The Gunnison County Planning Commission voted 2-2 to approve a draft reccomendation regarding the sketch plan for the Lower Verzuh development, a large residential project proposed near Brush Creek Road on Hwy. 135. Without three affirmative votes, the project is now in the hands of the Gunnison County Board of County Commissioners to either schedule another planning commission hearing or to vote on approval.
Planning Commission Chair Eric Phillips and commission member Anna Fenerty voted against approving a draft recommendation document regarding the Lower Verzuh sketch plan. Commission members Brett Adkins and Beverly Troxel voted in favor to approve the document.
Gunnison County planning department staff were at first unsure of how to proceed with a split vote, calling it an “unusual event.” The commission took a five-minute recess while county staff reviewed the county’s rules for the situation.
All three of Gunnison County’s commissioners participated in the meeting. The Planning Commission is appointed by commissioners and functions as an advisory committee, meaning that its recommendations on proposals do not bind the county to make particular decisions.
The Planning Commission’s decision came after a five-and-a-half hour meeting that saw extensive public comment and a packed meeting room. Many North Valley residents commented in opposition to the proposal, citing its density, potential impact on wildlife, the scarcity of water, their wishes to not see another large development near Crested Butte, and, they said, the plan’s incoherence with adjacent subdivisions. Other county residents, notably small business owners, voiced support for the plan and the affordable homes that are part of the plan.
The developers, Lacy and Dow, LLC, have proposed dozens of workforce housing, or about one-quarter of the total units, to be clustered near the highway. In all, Lower Verzuh would entail subdividing 450 acres into 338 residential lots with 433 residential units. Those homes would include 254 single-family free-market units and 179 deed-restricted “essential housing” units, according to the county planning department. Sixty-percent of the total parcel would remain open space.
Should the County advance the proposal to the next review phase, more formal analyses of water supply and wildlife impacts would take place. However, those studies are not part of the sketch plan step.