GLENWOOD SPRINGS — Garfield County commissioners voted down the controversial Hunt Ranch development set for Missouri Heights on Monday, voicing concerns about the density of the project in the rural area above Carbondale.
Neighbors have been vocal in their opposition to the project. A crowd of about 40 who filled the meeting room erupted in cheers after commissioners reached their decision.
“I’m shocked,” said neighbor Becky Chase, who wiped away joyful tears as she left the hearing.
Developers left vowing to return with another project, but they warned it may look very different from this one, which contained a massive stretch of open space between clustered homes.
“It’s a little bit of a shock for us,” said Greg Amsden, operating manager for Hunt Ranch. “We created a development we thought was tuned in to the master plan for that area.”
He accused neighbors of barring a new subdivision about as dense as the ones they live in.
“They have it. They don’t want anyone else to have it,” he said.
Developers were proposing 93 home lots, each about 6 acres, on 562 acres of sweeping meadows in one of the midvalley’s most desired locations. They proposed a ring of housing enclosing 250 acres of pasture that would be preserved as agricultural land. While they weren’t required to provide affordable housing, they pledged to limit homes on five lots to 2,500 square feet in an effort to create more housing geared toward local professionals.
Neighbors blasted the project as far too dense for the rural area. Many of them live in nearby subdivisions, but some noted that those were built decades ago, and that notions of land use have changed since then.
Commissioners Tresi Houpt and John Martin were persuaded. They voted 2-1 to reject the development. Commissioner Larry McCown voted in favor of it.
“I don’t believe this development is compatible with the neighborhood,” Houpt said.
McCown argued that it conforms to the county’s comprehensive plan, which allows for 6-acre lots.
Neighbors presented a litany of concerns. Many of them focused on water in an area where wells have gone dry in drought times. A well owners association sued the development in water court. They reached a settlement intended to avoid well impacts, but some worried future homeowners might not abide by it. Their worries were backed by a state water commissioner who warned wells there could run dry as land uses changed.
“‘Misery Heights,’ as some old-timers refer to it, is a dry, windy area,” warned longtime rancher Kit Strang, whose sweeping ranch abuts the property.
“The amount of development needs to stay in balance with the landscape, with the environment, with the climate,” Strang said.
Others worried of wildlife impacts. John Olson said that part of Missouri Heights is called “the zoo” because of the abundance of elk that bed down there. Olson said he counted 250 elk there last Saturday.
“It’s an amazing wildlife habitat we have there,” he said.
dfrey@aspendailynews.com
