Basalt residents may consider buying land downtown. But they won’t be able to vote until April. That’s because the measure would require raising taxes, which has lots of requirements.
In Basalt last Friday, IT manager David Fitzgerald said he supports a public vote to buy some of the controversial Pan and Fork land. “Do I want a hotel there? [I’m] not so sure I do. That can go over to Willits,” he said with a smile. “But a hotel would probably bring some life here in the core, which we need.”
The land in question is now privately owned by the Roaring Fork Community Development Corporation. It’s next to property owned by the Town of Basalt. Town Manager Mike Scanlon describes the situation this way. “It would be very tough for us to construct a question that we can put on the ballot. There’s just too many unknowns.”
In order for Basalt and its residents to have the power to decide what goes on both sections of land, the town needs to buy the private land. So a ballot measure would be a tax measure, which has a lot of extra steps. “We would have to negotiate the purchase of the property, and part of that would require to get an appraisal,” continued Scanlon. “And having done appraisals over the last two years in the Roaring Fork Valley, that’s going to be 30 to 45 days.”
And the first deadline for getting something on the fall ballot is about a week away. Colorado law says April would be the next time Basalt could consider a tax measure. Scanlon says it’s hard to have the exact language until the town knows what would be done with the property. Once the goal is nailed down, “everything else falls into place,” like what kind of taxes can be used to pay for it.
On Friday, a representative of the private landowner could not be reached for comment. The developer hoping to build a hotel on the property said it’s fine to put plans on hold until an April ballot measure. Now Basalt town council will have to decide whether to pursue the public vote.
