views.
Abrams entered the real estate market in Mountain Village 15 years ago, when he bought and later sold a penthouse at The Peaks. He went on to build ten homes in Mountain Village and The Lodge at Mountain Village. He started building See Forever Village seven years ago, with the pitch that owners there would be liberated from the chores that go along with owing a single-family home.
“There are a lot of second-home buyers that want the convenience of not having to worry about things like summer yard work and mechanical engineering,” Abrams says. “They simply buy a unit and move in.”
Hegeman suggests that the online bidding model for marketing resort property could help stimulate the slow economy. While many developers have cut back on marketing, Hegeman hopes the Developer's Celebration Sale will make waves beyond See Forever Village.
“Other developments might see some response,” she says. “If we sat around and did nothing, nothing would happen.”
Along with advertising in local media, See Forever Village is offering lodging discounts to any buyers who want to visit Telluride to physically tour one of the units. It's also including local brokers, offering them a four percent commission for any of the seven units they sell.
Early in the sale, two of the seven available units have received bids. Hegeman explains that one reason the sale is summer-long is so potential buyers have time to do their “due diligence,” and research other real-estate opportunities. She adds that the sale, which began Monday, June 15, has received positive feedback from current See Forever residents and past prospective buyers.
Telluride Properties agent Brian O'Neill, who lists condominium units at the Capella Telluride, says that while the online bidding system is not necessarily a new idea, it is a creative one that might turn the market “a little bit.” At the Capella, units range from $850,000 to $7 million and 850 to 4,500 square feet.
“Two-million is a great value for one of those units,” O'Neill says.
To entice buyers, Capella is offering a 20 percent discount on the price of the condominium, a year's worth of free homeowners association dues and other benefits. O'Neill says that numerous guests have expressed interest in buying Capella condos, but that interest doesn't necessarily lead to a sale, especially when buyers think that prices could drop even further.
“I'm worried about people actually buying,” he says. “It takes quite a while for people to believe that we're actually at the bottom.”
Abrams agrees that now is a good time to buy Telluride real estate. Because of the slow economy, new properties are not being developed, so once all the available properties are sold, prices will increase dramatically in the three to five years it takes for developers to bring new inventory on the market. He adds that, in his 15 years of real estate experience, he has seen the market cycle from high to low at least three times.
“Once you see the low-lying fruit taken off the market you'll see prices go up.” Abrams says. “I've seen that the market goes down, corrects, and then goes up even higher.”
For more information on the See Forever Village Developer's Celebration Sale, go to www.seeforevervillage.com.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Resort News
In Ski Country
Written by Allen Best - Jun 11, 2009
Ouray County Watch
Posted by Erin Eddy - www.ourayland.com
Steamboat debates merits of ban on real estate signs
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. – Real estate agent Michelle Avery says all real-estate signs should be prohibited by the city’s sign code. “Other resort towns have adopted this ordinance, and I feel strongly that Steamboat should do the same,” she writes in The Steamboat Pilot & Today. “Simply stated, the signs are an eyesore.”
A slew of website bloggers beg to different. One blogger, Ralph Cantafio, contends that outright elimination for aesthetic reasons is simply inappropriate. “Government should be very careful to use only reasonable restrictions,” he writes. Part of his reasoning is that eliminating signs eliminates communication, free communication being a hallmark of a democratic society.
Aspen and T’ride tumble, but not so Jackson Hole
ASPEN, Colo. – Nothing in the numbers being reported in the Aspen area suggest that the economy there has started a comeback. Very much the opposite.
Sales tax collections through the first four months of the year in Aspen were down 20 percent. At nearby Snowmass Village, the drop was more precipitous yet, 30 percent, while real estate transfer tax collections were down 80 percent.
Citing Land Title Guarantee reporting, The Aspen Times says that dollar volume for real estate sales across Pitkin County was off 30 percent compared to 2008 – which ended up being the lowest-volume year since 2004. Down-valley in Garfield County, where the resort economy intersects with the now faltering boom in natural gas drilling, the real estate sales volume was down 80 percent.
In Telluride, the story is the same: sales tax revenues this year have been down 12 to 15 percent, and the real-estate transfer tax at year’s end may total only $750,000, compared to $5 million just two years ago.
Inexplicably, the story in Jackson, Wyo., seems to be different, at least in regard to retail sales, which have been down only 3 percent. Moreover, the Jackson Hole News & Guide reports hope among locals that the economy in Teton County will actually start growing again. Visitation to Yellowstone, after being down for several years, has actually been up 11 percent this year, and at Grand Teton National Park it was even.
