Significant changes in latest comprehensive plan draft
Officials seek more public input
- Special Thanks Justin Criado, Editor
The above updated map shows high-priority hot bed sites in Mountain Village, which is part of the comprehensive plan amendment process. (Courtesy image)
Mountain Village Town Council continued discussions Thursday night surrounding the comprehensive plan amendment process, including looking over several recent revisions related to hot beds and a condensed public benefit table.
“We did discuss the comp plan at length and did address a variety of topics. Council took the public input that had been provided at that point and proved to be very responsive and made a variety of changes to the comp plan. Those changes are now online and we’re accepting public comment again to hear what people have to say about those changes,” said Paul Wisor, who was officially named town manager during the Thursday meeting. “We discussed we would be further exploring three topics, hot beds, housing inventory and the public benefit table. We made a lot of changes to the hot bed portion of the comp plan.”
During December’s regular meeting, the draft outlined the potential development of approximately 1,000 more hot beds, though only about half of those could be created sooner rather than later, consultants MIG shared at the time.
Council members weren’t comfortable with having that number in the plan for several reasons, including the unrealistic locations and current zoning of some of the proposed sites.
MIG incorporated their feedback in the latest draft, which prioritized the hot bed sites into to two categories — high priority and potential — particularly around the Village Center.
“Generally, what we’ve done is reduce the targeted hot beds we’re showing in the plan further,” MIG Project Manager Elly Schaefer explained. “You’ll see this map is really now focused on the Village Center with six different properties identified as targets.”
The plan shows approximately 500 additional hot beds that are considered “high priority,” with another 300 marked “potential,” which would double the current number of existing hot beds.
Mayor Laila Benitez appreciated the new numbers, which aren’t as unrealistic as the previous draft’s.
“I err on the side of being as close to realistic as possible and giving the community a glimpse into what it likely will be. Whether or not it’s these developers, I think it’s more realistic from previous developers that we’ve seen. The original numbers were just very aggressive,” she said.
The updated draft also includes “warm beds,” which are short-term rentals in non-hotel rooms.
“That integration of condominiums and conventional hotel rooms is a conventional approach that seems to work for a lot of big hotel investors,” explained Andrew Knudtsen, a planner with Denver’s Economic & Planning Systems.
The public benefit table was also significantly altered since the December discussion. Benitez explained Telski also had input regarding the changes.
“These changes were actually made in coordination over the course of six to eight months over the last year with TSG, since so many of them directly impact them. Moving from the 2011 table, we sat with them and we did agree to these changes,” she said. A previous draft of the table included 27 proposed public benefits, but the current draft was whittled down to 12.
The current two-week public review period is set to end Feb. 1, but officials agreed they’d like to gather more feedback on the latest public benefit table. Council directed staff Thursday to extend the public review period into February. The town will announce those details next week.
“I think we have to bring the public in as part of that discussion. I don’t think it’s about us thinking it’s a great idea. I think we need to have community buy-in or at least awareness that this is happening, because they’re the ones that helped create this document and they understand the commitment that was made to them,” Benitez said.
The current draft can be found on the town’s website townofmountainvillage.com on the “Doing Business” page by clicking the “Long Range Planning” tab and selecting the “2011 Comprehensive Plan Amendment Process” option.
