Noticias

• San Miguel County Adopts West End Vision Plan
• Society Turn Development Breaks Ground
• Skijoring Takes Main Street by Storm

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San Miguel County Adopts West End Vision Plan

The West End of San Miguel and Montrose counties is a dynamic and ever-changing place, but a vision for the future of the area is coming into focus.

“We started with the project a little over two years ago. We wanted to ensure that we weren’t making decisions for our community without our community — especially as we were facing questions with the Dolores River National Monument, a transition away from coal, and all of those other impacts that were coming into our community,” said Makayla Gordon, executive director of the West End Economic Development Corp.

The organization, in collaboration with Community Builders, a planning nonprofit, has been working to create a West End Vision Plan — a roadmap and guiding framework for development in the region.

“This project and the resulting plan have helped strengthen our region’s ability to act with purpose — working more collaboratively, making choices in alignment with our values, pursuing funding collectively, responding to challenges, and making progress on tangible things like housing, jobs and health care,” Gordon said.

The West End Economic Development Corp. and Community Builders hosted more than 100 community meetings, bringing in about 700 voices to help craft a plan that reflects the community.

On Wednesday, Gordon, along with Mackinzi Taylor of Community Builders, met with the San Miguel County Board of County Commissioners to ask for adoption of the plan.

Taylor said the plan highlights five main values for the region.

“The values phase was the longest and most important part of the process. More than 600 people collaborated on these values, and they’re really the heart of the plan,” Taylor said.

The values include small-town solidarity, being rural by choice, living with the land, foundations for a prosperous future, and charting their own course.

“From those values came a shared vision in the form of eight goals, which cover everything from access to health care to how to manage growth to regional collaboration,” Taylor said.

To reach those goals, the plan outlines 45 strategies, including policy recommendations to towns, working groups, and various projects and tools.

Taylor said that when it comes to San Miguel County, the plan serves as a conduit into the West End community and its wants and needs.

“We also hope you’ll reference the West End’s values and goals when you make decisions that impact that part of the county and help support the towns and WEEDC in pursuing resources to move forward some of the projects,” Taylor said.

For Gordon, the West End Vision Plan represents the region taking its future into its own hands.

“The West End will always have our challenges and questions to grapple with — whether that’s the economy, whether that be growth or shrinkage, outside pressures — but the real measures of success really come from within, and our community has chosen to be proactive instead of reactive by creating that clear decision-making roadmap for all local leaders to be able to follow,” Gordon said.

County commissioners expressed full support for the plan. Commissioner Galena Gleason, who represents the West End, shared her gratitude to the West End Economic Development Corp. and Community Builders for bringing the community together to create a shared vision.

“This plan will not only sit on a shelf and collect dust. It’s in hand often already doing my work. It’s a very incredible tool that has been missing. I’m grateful for all of the energy and collaboration from Community Builders as well as WEEDC, and all of the jurisdictions and leaders and partners that have contributed to this. It’s an incredible asset,” Gleason said.

County commissioners then unanimously and enthusiastically adopted the plan.

San Miguel County was the final municipality to adopt the West End Vision Plan. Norwood, Nucla, Naturita and Montrose County have already done so.

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Society Turn Development Breaks Ground

At nearly 20 acres, the Society Turn Development property at Lawson Hill will include land for a new hospital, open space and trails, commercial space, and housing.

After years of planning between San Miguel County and Genesee Properties, the Society Turn project is moving forward, and construction is about to begin.

San Miguel County Planning Director Kaye Simonson spoke with KOTO’s Julia Caulfield to share more information about the project and next steps.

Julia Caulfield (JC): You have been in the minutia of this project for years at this point, but for folks who maybe have kind of been peripherally hearing about it, but haven’t been in the weeds as much, can you just give a little bit of an overview as to what this project is and some of the background on how we got to where we are now?

Kaye Simonson (KS): Over the last many years, there’s been a lot of discussion about what to do about the medical center. Their lease does expire in a few years. They need a new home. So over the years, there’s been a lot of talk about, well, where can we locate a new facility? And it finally came down to the Society Turn parcel.

So in 2018 or so, they started doing the actual planning for the project. First thing up was a master plan amendment so that it would fit. Then we had to go through all of the Planned Unit Development and the subdivision process, which has taken up until this week when the plat finally got recorded. So it’s been about an eight-year process.

JC: You work for the county. You’re not one of the developers on this project, but you know it very well. Obviously the Med Center is a piece of it. Can you give a little bit of information about some of the other uses or things that might be coming on this land kind of in the years to come?