What mountain rivers will help Denver grow?
GUNNISON, Colo. – Mountain towns in the Rockies have a symbiotic relationship with Denver and other cities along Colorado’s urbanized, Front Range corridor. It is typically also one of ambivalence
That Front Range corridor already consists of four million people, the single largest source of skiing customers in North America, perhaps anywhere on the planet. That base allows Colorado ski areas with relative proximity to survive even when the more distant - but more lucrative – destination skiers stay at home.
That was evident in last week’s report from Vail Resorts, which has four major ski areas within a two-hour drive of that Front Range population, plus another at Lake Tahoe. While destination skiers dropped to 57 percent of the total visitation this past winter, compared to 63 percent the year before, Vail Resorts had a total decline of skier visits of only 5.3 percent.
But the need of Front Range cities for water causes continuing tension, with reverberations as far away as Jackson, Wyo.
Native supplies were proving inadequate even 125 years ago, when farmers discovered they had insufficient water during late summer to finish their crops. To accommodate their needs, creeks from the western side off the Continental Divide, in the area of Rocky Mountain National Park, were diverted eastward.
Since then, the headwaters areas from Granby southward to Winter Park, Breckenridge, Vail and Aspen, have become configured with an intricate labyrinth of ditches, reservoirs, canals and tunnels, all with the intent of achieving what historian (and Telluride native) David Lavender described as a “massive violation of geography.”
With the easy diversions completed decades ago, Front Range interests began to look for the small increments close in, what has been described as the “last drop,” or with big straws in mind to draw from more distant sources.
The drought of 2002 provoked an even greater intensity of focus. So do population projections that envision the state’s population doubling by the year 2050, with four-fifths of that population growth occurring along the Front Range.
One idea still being studied calls for pumping of water from Green Mountain Reservoir, located on the Blue River, about 20 miles to Dillon Reservoir, for diversion to Denver. A compensatory dam on the Eagle River west of Vail might be the quid pro quo to the Western Slope.
Other ideas look at more distant sources. Aaron Million proposes to withdraw water from the Green River, which starts in Wyoming’s Wind River Range, an hour or two south of the town of Jackson. The river briefly enters Colorado before continuing down to a confluence with the Colorado River near Moab. As such, Million says, Colorado is entitled to the water from the Green as per river compacts reached in 1922 and 1948. But Wyoming isn’t so sure. Even people in Jackson, Wyo., who would be unaffected, have been testy about the idea.
Another idea calls for a diversion from the Yampa River, about 65 miles west of Steamboat Springs. The Yampa is tributary to the Green.
Still another thought sees a potential water source in Blue Mesa Reservoir, west of Gunnison. The water, some 200,000 acre-feet annually, might not actually be withdrawn from the reservoir; but the water stored within the reservoir might be appropriated for diversion to the Front Range.
Recently, reports the Crested Butte News, state representatives visited water district officials in the Gunnison area to talk about the long-term big picture. Harris Sherman, the executive director of the state’s Department of Natural Resources, said the state needed to be “looking 20, 30, 40 years out.”
Complicating the envisioning is the likelihood of reduced water supplies because of warming temperatures and changed precipitation patterns. While scientists remain uncertain, one study at Colorado State University sees a 2 to 20 percent reduction in flows of the upper Colorado River, Sherman noted.
None of the world’s problems were solved at the meeting. But, from the report in the News, it was an uncommonly good one for quotes.
Consider the remarks of Steve Glazer, a long-time water activist from Crested Butte. “There are a plethora of poison pills here,” he said. One such “pill” is that Colorado really is not entitled to as much water as this plan envisions. A study is underway to help sort that out.
Ken Spann, who ranches between Crested Butte and Gunnison, also added some folksiness to the proceedings. He said not enough details about the plan have been provided about the Blue Mesa idea for him to have an informed opinion.
“Without meat on the horse, I can’t tell whether to feed it hay or grain,” said Spann.
Canmore and Banff try to help tourism evolve
CANMORE, Alberta – With real estate development in the tank, Canmore has begun studying how it can foster its tourism economy. The city government has appropriated $80,000 for the study, which will include hiring consultants.
The tourism industry is not broken, said John Samms, who directs an organization called Tourism Canmore. But it is evolving.
