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Formula-store limits debated

By Allen Best STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. – Steamboat Springs continues to debate how it can remain different, avoiding the homogenization of so-called formula stores, without becoming a museum and irrelevant to changing needs.

By Allen Best

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. – Steamboat Springs continues to debate how it can remain different, avoiding the homogenization of so-called formula stores, without becoming a museum and irrelevant to changing needs.

This debate began at least in the late 1980s, when the town resisted the arrival of Wal-Mart. It finally acquiesced but not before imposing restrictions. In more recent years, it has more tightly capped the size of stores, most protectively so in the old downtown core.

But with 90,000 feet of retail space coming on line in a wave of redevelopment, the city of 11,000 is now talking about restrictions on even small franchises, reports the Steamboat Pilot & Today. The city government’s preliminary definition of a formula store is a store or restaurant among a chain of 10 more that contains standardized merchandize, façade, décor, uniforms, and signs.

The city already has several such stores, including Images of Nature, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and Blimpie Subs and Salads.

Restrictions being reviewed could limit one such store per corner, or at least mandate 75-feet separations.

Brad Maxwell, owner of Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, told the newspaper that property-defined restrictions would help preserve the small-town feel. And some locally owned stores believe that existing franchises draw visitors that helped them.

The drawing power of familiar names was also alluded to by Ty Lockhart, owner of Steamboat’s iconic F.M. Light & Sons, a century-old clothing store. “People do not want the Gaps and the Ralph Laurens, but then there is the question of how many ‘mom and pops’ will be able to afford that new space,” he says.

The anonymous blogs monitored by the The Pilot reveal a spirited and sharp discussion. Some espoused unfettered free trade. “These so-called formula stores seem to have much higher standards than the moms-and-pops; just makes it easier to keep the food down…” says one. “Do-gooders and the protectionists are going to get their way,” predicted another.

But another blogger argued that the “ideal of a town” trumps business models. Others fretted about whether the new ski area owner, Intrawest, will impose economic dominance and blandness.

Yet another blogger noted that the new projects will ape the Victorian facades found in so many once frilly mining towns such as Breckenridge. A faux-turn-of-the-century building that duplicates those found in other ski towns simply makes Steamboat a formula ski town, wrote “thecondoguy1.”

 

Carbondale considers Home Depot

CARBONDALE, Colo. – The spirited, sometimes bitter debate about whether to allow The Home Depot inside the municipal tent continues in Carbondale, located 30 miles down-valley from Aspen.

For a community dominated by global-warming activists, Home Depot is proposing something very different than business as usual, offering to create an 80,000-square-foot “green” big box that would become the model for other new stores in the chain.

Perhaps the greatest lure, however, is the prospect of up to $1.2 million in sales tax collections, possibly double other potential retail uses of the land. With that money, town officials believe they could create more affordable housing and other community infrastructure.

Even so, the town staff is recommending the town board walk away from the proposal. Besides being a “volatile and contentious” issue that divides the community, the Home Depot-anchored proposal may not be successful for other reasons, says Tom Baker, the town manager.

However, the Valley Journal reports that town trustees remain divided. Several workshops are planned. The only clear consensus is that a 60,000-square-foot grocery store is OK.

That a biggy chain-owned grocery store is OK and a bigger chain-owned building supply store is not illustrates the murky issues that are being debated.

One fear is that Home Depot will eliminate existing hardware, paint and rug stores. “The messy vitality of our local enterprises will likely watch their clientele dwindle and move to the comfortable, advertised, well-organized womb of big-box shopping,” writes John Hoffman, in a letter published in the Valley Journal. “Don’t trade our vibrant, locally owned retail shops for the flash of a big box. We can do better.”

From Vail comes advice from Bill Rey. “Big box stores and malls take the soul of the community,” he writes. “The Vail Valley has been ruined by box stores that have now made us anywhere in America.” He further laments that “most of the employees can hardly speak English.”

But apparently not all big boxes are unwelcome. A Carbondale resident, Melissa Waters, suggests REI or Cabellas, and especially a Whole Foods.

