JOURNAL 06/03/07
Yes, believe it or not, this is a journal, my now twice-annual update to you
of the GVCA.

Since I'm now down to biannual reports, this should be quite lengthy, but I
imagine it won't be.

I think our major project of note that I didn't report on was our
participation in Community Clean-up. For the second year in a row we won
Gunnison greenbacks for having the largest community group. This year we are
saving our greenbacks until the fall, when we will use them to puchase
school supplies for kids who can't afford them. Thanks to Karen for getting
us organized.

And you should be hearing soon from Karen, who will be looking for
volunteers to man/woman/people the GVCA booth at the farmers' market.

While I've been sitting idle, the group as a whole has not. Most of today's
report concerns the city, except to note these items:

1) The Gunnison Valley Animal Welfare League flea market was a success
Saturday, but if you missed that opportunity to donate treasures, the League
of Women Voters is planning to host a yard sale in August.

2) The county recycling center is now saying "No" to plastic bags, no reason
given. I want to call and ask why, since I have a giant pile of
non-grocery-yet-clearly-marked-#2 bags sitting at my shop that I hope to
avoid dumping in the landfill. If you do have grocery bags, you can still
drop them off at City Market. Also, the public library is always on the
look-out for bags, and the GVCA can use them at the farmers' market. I heard
from an ORE representative that Crested Butte provides containers at the
parks for people to put their grocery bags and newspaper sleeves, and then
dog owners can access those for picking up after their pets.

Crested Butte has also started a Freecycle program (donate don't want or
find objects you need, all free of charge). Gunnison tried one, but I think
it took more time and volunteers than there were. But if you have something
that needs a home, beyond fund-raiser yard sales, this might be an option.

3) Here's a question we don't know the answer to: what issue(s) might the
county have that has an election official appearing Tuesday before the
county commissioners to discuss a mail-in ballot? The only possibilities we
came up with yesterday were that the county manages the RE-1J election, or
possibly the formation of a library special district. Both of those are
sheer speculation, by the way.

Okay, now onto city issues.

The most noticeable one, starting today, is likely to be the Colorado
Department of Transportation's massive project for Highways 50 and 135. The
state, it turns out, owns all of Highway 135, including the gutters and the
sidewalk, right up to the doorways of the businesses on Main Street. I don't
know where ownership starts farther up the street, but it must include
sidewalks.

After some preliminary work this week, CDOT starts next Monday by tearing
out the first of 80-some corners. The only intersection that will be left
alone is Main and Tomichi; everything else must go, no matter how recently
it was put in. The ADA rules apparently change every year, and now there can
be no lip whatsoever between the street and access to the sidewalk.

Each corner should take two or three days to replace, but CDOT estimated
that the only business to be severly impacted would be Tango, since both its
doors are within the corner. We'll see.

Ditches may also have to be turned off, or there's a possibility of
construction 9destruction?) accidents, in which case many people, even those
removed from Main or Tomichi, may feel some pain.

After all the corners are completed -- and you'll have to do the math,
80-some of them at 2-3 days each (and each requires its own engineering) --
then CDOT will strip 2 inches off both highways, following right behind with
a new 2 inches of asphalt. The plan is to always leave open at least one
lane of traffic each way. We'll see.

Now, after talking about destruction, let us turn to: DEVELOPMENT.

We may be thinking this is a Crested Butte issue, but it's not. And despite
a master plan process three years in the making, a lot of this development
seems rather haphazard, but it's all going forward anyway. All of it with
narrower streets, I might add.

Not that Gunnison necessarily needs its famed wide streets -- good thing,
too, since our community development director has stated his preference for
narrow streets.

Narrower street means more density means more houses means more money for
the developer.

This actually started in the 1960s, when the Palisades addition went in with
narrower streets. But it's all around you today, and if all of West Gunnison
ever builds out, all those residents will access the area on extremely
narrow (and few) rights of way.

Joe Matyk has been given the go-ahead for his development in West Gunnison,
which will feature an extremely long cul-de-sac and a narrow point-of-entry
from the frontage road. He asked for a rezoning from R3 to single-family.