Up the road at Banff, municipal representatives were plotting how to sell the Canadian Rockies as an affordable alternative to Whistler for ski vacations when Whistler hosts the Olympics next February.
A bit of grime not all bad in mountain towns
DURANGO, Colo. – Durango has never been a high-end destination resort. True, the town fills with tourists each summer, most drawn to take the narrow-gauge train to Silverton. And in winter there’s a ski area up the road.
But Durango exudes a more earthy, blue-collar feel than even those ski towns that once were mining towns. Durango Telegraph co-editor Will Sands, formerly of Crested Butte and Telluride, says Durango has some hard edges, what he calls “a bit of grease in the town’s silver spoon.”
Yet with plenty of biking trails, whitewater through the middle of town, and sharply defined mountains in the distance, it’s at no loss for outdoor amenities.
“Yep, I’ve seen the royal Hollywood treatment inflicted on two birds of paradise and can tell you first-hand that there are worse creatures lurking in the night than Desert Rock,” says Sand, alluding to a proposed power plant about 50 miles away.
“We’re a pint of excellent microbrew with a thumb-print on the glass,” he concludes.
Summit County prepares to help Senegalese villages
SILVERTHORNE, Colo. – Labor-strapped employers in Summit County a decade ago began recruiting employees from Africa. Among the countries sending residents to work the fast-food joints, clean the hotel rooms and so forth was Senegal, a country considered stable but with a high unemployment rate.
From this intersection of needs now comes an intercultural exchange. The Summit Daily News reports a recent spaghetti dinner at the local Elks Lodge at which Senegalese culture was to be exhibited and funds collected. Plans were to purchase medical supplies, buy mosquito nets, and donate computers to Senegal.
Sun Valley continues debate about airport
KETCHUM, Idaho – The Sun Valley Co., operator of the ski area, continues to argue against a new airport at a location more distant from Ketchum and Sun Valley. Most community groups seem to support a new airport, which would accommodate larger airplanes. But that tentative site will be about twice as far from Sun Valley as the current location at Hailey, about 20 miles from the resort center. Wally Huffman, the company’s director of resort development, fears travelers will be unwilling to pay a premium to fly to the Sun Valley area, rather than to Twin Falls or Boise – Idaho towns that are more distant, but within a couple of hours drive.
Runway extension will increase airport traffic
GYPSUM, Colo. – Eagle County Regional Airport has been closed for the summer while the runway gets extended 1,000 feet. The airport accommodates traffic primarily to the Vail and Beaver Creek area, but also has become a significant portal for Aspen-Snowmass visitors.
When completed, the 9,000-foot-long runway will be better able to accommodate jets flying from distant cities, including New York City. Because of the relatively high elevation, about 6,500 feet, and mountain topography, larger planes taking off from the airport during warmer, summer months cannot carry full passenger loads. This decreases the revenue. A longer runway will also accommodate longer flights during winter, theoretically even from Europe.
As it has for much of the work at the airport during the last quarter-century, the Federal Aviation Administration will pick up 95 percent of the $22 million cost. Compared with the airport at Aspen, where the largest jet holds no more than 74 passengers, many jets at Eagle County Regional have room for up to 194 passengers.
High-tech goodies in hospital at Park City
PARK CITY, Utah – While politicians in Washington D.C. debate how to contain spiraling health-care costs, an $88 million hospital prepares to open near Park City. The Park Record says that a crane was required recently to install a $1.6 million magnetic-resonance imaging machine. “It is rare for a hospital this size to have an MRI like this,” said Jeff Kirk, the medical center’s imaging coordinator. “We will have some really great equipment.” The hospital, located approximately 30 miles from Salt Lake City, also has massive heat lamps, still wrapped in plastic, waiting for their first hypothermia patient. The hospital also has a state-of-the-art decontamination room.
Solar panel installations likely to slow down, too
CARBONDALE, Colo. – While other construction hands have been looking for work, installers of solar panels were working overtime through much of 2009 in the Roaring Fork and Eagle valleys. But now that work will likely slow down, too.
The problem, explains The Aspen Times, is that several organizations that were providing rebates to consumers installing photovoltaic panels have already exhausted their budgets.
For example, when Holy Cross Energy debuted its incentive program in 2004, nobody took advantage of the credits. But last year, 55 projects got rebates. This year, 92 projects had been allocated credits by the end of May.
Causing the surge this year was an additional stimulus, a change in the federal tax code, which added another inducement: a tax credit equal to 30 percent of a solar PV installation cost, minus any rebates.