Washington D.C. lawyer and economist Michael Shuman, author of “The Small-Mart Revolution,” warns against too much trust in Wal-Mart. “Carbondale residents should be smart enough not to confuse corporate promises with real-world performance,” he writes while noting 300 abandoned Wal-Mart stores. Schuman also wonders whether rising oil prices will kill the entire chain-store model.

 

Aspen rep to testify

ASPEN, Colo. – A representative of the Aspen Skiing Co. was scheduled to testify about global warming before a subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Auden Schendler, the company’s director of community and environmental affairs, said he planned to tell the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources that the “mountain resort economy in the West is as endangered as the polar bear, but a heck of a lot more valuable.”

He also planned to tell the committee that warming temperatures are eating at both front and end of ski season, making it more difficult for ski companies to be profitable. “Our entire business model is threatened by the problem,” he told the Aspen Times.

 

I-70 rail line resurfaces

I-70 CORRIDOR, Colo. – Will it be possible to eventually hop on a train in Denver and zip to Frisco, Vail or beyond? That tantalizing idea has been roaming hard along the Interstate 70 for a decade now. Mountain communities, particularly in the Georgetown and Idaho Springs area, have repeatedly argued for a monorail.

In a story headlined, “Railroaded,” Denver’s Westword revisits the idea, arguing that Colorado’s Department of Transportation has been unfairly pushing, i.e. “railroading,” widening of the highway to the exclusion of rail-based mass transit alternatives.

In particular, the article gives credence to a new push for passenger rail. After being talked about for decades, such passenger rail is enjoying a limited revival. Pushed by Gov. Bill Richardson, New Mexico now has passenger rail near Albuquerque, with plans to connect to Santa Fe. A vision beyond that imagines the rail loping across Raton Pass and then northward along the Front Range of Colorado and into Wyoming at Casper.

Bill Briggs, a former state legislator from metropolitan Denver, is also expanding the vision westward from Denver to Dotsero, at the mouth of Glenwood Canyon. The group is called Rocky Mountain Rail Authority. Financial supporters include the Aspen-based Roaring Fork Transit Authority and the Wyoming Legislature.

The current plan is to ask Colorado voters in 2008 to approve a so-called statewide passenger rail system. The group is focusing on three technologies, one a mag-lev system used in both China and Japan, and the second a rail technology used in Switzerland. Backers insist both technologies can be used for the extended steep inclines of the I-70 corridor.

C-DOT representative Jeff Kullman insists that the goal of C-DOT is to preserve a place for a technology that emerges at some point.

Meanwhile, hopes remain of using the existing railroad corridor through the mountains to service the resort communities. Jerry Jones, the developer of second homes in Granby, was the latest of many who have promoted resumption of commuter train service between Denver and the Winter Park-Granby area. Such service was discontinued in 1967. But after talking up the idea a couple of years ago, Jones says he’s given up for now. For whatever reason, he says, the critical mass isn’t yet there — a conclusion reached by several others since the 1970s.

Amtrak uses one of those routes, but it’s commonly an eight-hour trip — still far slower than driving I-70, even when the highway’s traffic is congealed.

 

Vail’s $1 billion redevelopment

VAIL, Colo. – The redevelopment of Vail is rather breathtaking in its enormity. More than $1 billion in redevelopment has been approved, and most of it is under construction. Last year alone, building permits for $355 million in construction were issued.

The most significant construction now underway is at the LionsHead base area, west of Vail Village, where a huge project called the Arrabelle is taking shape. It is tall and bulky, and at least one councilman who helped approve it, Kevin Foley, tells the Vail Daily he’s rather sorry he did.

But new projects keeping popping up. Insiders say every property in town seems to be at play.

The Daily also reports a long list of projects, both probable and possible, that are in the planning and financing pipeline. Among the largest of them is a redevelopment of the LionsHead 1,100-space parking structure into a housing and retail complex — and with increased parking.

In addition, Vail Resorts is plotting its next real estate product, a $1 billion redevelopment of existing office building and retail complex. The new project is being called Ever Vail.

