Whetstone

from A1 team led by consultants Trestle Strategy Group and Williford LLC.

The Whetstone Community project team took 18 months — starting in spring 2021 — to conduct an extensive design process that included site walks, work sessions and stakeholder meetings with everyone from neighbors to developers to valley youth. Those meetings surfaced community priorities for the development, chief among them preserving open space.

“What people really valued and what they wanted to see included in the plan was a series of outdoor spaces,” said JV DeSousa, project architect. “A park, a central greenway and a boundary trail became formative elements in the design of this neighborhood.”

The current sketch outlines 231 units spread among four distinct neighborhoods or “zones.” Unlike any other county housing project, Whetstone is proposed to have multiple building types; triplexes, townhomes, walk up flats and apartments. The goal is that it be 100% deed-restricted, although the county’s Land Use Resolution only requires at least 40% to be considered an affordable housing project. Different housing styles will allow the county to offer units at varying income levels, Cattles said.

Before boots are on the ground, the project must pass through three phases of development with the planning commission. The sketch plan, submitted in October of 2022, is exploratory, with no detailed engineering plans. With approval of the sketch plan comes the preliminary plan, where detailed engineering and labeled “abnormally dry.”

Each fall, the Colorado River Forecast Center analyzes the basin’s soil moisture, usually after the irrigation season has ended and before winter begins. This ensures models are “as close to reality as possible” before heading into the next runoff season, she said. Streamflow observations, reservoir inflows, precipitation levels and past runoff volumes are just a few of the data sources the forecast center uses to adjust its models.

Soil moisture conditions are near to below normal across the Gunnison River Basin. This deficit is the result of the persistent drought across much of the Southwest. This can result in a lower water supply forecast, because more water will seep into the ground before it reaches rivers and streams when snow begins to melt in the springtime.

“We still have below average soil moisture conditions for the entire basin and a soil moisture deficit that we'll need to overcome before we can see efficient runoff,” Nielson said.

Although the southern half of the basin is drier, snow conditions are above average for the basin, she said. The overall snowpack for the Gunnison River Basin hovered around 157% of normal as of Jan. 19, exceeding the amount recorded in January of 2022.

All of these factors combine to create 2023’s first water supply forecast, a prediction of how much water will enter the basin’s rivers and reservoirs once the snow begins to melt. The Jan. 1 April through July water supply forecast for the Gunnison River Basin ranges from 90-110% of average based on the time period between 1991 and 2020.

The median forecasted inflow for Blue Mesa is 650,000 acre-feet, which is 102% of average, and a recent increase thanks to a wet January. Forecasts vary widely because mid-January is still a little less than halfway through the snow accumulation season, leaving room for lots of uncertainty, she said. The Jan. 1 forecast in 2022 was also 650,000 acre-feet, but Blue Mesa ended up with only 431,000.

“There's a lot of winter left, and we'll see things change over the next few months,” she said. While an atmospheric river pushed inward from the coast to the Colorado River Basin during December and January, that pattern has shifted, Nielson said. Warm, moisture rich storms that were good at producing precipitation will be disrupted by a northwest flow bringing colder storms with less moisture.

Blue Mesa projections

Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) Hydrologist Erik Knight also gave an update on Aspinall Unit operations, which includes the Blue Mesa, Crystal and Morrow Point dams. Blue Mesa ended 2022 at an elevation of 7446.5 feet, which is 44 feet below the Bureau’s the project is significant.

“[I’m] doing everything I possibly can to continue making a life here. I recently counted the number of houses I have lived in during those 10 years, and the numbers match. 10 years,10 houses.” desired winter target elevation, he said. The reservoir is currently 35% full. Taylor Park Reservoir sits at 62%.

Planning commission member and contractor Fred Niederer said bigger buildings can achieve better economies of scale, saving upwards of 30% at higher densities.

Pulling the apartment buildings farther away from the highway created “detrimental impacts” of larger parking lots and smaller green spaces. DeSousa added that building placements were a result of many plan iterations that accounted for the most efficient parking access and safest traffic flows.

According to projections from the BOR, Blue Mesa will reach a maximum seasonal fill of approximately 590,000 acre-feet of storage, or 71% full. The estimated end-of-year content is 485,000 acre-feet, which is 30 feet higher than where the reservoir ended 2022.

“That is some good news,” Knight said. “Obviously not getting close to a full reservoir, but definitely adding some water on top of where we were last year in 2022.” south expressed support for the project, but brought a few concerns to light. design work is required. The final phase will include staff and planning commissioner review before the formal green light on construction.

(Bella Biondini can be contacted at 970.641.1414 or bella@gunnisontimes.com.)

Tod Colvin, owner of the Creekside Subdivision, expressed interest in an access agreement, preserving a berm between the lots, and limiting unit density and building height.

John Murphy, who lives in the Riverland Industrial Park, said he has concerns about the soil drainage. A soil report done when he moved onto the property revealed a need to route water away from the buildings due to unstable soil that may affect the foundation. He has concerns that those soil conditions extend onto Whetstone property, posing potentially expensive repairs down the line.

The current sketch proposes significant changes to the Brush Creek intersection, including a roundabout acting as an entrance to Whetstone. To accommodate public transportation, the county plans to move the bus stop to the west and improve it with larger bus pull-outs and waiting areas.

Part of the intersection design includes an underpass under the highway to allow pedestrians to access the bus stop without crossing multiple lanes of traffic.

The Deli trail, which deadends at the brush Brush Creek intersection, would cross the road, pass under the Hwy. 135 and connect to Whetstone, allowing multimodal travel to the site.

All of the proposed buildings at Whetstone are two stories tall, save the two proposed dark red apartment buildings along Hwy. 135, which will be three stories tall. Those structures will frame the entrance of the neighborhood and are meant to “create a sense of arrival,” especially for those arriving on bus, bike or foot, DeSousa said.

The proposed 230-units was the middle ground for density, he said.

“We believe that was enough density to make the neighborhood transit oriented and to work well for sustainability, but at the same time still provide those open spaces for the people who would live in the neighborhood,” he said.

Support and concerns Resident Lindsey Freeburn supported density, and said it “is like the backbone of creating community,” by connecting neighbors and friends. For Freeburn, the potential impact of

But valley resident George Gibson expressed concern about the buildings, both for their livability and impacts on the view. He fears the apartment buildings along Hwy. 135 will set a precedent for other builds along the highway in the future.

“Using the guise of traffic calming and justifying the RTA pedestrian underpass, we hurt the residents in these buildings trapped between the highway traffic noise and the large parking lots,” he said. “And we have destroyed the city’s up-and-down valley view for locals and visitors.”

Forty-five-year resident Nan Lumb agreed.

“The worry I have is the location of these buildings will significantly and forever alter the historic and iconic view corridor in the two-mile entrance to Crested Butte,” she said. “Buildings this massive will diminish the rural feel and agricultural character of the North Valley and set a precedent to urbanize.”

Neighbors to the west and

Andy Kadlec, executive director of the Gunnison Valley Regional Housing Authority, supported the goal of 100% deed restriction and reiterated the value of adding housing stock.

“We see a consistent stream of community members who need workforce housing, as well as people that have jobs and are looking for housing to come to the valley … and the reality is that we just cannot meet that need in a variety of different ways,” he said.

Former County Commissioner and Town of Crested Butte Councilor Jim Starr spoke on behalf of the Valley Housing Fund and said after witnessing nearly 40 years of affordable housing projects and efforts.

"Whetstone is the biggest advancement in that effort to date,” he said.

(Abby Harrison can be contacted at 970.641.1414 or abby@gunnisontimes.com.)