Mammoth talks about seeming to be on move
MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. – The Sheet, with a touch of sarcasm, reports on a recent economic development meeting in Mammoth Lakes, at which one speaker suggested a slogan for the community: “Mammoth on the Move.”
For a logo, however, she stops short of suggesting a U-Haul truck, says the newspaper.
The town seems to have its fair share of vacant lots and boarded-up buildings. One of the proposals is to erect signs on vacant lots saying, “Future Site of Mixed Use Development.”
Good enough, said one council member, as long as the signs give no completion dates.
Banff wardens allowed to carry guns in park
BANFF, Alberta – Seven wardens in Banff National Park can now pack Heckler and Koch 9mm handguns while patrolling trails, campgrounds and roads. While it is not their main job, the wardens have the power to deal with dangerous, drunken, or speeding drivers on the park’s roads and highways. Parks Canada has authorized 100 wardens across the country to carry guns. A 2001 ruling found that wardens were at risk of grievous bodily harm, possibly death, unless they carried self-defense equipment.
Teachers’ starting pay going up to $54,500
JACKSON, Wyo. – Teachers in Jackson and Teton County may get raises next year, with the starting salary for a teacher with a bachelor’s degree moving up to $54,500, while one with a master’s degree getting not quite $60,000.
In Colorado’s Summit County, base pay for teachers will be at $37,000 during the next academic year. In Aspen, the beginning pay is $40,200. In the Carbondale-Glenwood Springs area, it will be $35,000.
Written by Allen Best - Jun 11, 2009
Ouray County Watch
Posted by Erin Eddy - www.ourayland.com
Steamboat debates merits of ban on real estate signs
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. – Real estate agent Michelle Avery says all real-estate signs should be prohibited by the city’s sign code. “Other resort towns have adopted this ordinance, and I feel strongly that Steamboat should do the same,” she writes in The Steamboat Pilot & Today. “Simply stated, the signs are an eyesore.”
A slew of website bloggers beg to different. One blogger, Ralph Cantafio, contends that outright elimination for aesthetic reasons is simply inappropriate. “Government should be very careful to use only reasonable restrictions,” he writes. Part of his reasoning is that eliminating signs eliminates communication, free communication being a hallmark of a democratic society.
Aspen and T’ride tumble, but not so Jackson Hole
ASPEN, Colo. – Nothing in the numbers being reported in the Aspen area suggest that the economy there has started a comeback. Very much the opposite.
Sales tax collections through the first four months of the year in Aspen were down 20 percent. At nearby Snowmass Village, the drop was more precipitous yet, 30 percent, while real estate transfer tax collections were down 80 percent.
Citing Land Title Guarantee reporting, The Aspen Times says that dollar volume for real estate sales across Pitkin County was off 30 percent compared to 2008 – which ended up being the lowest-volume year since 2004. Down-valley in Garfield County, where the resort economy intersects with the now faltering boom in natural gas drilling, the real estate sales volume was down 80 percent.
In Telluride, the story is the same: sales tax revenues this year have been down 12 to 15 percent, and the real-estate transfer tax at year’s end may total only $750,000, compared to $5 million just two years ago.
Inexplicably, the story in Jackson, Wyo., seems to be different, at least in regard to retail sales, which have been down only 3 percent. Moreover, the Jackson Hole News & Guide reports hope among locals that the economy in Teton County will actually start growing again. Visitation to Yellowstone, after being down for several years, has actually been up 11 percent this year, and at Grand Teton National Park it was even.
What mountain rivers will help Denver grow?
GUNNISON, Colo. – Mountain towns in the Rockies have a symbiotic relationship with Denver and other cities along Colorado’s urbanized, Front Range corridor. It is typically also one of ambivalence
That Front Range corridor already consists of four million people, the single largest source of skiing customers in North America, perhaps anywhere on the planet. That base allows Colorado ski areas with relative proximity to survive even when the more distant - but more lucrative – destination skiers stay at home.
That was evident in last week’s report from Vail Resorts, which has four major ski areas within a two-hour drive of that Front Range population, plus another at Lake Tahoe. While destination skiers dropped to 57 percent of the total visitation this past winter, compared to 63 percent the year before, Vail Resorts had a total decline of skier visits of only 5.3 percent.
But the need of Front Range cities for water causes continuing tension, with reverberations as far away as Jackson, Wyo.
