Mountain Town News
By Allen Best
RV park at gated community?
GRANBY, Colo. – With downscaling the order of the day, a gated community which began construction a few years ago at Granby, along the headwaters of the Colorado River, is now being recast as a possible RV park. And instead of mansions for well-heeled flyfishermen and golfers at Shorefox, planners are talking about “attainable” housing.
The lender for the project, CNL Lifestyle Properties, Inc., a Florida firm that holds broad interests in resort properties (and owns 80% of the Village at Mammoth), has foreclosed on the property and retained a firm called Resort Ventures West to see how the 1,550-acre resort property 16 miles from Rocky Mountain National Park could be repositioned.
The original project had grand ambitions, and much of the infrastructure work was completed before the Great Recession dashed hopes. The 18-hole golf course was 85 to 90 percent complete, reports the Sky Hi News, and all water and sewer mains had been installed. So had fire hydrants, plus man-made ponds, bridges, and retaining walls.
All of this was to be gated, but now the idea of gates has been shelved. So has the 100-room hotel and the 50,000 square feet of commercial space geared to the needs of fishermen, hunters and others with an avid interest in the outdoors.
The golf course, now growing weeds and cattle, could eventually be completed, but the area from Winter Park to Grand Lake already has several golf courses, and that seems to be plenty for a mountain valley with one of the shortest summers in the Rocky Mountains and a struggling real estate economy.
Heroin suspected in heist
WHITEFISH, Mont. – After an armed invasion of a home in an ironically named area called Happy Valley, located south of Whitefish, three men were arrested. According to the Whitefish Pilot, police suspect the invasion was in connection with heroin trafficking. Police said the men stole a safe containing eight guns and ammunition.
Attention politicians: If you want to bury your head in the sand, head to Steamboat.
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. – Now that the rivers are subsiding, the question in Steamboat Springs has become what to do with the 10,131 sandbags distributed in May and June. City officials have decided the bags aren’t worth the expense of dispatching pickup crews. “Perhaps this is the year to consider building the sandbox the kids have been begging for,” suggests Steamboat Today.
Peak2Peak a big hit
WHISTLER, B.C. – With the thrilling, acrophobia-inducing Peak2Peak gondola leading the way, summer business continues to improve at Whistler. Business volume at the gondola has picked up 50 percent since it opened three years ago.
Summer now accounts for 15 percent of the total annual revenues of the ski area operator, Whistler Blackcomb. More broadly in the resort community, advance bookings for lodging were up 16 percent during July, reports Pique Newsmagazine.
Jackson seeks retail vibrancy
JACKSON, Wyo. –- With the municipal budget pinched by a continuing decline in sales tax revenue, leaders in Jackson are talking about potential regulations to limit new banks, art galleries and real estate shops at ground-floor locations in the town’s prime shopping area.
Real estate offices and banks do not collect sales tax. Galleries do – but there’s a loophole, in that if the piece of art is shipped to another location, the local tax can sometimes be avoided.
Gallery owners polled by the Jackson Hole News & Guide disagree. One gallery owner reported collecting $40,000 in sales taxes last year. Terry Ray, owner of West Lives On Gallery, said Jackson is an art destination that produces high-end tourism.
The overall goal, said Jackson planning director Tyler Sinclair, is to produce a more vibrant downtown.
“We want to have ground-floor businesses that promote a lights-on, inviting environment,” he told the newspapers. “That means looking at how buildings can be inviting to the public, and the design of the first floor is important to that. Retail uses are much more inviting.”
Housing locals in Aspen
ASPEN, Colo. – Affordable housing continues to be front and center in Aspen. The number of bids for existing deed-restricted units has dropped from the boom years, but there’s no evidence that many lower-income workers are forsaking the local housing for free-market housing located down-valley in Basalt, reports The Aspen Times.
For example, a one-bedroom, one-bath unit with a price of $159,177 attracted 39 prospective buyers. Units are sold via a lottery system.
City officials are trying to gauge interest in the second phase of Burlingame Ranch, one of the Aspen’s largest affordable housing projects. The first phase included 91 homes. Another 167 are planned in coming phases.
Meanwhile, a developer who had won approval for a lodge within the city in 2006 instead wants to build a private-market affordable housing complex. Although the housing complex would be smaller in bulk, neighbors have objected to the size of the proposed complex.
Aspen Mayor Mick Ireland said he believes the neighborhood would be strengthened by the inclusion of workers in the area, unlike units for fractional or other part-time residents. “I prefer having people around,” he said.