The "affordable for the lunchpails of Gunnison" project along Spencer starts
at $279,000 and soars above $300,000, although the first modular has made
its appearance in Van Tuyl Village. And Steve Schechter is planning to build
two straw bale homes in the development, although the siting is less than
ideal for solar.

A job candidate at Western State hailing from the heartland said his very
nice house would be able to garner a top price of $200,000, then gulped
pretty hard when told that "affordable" housing around here starts at about
$250,000.

After the city wrangled with the yes-we-have-the-space/no-we-don't issue of
long-term growth (and ultimately decided that yes, there is enough vacant
land within current city boundaries to accommodate the next 20 years of
growth), the city now has a bevy of annexation applications before it.

One, which has long been exiled to the back burner, would be the city's own
application to bring the Van Tuyl Ranch (the recharge area, some of which is
bone dry right now due to issues to the north) into city limits.

Another has been in the media but not, apparently, in public consciousness,
for several months now. This would be the Gunnison Rising project (or Yeast
to the East, as it was called in Sonofagunn) spearheaded by the Shucks of
Colorado Springs and Dick Bratton of Gunnison.

The project goes back before planning commission on June 13, really without
much of a change from the original proposal, despite a lot of input from a
lot of entities in the area.

This is a call to action right here, folks. If 200 people were
concerned/excited/interested enough in the possible expansion of ONE
BUSINESS (that would be Wal-Mart), then how many people do you think ought
to take some sort of interest in the possible expansion of the ENTIRE CITY?
This proposal will DOUBLE the size of Gunnison, not double the size of
Wal-Mart.

Maybe you think it won't happen because you just don't want it to. Maybe you
wonder (like me) where all the people are going to come from to populate it,
particularly when there are three new housing developments near the
community center, one across the highway, two in West Gunnison, and a
noticeable building project just north of that, plus a plan in process for
the remainder of the land in West Gunnison. Maybe you think it will be the
greatest thing that ever happened to Gunnison, and you're so excited about
the prospect that you don't really care what it looks like or what it
contains, just so long as it gets built, so why is government impeding the
process at all?

For whatever reason, the denizens of Gunnison don't appear to be too
concerned about this process, even though many were very worked up over a
possibility that was miniscule in comparison (and remember, Gunnison Rising
could provide the space and opportunity for that Wal-Mart expansion, along
with any other interested commercial ventures).

So I am encouraging you to pay attention, whatever your thought on Gunnison
Rising is. If you like the attractiveness of that entrance into Gunnison, if
you have concerns about sage grouse, if you have concerns about urban
sprawl, if you wonder about the wisdom of a 400-slot RV park in/near the
riparian zone on the south side of the highway, if you wonder about
increased traffic into Gunnison (1600 homes times 10 -- I think -- trips per
day per household, all of it coming in on Tomichi unless the developers can
negotiate an access point with Western State and the State of Colorado), if
you wonder about soil stability, if you think a truck bypass should be
discussed, if you think all of this will be the greatest boon to Gunnison
ever in its nearly 130-year history . . . then you owe it to yourself and
your community to attend the planning commission meeting on June 13 (7 p.m.)
to find out exactly what this project entails and what the city's options
are. And bring your friends. It's their future too.

And then, if that wasn't enough annexation, city council will hear Tuesday a
presentation, which includes three possible streetscapes, from developers
who want to convert the Roc's Up in Smoke property into a development of
60-plus houses and a commercial area. The only way to do this is with city
water and sewer, and so the developers would like the city to add this
parcel to the city's limits. This will be the developers' first appearance
(although I'm not clear why it goes straight to council rather than P& Z),
but let's not ignore this blip on the horizon, either.

And now I'm 17 minutes past my self-imposed deadline, and I haven't even
mentioned the initial meeting of the new IOOF Park working group. It's messy
democracy in action: I don't think any two people present had the same
vision for the park, and the visions are wildly divergent, but it was a
starting place. I think several people were missing from the table -- people
who use the park frequently, business owners whose customer parking could be
directly impacted -- but at least it was a much larger group than the
original "community" group of three, so that's a start.

And that's what you get for now. See you in another six months! (All right,
I'll try to be more timely than that, but I'm beyond making promises.)

TL