Native supplies were proving inadequate even 125 years ago, when farmers discovered they had insufficient water during late summer to finish their crops. To accommodate their needs, creeks from the western side off the Continental Divide, in the area of Rocky Mountain National Park, were diverted eastward.
Since then, the headwaters areas from Granby southward to Winter Park, Breckenridge, Vail and Aspen, have become configured with an intricate labyrinth of ditches, reservoirs, canals and tunnels, all with the intent of achieving what historian (and Telluride native) David Lavender described as a “massive violation of geography.”
With the easy diversions completed decades ago, Front Range interests began to look for the small increments close in, what has been described as the “last drop,” or with big straws in mind to draw from more distant sources.
The drought of 2002 provoked an even greater intensity of focus. So do population projections that envision the state’s population doubling by the year 2050, with four-fifths of that population growth occurring along the Front Range.
One idea still being studied calls for pumping of water from Green Mountain Reservoir, located on the Blue River, about 20 miles to Dillon Reservoir, for diversion to Denver. A compensatory dam on the Eagle River west of Vail might be the quid pro quo to the Western Slope.
Other ideas look at more distant sources. Aaron Million proposes to withdraw water from the Green River, which starts in Wyoming’s Wind River Range, an hour or two south of the town of Jackson. The river briefly enters Colorado before continuing down to a confluence with the Colorado River near Moab. As such, Million says, Colorado is entitled to the water from the Green as per river compacts reached in 1922 and 1948. But Wyoming isn’t so sure. Even people in Jackson, Wyo., who would be unaffected, have been testy about the idea.
Another idea calls for a diversion from the Yampa River, about 65 miles west of Steamboat Springs. The Yampa is tributary to the Green.
Still another thought sees a potential water source in Blue Mesa Reservoir, west of Gunnison. The water, some 200,000 acre-feet annually, might not actually be withdrawn from the reservoir; but the water stored within the reservoir might be appropriated for diversion to the Front Range.
Recently, reports the Crested Butte News, state representatives visited water district officials in the Gunnison area to talk about the long-term big picture. Harris Sherman, the executive director of the state’s Department of Natural Resources, said the state needed to be “looking 20, 30, 40 years out.”
Complicating the envisioning is the likelihood of reduced water supplies because of warming temperatures and changed precipitation patterns. While scientists remain uncertain, one study at Colorado State University sees a 2 to 20 percent reduction in flows of the upper Colorado River, Sherman noted.
None of the world’s problems were solved at the meeting. But, from the report in the News, it was an uncommonly good one for quotes.
Consider the remarks of Steve Glazer, a long-time water activist from Crested Butte. “There are a plethora of poison pills here,” he said. One such “pill” is that Colorado really is not entitled to as much water as this plan envisions. A study is underway to help sort that out.
Ken Spann, who ranches between Crested Butte and Gunnison, also added some folksiness to the proceedings. He said not enough details about the plan have been provided about the Blue Mesa idea for him to have an informed opinion.
“Without meat on the horse, I can’t tell whether to feed it hay or grain,” said Spann.
Canmore and Banff try to help tourism evolve
CANMORE, Alberta – With real estate development in the tank, Canmore has begun studying how it can foster its tourism economy. The city government has appropriated $80,000 for the study, which will include hiring consultants.
The tourism industry is not broken, said John Samms, who directs an organization called Tourism Canmore. But it is evolving.
Up the road at Banff, municipal representatives were plotting how to sell the Canadian Rockies as an affordable alternative to Whistler for ski vacations when Whistler hosts the Olympics next February.
A bit of grime not all bad in mountain towns
DURANGO, Colo. – Durango has never been a high-end destination resort. True, the town fills with tourists each summer, most drawn to take the narrow-gauge train to Silverton. And in winter there’s a ski area up the road.
But Durango exudes a more earthy, blue-collar feel than even those ski towns that once were mining towns. Durango Telegraph co-editor Will Sands, formerly of Crested Butte and Telluride, says Durango has some hard edges, what he calls “a bit of grease in the town’s silver spoon.”
Yet with plenty of biking trails, whitewater through the middle of town, and sharply defined mountains in the distance, it’s at no loss for outdoor amenities.
“Yep, I’ve seen the royal Hollywood treatment inflicted on two birds of paradise and can tell you first-hand that there are worse creatures lurking in the night than Desert Rock,” says Sand, alluding to a proposed power plant about 50 miles away.
“We’re a pint of excellent microbrew with a thumb-print on the glass,” he concludes.