 

Banff to assess fire risk

BANFF, Alberta – Firefighters in the town of Banff plan to assess the risk of every home and business in Banff based on such things as adjacent trees, woodpiles, and the use of cedar-shake shingles. Firefighters believe the risk of a catastrophic fire has been significantly reduced because of thinning of forests on the town’s edge.

“The thinning is extremely important,” said Jim Watt, deputy fire chief. “I’m confident it’s decreased our hazard tenfold. There won’t be a big fire that burns down the whole town.”

Town residents aren’t required to replace wooden-shake shingles, but are urged to do so. “The biggest thing you can do to lower the fire hazard is retrofit your roof,” Watt told the Rocky Mountain Outlook.

 

Telluride still passing hat

TELLURIDE, Colo. – Telluride is now within striking distance of assembling the $50 million needed to condemn a 570-acre property at the town’s entrance that residents hope to preserve as open space.

The Telluride Watch reports that open-space supporters must come up with the final $5.6 million by March 30, the town council’s deadline. The town government has committed $25 million, with the expectation that private donors would also rustle up $25 million.

The judge in the case had set the deadline of May 21 for the town to come up with the money. However, interest is accruing at a rate of $300,000 per month, and there are enormous legal bills on top of this.

In the meantime, the town council has been thinking about who will manage the vacant land. Only one organization, a local conservation group, has shown interest, although there seems to be some continued interest — a distinctly minority view, it would seem — of turning the land over to the Utes. There’s no report of whether the Utes, who maintain a headquarters 100 miles south of Telluride, share the interest.

Additional litigation in the case remains possible. The landowner, Sun Valley Land Corp., has indicated a potential challenge of the condemnation. But some lawyers within Telluride, including former mayor John Pryor, have indicated they will challenge the $50 million valuation established by a jury in nearby Delta.

 

Eagle, Gypsum congestion grows

EAGLE, Colo. – Five years ago neither Eagle nor Gypsum had a traffic light. Now, both do, plus roundabouts and other traffic-control devices. Still, traffic congestion continues to worsen, at times a reflection of population growth rates that have neared 20 per cent. And the population growth is far from finished.

Compounding the congestion is increased plane traffic at Eagle County Regional Airport and customers of a new Costco discount store near the airport. Traffic for both could be moved more expediently onto Interstate 70, but the cost of a new connecting road and interchange is estimated at $60 million to $125 million, beyond the money available locally. State and federal governments, also facing budget shortfalls, have withdrawn offers of help.

In response, the two towns are talking about creating a transportation authority, as allowed by Colorado law, which would create a taxing authority. The theory, explains the Eagle Valley Enterprise, is that if the local communities can pool money, state and federal transportation agencies might be more willing to co-fund projects.

 

Real estate in exurbs rises 600%

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. – Real estate is moving more rapidly in the exurban valleys adjacent to Jackson Hole. In Star Valley, an area on the far side of the Snake River Canyon, sales volume has increased nearly 600 per cent in the last five years, and average sales prices have increased by about the same proportion.

Starting at higher levels, in both volume and prices, something of the same thing has occurred in the Teton Valley of Idaho, located on the west side of the Teton Range. Real estate agents, in an advertising supplement to the Jackson Hole News & Guide, say the price structure is indicative of a place that is becoming less of a bedroom community to Jackson Hole and more of a self-sustaining market.

 

Coal plants expand rapidly

DURANGO, Colo. – Opponents of a proposed coal-fired electricity-generation plant in the Four Corners area think the tide may be turning in their favor. Still, the broader tide is not. The Christian Science Monitor reports a global boom in coal power — and hence greenhouse gases.

The plant in New Mexico, called Desert Rock, would be one of the cleanest power plants assembled, but also among the largest. Although it has received preliminary approval from the Environmental Protection Agency, notes the Durango Telegraph, New Mexico recently rejected an $85 million tax subsidy.

The Four Corners already has two major coal-fired electricity plants, both of which emit major quantities of carbon dioxide, mercury and other pollutants. Several lakes in the San Juan Mountains have dangerously high levels of mercury, although there is no confirmed link between the toxicity of the mountain lakes and the power plants in the desert.

