Officials in the mid valley are continuing to look at a major development proposal near Whole Foods. The controversial Tree Farm plan could mean as many as 400 hundred residential units and more than a 130,000 square feet in commercial development. But if the property was a few football field lengths to the southeast, it would go through a whole different set of requirements.
Basalt Town Manager Mike Scanlon often has to answer questions about what can be built in the El Jebel area. "We have a line that goes through the middle of our town, and if you ask people where it is they couldn’t tell you, but it’s basically at the 50 yard line of the football field behind the middle school.” That’s the line between Pitkin and Eagle counties. If you follow that line west of downtown Basalt, you’ll see that the Tree Farm proposal is in Eagle County. The zoning requirements in Eagle County, and in this case for developer Ace Lane’s proposal, are still being determined. Whereas in the neighboring county, Scanlon continues, "typically what you’re going to see in Pitkin County is one house on ten acres. And it’s going to be somewhere around 5275 [square] feet. And on that particular property, you could build 7 houses.”
Or, the developer could ask the town of Basalt to annex his property, and then the trustees would review whether to allow many more homes of varying sizes. “I often tell people the culture here is more Pitkin in terms of land use,” explains Scanlon, “and probably a lot less in terms of what we would accept as scale of development than maybe what you’d see in Vail, Avon, Dotsero. Those places that are over on the I-70 corridor.”
At a public hearing about the proposal on Thursday 7/16, several people stated they preferred the Tree Farm property have big houses and not much else. Basalt resident Mary Robertson feels the density of the current proposal could degrade her qualify of life. “I just get this urban feeling,” she shivered, “[and] they’re also talking about the buses, everybody being able to commute to work [by bus].”
Robertson suspects more residents would actually have to drive in order to get to work, meaning more traffic on an already busy artery. The development, if approved, would be across Highway 82 from the sizable Willits development, which is annexed into Basalt. Town Manager Mike Scanlon says annexing could be a better model for the Tree Farm proposal. He and officials like the idea of adding more housing, but they’re wary of adding more commercial space.
“I think it’s a smarter choice to build dense, than to build sprawl,” says Holly Buell. She and her husband, Brian, were one of very few who spoke in favor of the proposal at last week’s hearing. “I think it’s much better to fit 400 units on 72 acres with a lot of open space, than to go up to Missouri Heights and build 400 units on 5000 acres,” she continues. “That puts more people in cars.”
Buell, who’s in her mid 30’s and shares a house with roommates in El Jebel, is hoping to find a place to buy and settle down with her husband. She and others will have more opportunities to voice their opinion about the project, as officials continue to review its merits-- and what changes they might require.
“It’s a balancing act,” says Mike Scanlon. “And it’s a tough one, [balancing the] public good, private good, private interest, public interests, and then trying to navigate to make sure that individual who owns lands’ rights are protected, and the community’s rights as relates to services being delivered, and how those are impacted, also are protected.” Eagle County commissioners will make the final decision on the proposal.