Summit County prepares to help Senegalese villages
SILVERTHORNE, Colo. – Labor-strapped employers in Summit County a decade ago began recruiting employees from Africa. Among the countries sending residents to work the fast-food joints, clean the hotel rooms and so forth was Senegal, a country considered stable but with a high unemployment rate.
From this intersection of needs now comes an intercultural exchange. The Summit Daily News reports a recent spaghetti dinner at the local Elks Lodge at which Senegalese culture was to be exhibited and funds collected. Plans were to purchase medical supplies, buy mosquito nets, and donate computers to Senegal.
Sun Valley continues debate about airport
KETCHUM, Idaho – The Sun Valley Co., operator of the ski area, continues to argue against a new airport at a location more distant from Ketchum and Sun Valley. Most community groups seem to support a new airport, which would accommodate larger airplanes. But that tentative site will be about twice as far from Sun Valley as the current location at Hailey, about 20 miles from the resort center. Wally Huffman, the company’s director of resort development, fears travelers will be unwilling to pay a premium to fly to the Sun Valley area, rather than to Twin Falls or Boise – Idaho towns that are more distant, but within a couple of hours drive.
Runway extension will increase airport traffic
GYPSUM, Colo. – Eagle County Regional Airport has been closed for the summer while the runway gets extended 1,000 feet. The airport accommodates traffic primarily to the Vail and Beaver Creek area, but also has become a significant portal for Aspen-Snowmass visitors.
When completed, the 9,000-foot-long runway will be better able to accommodate jets flying from distant cities, including New York City. Because of the relatively high elevation, about 6,500 feet, and mountain topography, larger planes taking off from the airport during warmer, summer months cannot carry full passenger loads. This decreases the revenue. A longer runway will also accommodate longer flights during winter, theoretically even from Europe.
As it has for much of the work at the airport during the last quarter-century, the Federal Aviation Administration will pick up 95 percent of the $22 million cost. Compared with the airport at Aspen, where the largest jet holds no more than 74 passengers, many jets at Eagle County Regional have room for up to 194 passengers.
High-tech goodies in hospital at Park City
PARK CITY, Utah – While politicians in Washington D.C. debate how to contain spiraling health-care costs, an $88 million hospital prepares to open near Park City. The Park Record says that a crane was required recently to install a $1.6 million magnetic-resonance imaging machine. “It is rare for a hospital this size to have an MRI like this,” said Jeff Kirk, the medical center’s imaging coordinator. “We will have some really great equipment.” The hospital, located approximately 30 miles from Salt Lake City, also has massive heat lamps, still wrapped in plastic, waiting for their first hypothermia patient. The hospital also has a state-of-the-art decontamination room.
Solar panel installations likely to slow down, too
CARBONDALE, Colo. – While other construction hands have been looking for work, installers of solar panels were working overtime through much of 2009 in the Roaring Fork and Eagle valleys. But now that work will likely slow down, too.
The problem, explains The Aspen Times, is that several organizations that were providing rebates to consumers installing photovoltaic panels have already exhausted their budgets.
For example, when Holy Cross Energy debuted its incentive program in 2004, nobody took advantage of the credits. But last year, 55 projects got rebates. This year, 92 projects had been allocated credits by the end of May.
Causing the surge this year was an additional stimulus, a change in the federal tax code, which added another inducement: a tax credit equal to 30 percent of a solar PV installation cost, minus any rebates.
Mammoth talks about seeming to be on move
MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. – The Sheet, with a touch of sarcasm, reports on a recent economic development meeting in Mammoth Lakes, at which one speaker suggested a slogan for the community: “Mammoth on the Move.”
For a logo, however, she stops short of suggesting a U-Haul truck, says the newspaper.
The town seems to have its fair share of vacant lots and boarded-up buildings. One of the proposals is to erect signs on vacant lots saying, “Future Site of Mixed Use Development.”
Good enough, said one council member, as long as the signs give no completion dates.
Banff wardens allowed to carry guns in park
BANFF, Alberta – Seven wardens in Banff National Park can now pack Heckler and Koch 9mm handguns while patrolling trails, campgrounds and roads. While it is not their main job, the wardens have the power to deal with dangerous, drunken, or speeding drivers on the park’s roads and highways. Parks Canada has authorized 100 wardens across the country to carry guns. A 2001 ruling found that wardens were at risk of grievous bodily harm, possibly death, unless they carried self-defense equipment.
