Just up the hill from El Jebel, Missouri Heights is dotted with a mix of small ranches and multi-million-dollar homes, many of which look out at a striking view of Mt. Sopris.
The unincorporated neighborhood in Eagle County has long been a ranching and residential community, despite attempts to build more housing and commercial properties over the years. But new regulations could further protect Missouri Heights from development pressures.
Eagle County began updating its land use regulations in 2023 — its first review in over two decades. The draft updates include a new zoning map and codes designed to guide local development, environmental protection and housing. The current draft solidifies much of Missouri Heights as Residential Estate or Residential Rural, which would not allow multi-family housing or commercial developments.
"Our current regulations are an endless maze of additions, unclear definitions and unwieldy amendments,” said Eagle County Commissioner Tom Boyd in a press release on Aug. 25. “Our new code will have a clean, clear architecture. It will reflect today’s realities from housing affordability to environmental resiliency.”
Keep Missouri Heights Rural supports most of the changes. It has advocated to keep commercial developments and other large-scale projects out of the area since 2021.
“If you live here and you love the quiet, and you love the wildlife and you love the community itself … it's a reason to be involved,” said Karen Moculeski, president of Keep Missouri Heights Rural.
Over the past five years, the neighborhood association has opposed several projects, including housing and horse ranch developments. Moculeski said Eagle County’s proposed new zoning will clarify what types of projects developers can build. For her, that’s a good thing.
“Coming in and doing these other things that generate a lot more traffic, that generate a lot more water use, those are the kinds of activities that are just clearly not going to be allowed,” she said.
But Moculeski does not support all aspects of the new plan. Eagle County’s Planning Commission is considering tweaks in El Jebel where several parcels are set to be up-zoned for denser, mixed-use development.
At a Sept. 3 meeting, Roaring Fork Valley and Eagle County planning commissioners discussed a 1.78-acre parcel near Tree Farm Lots. Previously, the lot was zoned as Resource, which doesn’t allow for any development. The new zoning plan would allow development for housing or commercial properties.
Most planning commissioners expressed support for the change last week. But ahead of the meeting, Moculeski told Aspen Public Radio about her concerns with the proposal.
“If more dense development is allowed to continue in El Jebel — the Mid Valley area — you're just compounding the problems of evacuation,” she said. “And you're compounding the problems of traffic on Highway 82.”
While new developments in the area have been contentious, the town of Basalt has said it needs more housing to support the valley’s growing workforce.
Eagle County’s consultant for the project, Todd Messenger, also said rezoning the parcel near Tree Farm Lots presents an opportunity to build more housing.
“I think this could be something,” Messenger said at the Sept. 3 meeting. “And I think that the county should want it to be something.”
Bob Andre, a Roaring Fork Valley regional planning commissioner, agreed with Messenger, adding that he’d like to set the lot up for affordable workforce housing.
But another planning commissioner, Laura Smith, worried that the plan was “too big a leap” and that the county should not make community planning decisions.
Smith suggested zoning the parcel as Mixed-Use Neighborhood Scale. Other commissioners liked her solution, as it would still impose a three-story limit on new buildings and require prospective developers to seek county approval, while allowing for potential housing growth.
The planning commission will continue to tweak the zoning map for the next two months; a hearing to adopt the final version of the plan is set for Nov. 3.