KS: They established six development lots, and then also three other parcels that will get transferred for public use.

Of course, the biggest parcel is the medical center parcel, and that can have about a 40,000-square-foot building. Then there are five more parcels that are for mixed-use development. They can have office uses, commercial uses, we created something called “flex space,” which allows a lot of different types of activities, including makerspaces.

Then there is the potential for a hotel that can have up to 125 rooms. We were concerned about how that fit with the community, but we required that they not make it a condo hotel. So it’s not a resort hotel. We really did want a hotel that will be available for the average people who are looking for somewhere to stay.

Then on the third floor of all the buildings, that’s where the affordable housing will be.

JC: Again, you are not the developer making these decisions. You’re not on the board of county commissioners who is voting on this and the like. But throughout the process, and it’s been many years in the process, there’s been a lot of public comment, a lot of feedback on what people think should or should not be in this space. Based off of where the PUD got to, how do you feel like that fits within the rest of Lawson Hill that’s right there and kind of the community as a whole?

KS: One thing that they did was take advantage of that site and the fact that it sits considerably lower than the roads. One of the big concerns was the impacts on the view as you come up Keystone Hill and the view into the valley. So all the buildings will be set much lower than the roadway. They’ll look one-and-a-half to two stories tall adjacent to the highway.

The development will have its own design guidelines, much like Lawson Hill does, and they’ll have their own design review board. That calls for making sure that the design is compatible and helps frame the views and is visually compatible.

Another thing that they’re doing is they’re putting in landscaping along the highway so that when development does come in, it’s more mature and provides more screening.

JC: Obviously this approval didn’t happen and it’s not like there’s going to be this huge development there next year. Where do we go now in terms of the next steps that are happening as we move through this project?

KS: They have three phases on the development. It’s a three-year, seven-year, ten-year deal on the phasing. The first phase is to construct the basic infrastructure and then have all the infrastructure ready for the medical center.

The other big part that we’re really going to see starting is the highway improvements. With this project, they’ll be building, they’ll be widening the road to build turn lanes. They’re doing the trail in the right-of-way, the commuter trail, and that’ll be paved like the bike path.

They’ll be building retaining walls and then doing the landscaping.

JC: In terms of construction delays or things like that, for folks maybe this summer over the next year, what should commuters, people driving, what should they kind of expect for what that construction, how that will impact them?

KS: Probably the first thing that people will see is the placement of concrete barriers — very similar to how the chain-up station was done.

They don’t want to do full lane closures. If they have to do a lane closure like that for active work, they plan to do that sort of stuff at night. They’ll also stop work for Bluegrass and hopefully any other holidays that have a lot of traffic. The Fourth of July is on a weekend this year, so not a big deal.

They hope to have the work done by this fall on the road. The internal work that I described, that’ll probably run through next year.

Full planning documents are available at bit.ly/societyturnpud.

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Skijoring Takes Main Street by Storm

Story begins at 11:50.

On a warm, windy spring weekend, Main Street in Telluride was packed.

Hundreds of spectators, dozens of horses, skiers and cowboys showed up for Telluride’s first skijoring event.

“Right now, we’re located kind of at the start, so there’s horses and skiers,” said Derya Senol, who was standing on a bench watching the action.

“Think skiing meets jorts, mustaches, ’80s skiwear with Pit Vipers,” Senol said.

Skijoring originated in Scandinavia, where horses, reindeer or dogs would pull people on skis. The modern version of the sport involves horses running at top speed while a skier or snowboarder navigates a track of gates and jumps, trying to cross the finish line the fastest.

“It’s a total adrenaline rush. The crowd, the atmosphere. It’s just unbelievable,” said Patrick Smith, who manages a cattle ranch in Meeker.

Smith has been competing in skijoring for three years alongside his horse, Izzy.

“We call this sport a three-heartbeat sport. You have the heartbeat of the horse, heartbeat of the skier, heartbeat of the rider. It literally all has to come together in the perfect storm,” Smith said. “There’s a lot of adrenaline, anxiety, there’s a lot of stuff going on that amps everything up, and you got to bring all of that under control for a moment. Time stands still, and when everybody’s on cue and it comes together, it’s beautiful.”

Telluride’s Max Lamb participated in the competition this year. It was his first time skijoring, and he said he didn’t have many tricks of the trade.

“I don’t know. I don’t know, but it’s really enjoyable,” Lamb said.