However, the Monitor reports that the world during the last five years has binged on new coal-fired plants, with more than two new plants per week. China accounted for more than two-thirds of the 560 coal-fired power plants built between 2002 and 2006. The United States had added 2.7 gigawatts of new coal-fired generating capacity during that same time, but is slated to add 37.7 gigawatts of capacity during the next five years.

But even nations that have pledged to reduce global warming under the Kyoto Treaty are building power plants. The newspaper cites eight European Union nations that have added coal-fired power plant capacity almost as rapidly as the United States.

 

Ban on cyanide mining upheld

SUMMIT COUNTY, Colo. – The Summit County’s right to forbid cyanide heap leach mining has been upheld by the Colorado Court of Appeals. This ruling rejects an earlier decision that favored the mining industry.

The Summit Daily News explains that mining industry officials see the regulations as a possible first step to more restrictions. Stuart Sanderson, president of the Colorado Mining Association, which had sued to block the regulations, said regulations should be set by the state government, not local jurisdictions, to avoid a “patchwork of regulations.”

Summit County’s regulations fall short of a complete ban on mining, singling out just specific types of mining. As such, state regulations require mining operators to comply with local land-use regulations.

Four other counties in Colorado have passed similar land-use regulations, including Gunnison, which is where Crested Butte is located, and Gilpin, site of the Central City and Blackhawk casinos. Two other counties, Conejos, and Costilla, were heavily impacted by a mining disaster called Summitville that resulted from use of cyanide heap leach mining.

Ouray County, near Silverton and Telluride, considered such regulations but rejected them.

 

Bears emerge earlier

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. – Bears had emerged by mid-March in Steamboat Springs, both at the ski area and in residential neighborhoods. This is a month earlier than last year, a wildlife officer tells the Steamboat Pilot & Today.

 

Fire risk in perspective

HOT SULPHUR SPRINGS, Colo. – The Sky-Hi News urges residents of Hot Sulphur Springs to keep the risks of fire in perspective. The U.S. Forest Service wants to burn, thin, and otherwise “treat” 12,650 acres around the town. Many trees in the forest there are dead or dying, the result of bark beetle epidemic.

Perhaps thinking of what happened at Los Alamos, N.M., where a prescribed burn got out of control, burning down hundreds of houses, residents of Hot Sulphur Springs are concerned — and rightly so, says the Sky-Hi News. “But we feel the threat of a small, prescribed burn under the watchful eye of firefighting crews is better than a massive, out-of-control wildfire ripping through the forest.”

Meanwhile, the beetle epidemic may finally be waning in the Williams Fork Valley, which is between Hot Sulphur Springs and Summit County. “Most of the trees in that area have been hit,” Jen Chase of the Colorado State Forest Service tells Denver’s Rocky Mountain News.

That state agency reported that the beetles in 2006 killed four times as many trees per acre as they did in 2005.

 

Language classes considered

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. – At the instigation of the Jackson Town Council, a series of forums have been held in Jackson Hole to discuss how to best address the challenges and opportunities presented by a growing Latino population. Among the ideas: employer-sponsored language classes.

 

Real estate prices drive innovation

JACKSONE HOLE, Wyo. – As prices of real estate briskly move higher, increasingly sophisticated and expensive engineering is being found in developments in Jackson Hole.

One new real estate development being proposed would involve creating a tunnel under ski runs of Snow King Resort to access steeper mountain-side property where 26 condominiums are proposed. While access could have been provided through existing residential neighborhoods, residents had objected, providing the more innovative and expensive solution.

The developer, Dave Taylor, proposes 7 of the 26 condominiums be affordable, and he also pledges to incorporate the green-design principles allowing certification by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. He also promises to do construction in fall and winter, when people are less likely to be outside, to defuse noise complaints.

A second building proposal reported by the Jackson Hole News & Guide would involve a connecting enclosed bridge between two buildings at Teton Village, located at the base of the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.