Teachers’ starting pay going up to $54,500
JACKSON, Wyo. – Teachers in Jackson and Teton County may get raises next year, with the starting salary for a teacher with a bachelor’s degree moving up to $54,500, while one with a master’s degree getting not quite $60,000.
In Colorado’s Summit County, base pay for teachers will be at $37,000 during the next academic year. In Aspen, the beginning pay is $40,200. In the Carbondale-Glenwood Springs area, it will be $35,000.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Affordable Telluride Property
New Builders for Entrada Project
Written by Karen James
Posted by Erin Eddy
www.ourayland.com
www.ridgwayland.com
May 20, 2009
TELLURIDE – They’ve restored buildings on fashion designer Ralph Lauren’s nearby ranch, built an Earthship from over 3,000 used tires, 100,000 aluminum cans and packed earth for actor Dennis Weaver and his wife Gerry, and now Ridgway-based Allison Construction is slated to pick up the chronically delayed Entrada affordable housing project and deliver it home.
At press time a final contract hadn’t been drawn, but the Town of Telluride and Allison Construction had an interim services agreement through which the parties agreed to move forward with the project while the final documents are being drafted, according to Town Manager Frank Bell.
But exactly when the four-building complex located west of the RV parking lot between Tomboy Street and Cornet Creek will finally be finished has not been nailed down. (Most recently it was anticipated to be complete in April.)
“They’re still working on the construction schedule,” said Bell. “I’d rather them do it right than do it quickly.”
Allison Construction replaces Carbondale-based Fenton Construction on the 18-unit project, which, for reasons that town officials said they did not fully understand themselves, did not seem to be on track for completion anytime soon, despite being more than 80 percent complete and over a year behind schedule.
“We were way behind schedule and not really sure why,” said Bell. “It’s not a really difficult project.”
So the town, which characterized its split with Fenton as a mutual decision to The Watch, decided it was time to find another contractor to finish the job.
“Changing contractors in mid-stream is not the best thing to do,” said Bell. But, “We felt like we needed to bring someone on who was more enthusiastic – we probably should have done it sooner.”
“We just could not have anymore delays,” said Mayor Stu Fraser.
At least one major obstacle that held up the project – getting the pre-fabricated buildings manufactured in the first place – remained outside of Fenton’s control, he said.
Namely, the federal government kept placing orders with the various modular building manufacturers that took precedence over Telluride’s. As a result, that part of the process took longer and proved more difficult than expected.
“We kept being pushed to the side,” Fraser said.
The town has allotted itself two units designated for sale to town employees among the 17 deed-restricted one-, two- and three-bedroom condo units generated by the project.
The R-1 School District, which is paying the construction subsidy on two units, has also secured two units for district employees.
A final unit containing upgraded finishes will be sold on the free market by sealed bid to the highest bidder in order to help offset the town’s subsidy costs.
Fraser said that when the time came the town called Allison Construction after being impressed by the company during its interview to build the childcare center planned as part of the town’s next affordable housing project, Gold Run.
“They’re just enthusiastic, good builders,” said Fraser. “They are very excited.”
Fenton Construction’s Senior Project Manager, Tim Fenton, declined to comment when reached by telephone.
Written by Karen James
Posted by Erin Eddy
www.ourayland.com
www.ridgwayland.com
May 20, 2009
TELLURIDE – They’ve restored buildings on fashion designer Ralph Lauren’s nearby ranch, built an Earthship from over 3,000 used tires, 100,000 aluminum cans and packed earth for actor Dennis Weaver and his wife Gerry, and now Ridgway-based Allison Construction is slated to pick up the chronically delayed Entrada affordable housing project and deliver it home.
At press time a final contract hadn’t been drawn, but the Town of Telluride and Allison Construction had an interim services agreement through which the parties agreed to move forward with the project while the final documents are being drafted, according to Town Manager Frank Bell.
But exactly when the four-building complex located west of the RV parking lot between Tomboy Street and Cornet Creek will finally be finished has not been nailed down. (Most recently it was anticipated to be complete in April.)
“They’re still working on the construction schedule,” said Bell. “I’d rather them do it right than do it quickly.”
Allison Construction replaces Carbondale-based Fenton Construction on the 18-unit project, which, for reasons that town officials said they did not fully understand themselves, did not seem to be on track for completion anytime soon, despite being more than 80 percent complete and over a year behind schedule.