But when the moment comes, he said, you just lock in. Lamb was skiing behind rider Sadie Farrington and her horse, Chili.

“You kinda get in the zone of what’s happening. She said what she could do. In the first run we made a plan,” Lamb said. “The second go we said, as fast as she wants to go, and she went as fast as she wanted to go.”

And fast was fast. In the final run of the day, Lamb, Farrington and Chili finished second, just 0.04 seconds behind the winning time.

In its inaugural year, Telluride Skijoring beat the odds. Organizer Ashley von Spreeken put the event together in eight weeks. A bad snow year meant organizers had to haul in truckloads of snow to cover the street, while horses ran on a sandy track to the side.

“I’ve lived in Telluride my whole life, and this winter was one of the hardest times to be in Telluride,” von Spreeken said. “The economics of bad snow, of shutdowns, that definitely created a little bit of a dark cloud over town.”

She said she wanted to create some light and levity.

“I think that it was important that we did something that brought some joy and brightness and some excitement,” she said. “Anyone who came to the event knows how it felt and what it was like. That was the secret sauce, and I couldn’t have asked for anything better.”

Rosie Rogers, Seven and Kolby Ward won Saturday’s races.

Jed Moore, Zombie and Ward — competing again — won on Sunday.

As for Telluride Skijoring, organizers say this year was just the beginning. They plan to bring the event back in 2027.

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Line Dancing Night in Norwood

Get your boots stomping and your heels clicking. Line dancing is coming to Norwood.

The Norwood Park and Recreation Department is hosting a night of line dancing this weekend. The evening will begin with a lesson, followed by an open dance.

Line dancing in Norwood will take place Saturday, March 21, at the Livery. The lesson runs from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., with the open floor from 6:30 to 10 p.m.

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Heat Wave Threatens Snowpack Across West

Forecasters are predicting record-high temperatures this week across the Western United States.

The spike is due to a high-pressure system creating a massive heat dome, pushing temperatures into the 80s at higher elevations and close to 100 degrees in parts of the Southwest.

In Telluride, highs are expected to reach around 70 degrees, with overnight lows staying above freezing.

Russ Schumacher, Colorado’s state climatologist and director of the Colorado Climate Center at Colorado State University, said the biggest concern in Colorado and other mountain states is the snowpack, which is already low after a record-breaking warm and dry winter.

“The warmth will maybe last five to seven days in that really extreme level, but it doesn’t look like it’s gonna really cool off or get real snowy the week after that either,” Schumacher said. “So it is not a great outlook coming up for the snowpack.”

Schumacher said the heat could lead to a very early melt, which would be bad news for the outdoor recreation economy and could worsen wildfire conditions.

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CAIC Warns Increased Avalanche Danger

With the warm temperatures, the Colorado Avalanche Information Center is warning of increased avalanche danger through the weekend.

The center noted that loose wet avalanches will trigger more easily on sunny slopes as the day heats up. Some avalanches could penetrate deeper into the snowpack, grow larger, and potentially trigger wet slab avalanches.

The CAIC urged recreators to start early and avoid steep slopes once the snow becomes wet and soft. Conditions can change quickly. The center recommends always checking the forecast before heading out and carrying a beacon, probe pole and shovel.

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Colorado lawmakers rejected a bill this week that would have required local police to intervene if U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and other immigration officers used excessive force.

As KUNC’s Lucas Brady Woods reports for the Colorado Capitol News Alliance, two Democrats joined Republicans in voting against the measure.

The bill also would have blocked state and local officers from hiding their identities when working with federal agents and would have required them to undertake immigration enforcement training.

Rep. Chad Clifford, D‑Littleton, was one of the Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee who voted against it. A former police officer, he said many supporters of the measure misunderstood the state’s ability to regulate federal immigration enforcement.

“That bill left language in continually and then put out on the internet like we could do it, and now people think we could regulate ICE, and we don’t have the authority,” Clifford said.

Clifford also said many of the provisions in the bill are already on the books.

The measure faced significant opposition from police chiefs.

Sponsors said they are disappointed the committee sided with law enforcement over community members asking for protections against immigration agents.

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BLM Considers Expanded E-Bike Access in Central Colorado

The Bureau of Land Management is considering expanding access for some electric bikes on public trails across the central Colorado River Valley.

The agency is taking public comment on the proposal and recently held two informational meetings in Eagle.

For Rocky Mountain Community Radio, KDNK’s Betsy Welch reports.

Story begins at 20:10.