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ENLARGE
Mel Blumenthal
The King rules, long live the king…
In a recent 4-1 decision the Pitkin County Commissioners, tired of playing by the same rule book the rest of us are bound by, have given themselves the right to determine what, if any, restrictions in the county’s Land-Use Code apply when reviewing their own public projects.
Apparently, the County Commissioners find the 40-foot height limit in their Land-Use Code a bit of an obstacle in pushing through their plan for a series of Crown Mountain radio towers which vary from 50 to 76 feet high.
The commissioners were also recently defeated in court by a neighborhood citizens group who had the temerity to expect the county commissioners to follow the law in reviewing their own plan for a new bike and pedestrian trail along the lower section of Castle Creek Road.
What do our elected officials do when they’re not getting their way and feel caught between a rock and a hard place? They rewrite the rule book for their own projects and leave the rest of us to play by a much tougher set of rules that were created specifically to protect against unbridled, unregulated development.
Isn’t it fun being king?
Speaking of the joy of power, we have a blossoming candidate for king right here in our own fair Village. He’s the current reigning chairman of the quickly fading dysfunctional Snowmass Village Resort Association (SVRA).
SVRA is in the final stages of its long awaited dissolution which will bring with it an agreement from Chaffin & Light to extinguish the Declarant (“Blood Money”) Rights which have burdened our community since its inception as well as the establishment of a new Community Foundation with an initial endowment of $3 million, derived from the sale of the former West Village pool site to Related/WestPac.
The foundation has the potential to grow even larger through a generous matching grant from Related/WestPac. Once established the new foundation board will determine its community mission and what good works it will support within the community.
An essential element of the dissolution plan was the agreement reached between all SVRA Board members not to burden the new community foundation with SVRA’s past dysfunctional history, which is rampant with tales of horror. In spite of this agreement our novice king is attempting to hold onto his scepter well into the future by forcing our Town Council to allow him to structure the foundation board as he sees fit and to select its members which just coincidentally includes himself and one of his loyal court jesters in pivotal roles.
Sounds to me like the son of SVRA all over again.
It’s taken many years and lots of spilt blood to get to this point and now we’re close to the finish line. Our king in waiting, however, is finding it hard to give up the throne…apparently the power, sturm und drang and the trappings that go along with it are very enticing.
The SVRA Board as well as the Town must stand up right away and put an end to this foolishness. The board’s plan to establish the community foundation for the benefit of the entire community is the best decision they’ve made in many years. Let all involved put their egos aside and begin anew, free of the burdens of the past.
Kudos to our Snowmass Planning Commission, our Planning Director, Chris Conrad, and Pat Smith, Scott Stenman and their management team at Related/WestPac.
After many weeks of intense analysis and tough negotiations the Planning Commission has now established a template within which Related/WestPac will be able to proceed with many of the Base Village changes they’ve been campaigning for. Under the plan, Related/WestPac will put its money where its mouth is and guarantee its promised increase in town tax revenues as well as the amount and intensity of resort visitation that’s necessary to sustain the viability of our resort/community well into the future. They’ll retain responsibility for the risks inherent in their proposed changes in order to ensure no adverse impact to the community.
The Planning Commission’s recommendations are now in front of the Town Council for their review, a bit of further refinement and hopefully their concurrence and support. With the resolution of this very complex set of issues we’re now poised to move quickly through to completion of the first major portion of our Village Renaissance.
Stop by People’s Corner for a chat and latte at Fuel or something a bit stronger at the Daly Bottle Shop or just e-mail me at secondview@earthlink.net.
In a recent 4-1 decision the Pitkin County Commissioners, tired of playing by the same rule book the rest of us are bound by, have given themselves the right to determine what, if any, restrictions in the county’s Land-Use Code apply when reviewing their own public projects.
Apparently, the County Commissioners find the 40-foot height limit in their Land-Use Code a bit of an obstacle in pushing through their plan for a series of Crown Mountain radio towers which vary from 50 to 76 feet high.
The commissioners were also recently defeated in court by a neighborhood citizens group who had the temerity to expect the county commissioners to follow the law in reviewing their own plan for a new bike and pedestrian trail along the lower section of Castle Creek Road.
What do our elected officials do when they’re not getting their way and feel caught between a rock and a hard place? They rewrite the rule book for their own projects and leave the rest of us to play by a much tougher set of rules that were created specifically to protect against unbridled, unregulated development.
Isn’t it fun being king?
Speaking of the joy of power, we have a blossoming candidate for king right here in our own fair Village. He’s the current reigning chairman of the quickly fading dysfunctional Snowmass Village Resort Association (SVRA).
SVRA is in the final stages of its long awaited dissolution which will bring with it an agreement from Chaffin & Light to extinguish the Declarant (“Blood Money”) Rights which have burdened our community since its inception as well as the establishment of a new Community Foundation with an initial endowment of $3 million, derived from the sale of the former West Village pool site to Related/WestPac.
The foundation has the potential to grow even larger through a generous matching grant from Related/WestPac. Once established the new foundation board will determine its community mission and what good works it will support within the community.
An essential element of the dissolution plan was the agreement reached between all SVRA Board members not to burden the new community foundation with SVRA’s past dysfunctional history, which is rampant with tales of horror. In spite of this agreement our novice king is attempting to hold onto his scepter well into the future by forcing our Town Council to allow him to structure the foundation board as he sees fit and to select its members which just coincidentally includes himself and one of his loyal court jesters in pivotal roles.
Sounds to me like the son of SVRA all over again.
It’s taken many years and lots of spilt blood to get to this point and now we’re close to the finish line. Our king in waiting, however, is finding it hard to give up the throne…apparently the power, sturm und drang and the trappings that go along with it are very enticing.
The SVRA Board as well as the Town must stand up right away and put an end to this foolishness. The board’s plan to establish the community foundation for the benefit of the entire community is the best decision they’ve made in many years. Let all involved put their egos aside and begin anew, free of the burdens of the past.
Kudos to our Snowmass Planning Commission, our Planning Director, Chris Conrad, and Pat Smith, Scott Stenman and their management team at Related/WestPac.
After many weeks of intense analysis and tough negotiations the Planning Commission has now established a template within which Related/WestPac will be able to proceed with many of the Base Village changes they’ve been campaigning for. Under the plan, Related/WestPac will put its money where its mouth is and guarantee its promised increase in town tax revenues as well as the amount and intensity of resort visitation that’s necessary to sustain the viability of our resort/community well into the future. They’ll retain responsibility for the risks inherent in their proposed changes in order to ensure no adverse impact to the community.
The Planning Commission’s recommendations are now in front of the Town Council for their review, a bit of further refinement and hopefully their concurrence and support. With the resolution of this very complex set of issues we’re now poised to move quickly through to completion of the first major portion of our Village Renaissance.
Stop by People’s Corner for a chat and latte at Fuel or something a bit stronger at the Daly Bottle Shop or just e-mail me at secondview@earthlink.net.