“We were way behind schedule and not really sure why,” said Bell. “It’s not a really difficult project.”
So the town, which characterized its split with Fenton as a mutual decision to The Watch, decided it was time to find another contractor to finish the job.
“Changing contractors in mid-stream is not the best thing to do,” said Bell. But, “We felt like we needed to bring someone on who was more enthusiastic – we probably should have done it sooner.”
“We just could not have anymore delays,” said Mayor Stu Fraser.
At least one major obstacle that held up the project – getting the pre-fabricated buildings manufactured in the first place – remained outside of Fenton’s control, he said.
Namely, the federal government kept placing orders with the various modular building manufacturers that took precedence over Telluride’s. As a result, that part of the process took longer and proved more difficult than expected.
“We kept being pushed to the side,” Fraser said.
The town has allotted itself two units designated for sale to town employees among the 17 deed-restricted one-, two- and three-bedroom condo units generated by the project.
The R-1 School District, which is paying the construction subsidy on two units, has also secured two units for district employees.
A final unit containing upgraded finishes will be sold on the free market by sealed bid to the highest bidder in order to help offset the town’s subsidy costs.
Fraser said that when the time came the town called Allison Construction after being impressed by the company during its interview to build the childcare center planned as part of the town’s next affordable housing project, Gold Run.
“They’re just enthusiastic, good builders,” said Fraser. “They are very excited.”
Fenton Construction’s Senior Project Manager, Tim Fenton, declined to comment when reached by telephone.
Friday, April 17, 2009
New Lodging Director in Telluride
Written by the Ouray County Watch
Posted by:
Erin Eddy
www.ourayland.com
www.ridgwayland.com
TELLURIDE – Hollie Hannahs has been named director of lodging for Telluride Ski Resort and will oversee the resort’s property management arm, Telluride Resort Lodging, including the luxury Platinum Properties sector.
“Hollie’s longtime industry experience and knowledge of the market will be an invaluable addition as TRL continues to grow and establish itself as one of the premier property management companies in the region,” said Matt Skinner, executive director of sales and marketing for the resort.
Hannahs has been a vital player in the resort lodging industry with ResortQuest for almost ten years. Beginning her career in Breckenridge at the Great Divide Lodge in 1996 as front desk manager, Hannahs eventually moved to Crested Butte, then to ResortQuest here in Telluride where she worked as tour and travel sales manager from 2000-2005. She moved back to Breckenridge to take the reservations sales manager position, and then returned to Telluride as general manager for ResortQuest.
“I am excited to join the great team at the Telluride Ski Resort,” said Hannahs. “I look forward to effectively managing Telluride Resort Lodging, creating a smooth transition for our current owners as well as adding additional properties to our portfolio.”
Hannahs currently lives in Telluride with her husband Tom. She participates in the Telluride Association of Realtors highway clean up projects, and enjoys skiing in the winter and hiking in the summer. Her tenure at the ski resort begins Thursday, April 16, and she can be reached at hhannahs@tellurideskiresort.com or 970/728-7457.
Posted by:
Erin Eddy
www.ourayland.com
www.ridgwayland.com
TELLURIDE – Hollie Hannahs has been named director of lodging for Telluride Ski Resort and will oversee the resort’s property management arm, Telluride Resort Lodging, including the luxury Platinum Properties sector.
“Hollie’s longtime industry experience and knowledge of the market will be an invaluable addition as TRL continues to grow and establish itself as one of the premier property management companies in the region,” said Matt Skinner, executive director of sales and marketing for the resort.
Hannahs has been a vital player in the resort lodging industry with ResortQuest for almost ten years. Beginning her career in Breckenridge at the Great Divide Lodge in 1996 as front desk manager, Hannahs eventually moved to Crested Butte, then to ResortQuest here in Telluride where she worked as tour and travel sales manager from 2000-2005. She moved back to Breckenridge to take the reservations sales manager position, and then returned to Telluride as general manager for ResortQuest.
“I am excited to join the great team at the Telluride Ski Resort,” said Hannahs. “I look forward to effectively managing Telluride Resort Lodging, creating a smooth transition for our current owners as well as adding additional properties to our portfolio.”
Hannahs currently lives in Telluride with her husband Tom. She participates in the Telluride Association of Realtors highway clean up projects, and enjoys skiing in the winter and hiking in the summer. Her tenure at the ski resort begins Thursday, April 16, and she can be reached at hhannahs@tellurideskiresort.com or 970/728-7457.
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