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Home My WebLink About2.0 Staff Report02.13.2008Exhibits for PC Public Meeting held on February 13, 2008 A Garfield County Zoning Resolution of 1978, As amended B Garfield County Comprehensive Plan of 2000 C Application D Staff Memorandum E Email from Pitkin County Planning Department dated 2/4/08 F Email from CDOT dated 2/3/08 G Email from County Sheriff dated 2/4/08 H Email from County Road and Bridge dated 2/5/08 I Letter from Resource Engineering dated 2/6/08 J K it"! writtil L M N intv 6lv A t,l 5kcv W r4)( 1 i, Cyr v ),` Request to Vacate Public Right -of -Way Project Information and Staff Comments PC 02/13/2008 FJ 3 EXHIBIT .J� REQUEST APPLICANT LOCATION Vacate a portion of County Road 118 (Mount Sopris Ranch Road) Iron Rose Land & Cattle II, LLC South of the Town of Carbondale, CO .=. 48 • reg 2008 Europe Technologies I. REQUEST The Applicant requests the Board of County Commissioners (the Board) vacate a portion of County Road 118 from its intersection at the Applicant's ranch entrance back to State Highway 133. II. GENERAL ROAD DESCRIPTION / USE Presently, CR 118 begins at the west side of State Highway 133 (SH 133), crosses the Crystal River then turns south as it enters the Applicant's property (former Perry Sopris Ranch) and generally terminates in hay fields (with some evidence that a road alignment continues on to the south to re -connect to SH 133). (This is illustrated in the map above where the dashed line represents the portion of CR 118 to be vacated.) Today, as one leaves SH 133 and cross the Crystal River, CR 118 presently provides direct access to the Colorado Division of Wildlife Fish Hatchery and to this Applicant's Ranch. The PC 02/13/2008 FJ Applicant requests to only vacate the portion of CR 118 that lies within his property and that serves no other property. This action would result in preserving CR 118 under County jurisdiction as it is presently used today and will not result in closing access to any other property. The Applicant provided the following centerline survey of the portion to be vacated. STATE CS Ct1074CA) r( iZ Sc 7#Lttf7 LDJTt MU. grr 457 n. sss L14 415 FJl CYC l l073d LA'17 R ?..2. ?G.. tah 714t44. HEN Ire SW- 14M5, EU trallEAN moi% �l ctictr rttakaL hU W.OJ T +1. 5 r rG 44 . 4Y.3:9 {'..N1 GRAPHIC .SCALE ata a va (Ot YBES F x tarn . d[1l ft. Y ad 7. Y T14E55 CORKER 75 SC COINER aril !u ?t*A$P 5' .169 CGUMTY sunlit.? a4.ss C - _&L.c 5aCuta, xbrr as n:ieMwa 12I42-2 NN -Flit liD1,.bt mi. -2- PC 02/13/2008 FJ III. REQUIRMENTS Requirements for vacating a public right-of-way are identified in Garfield County Resolution No 2003-07, Colorado Revised Statutes §43-2-201.1 and §42-2-303. Garfield County Resolution No. 2003-07 requires that Staff refer the application to vacate any public right-of-way to the following: • County Manager • County Attorney • County Road and Bridge Department • County Sheriff • County Surveyor • County Engineer • Town of Parachute • Colorado Division of Wildlife • Bureau of Land Management • U.S. Forest Service • Colorado Department of Transportation • Grand Valley Fire Protection District Colorado Revised Statutes §43-2-201.1 is specific to the closure of a public right-of-way extending to public lands, which identifies a penalty for blocking access to public lands. Anyone who intentionally blocks, obstructs, or closes any public highway extending to any public land has committed a class 1 misdemeanor. If it is the intent of a private property owner to close public right-of-way providing access to public lands the owner shall notify the Board of the proposed closure. The Board shall post notice of the proposed closure in -a -publication -of -general -circulation -within- sixty -(60)-days. The -Board -must -provide -the public with eighteen months to comment on the proposed closure. IV. REFERRALS Staff received the following comments from the referral agencies indicated above: A. Garfield County Road and Bridge: "After review of their application to vacate interest in CR 118, Road & Bridge has no objections other than we request a large enough area to turn around at the gate." B. Pitkin County: "The Applicant says there are no public or private lands (other than his) affected by this vacation. What about those two or three houses that are directly north of the portion of the road that is perpendicular to 133? They look like they don't have any other access. Are they owned by Applicant? And there is a chunk of BLM land back there. Is that accessed from RVR or something" C. County Sheriff. "The Garfield County Sheriff's Office does not have any comments in the matter of vacating the portion of CR 118 known as Mt. Sopris Ranch Road." D. Colorado Department of Transportation: `1 have no issues with the vacation of the CR 118 in regards to access." E. Carbondale Fire Protection District: "We have no issues with the vacation of that portion of the County Road." (Letter submitted by Applicant as Exhibit E in the - 3 - PC 02/13/2008 FJ Application.) F. Town of Carbondale: Larry Ballenger (Public Works Director) explained that the Town does not have a problem with the vacation so long as they can continue use the road as access to the Bowles and Holland Ditch that the Town owns and maintains. G. Mountain Cross Engineering (County Contract Engineer): ENGINEERING ISSUES From a technical perspective, a dead end road would need to have an adequate turnaround for maintenance, snow removal, and emergency vehicles. It appears that GARCO Road and Bridge Department has not had any problems in the past and the Carbondale and Rural Fire Protection District indicated they have no issues with the proposed partial vacation of the road. OTHER OBSERVATIONS The 1909 Grubbs dedication of a 45 foot right-of-way to the County does not appear to be a "stub" road but rather a connection across the Crystal River from the Elk Mountain Railroad grade to the Crystal River Railroad grade for the Crystal River Boulevard public highway. Construction of—a new bridge—across—the Crystal—River along the—current Highway 133 alignment rerouted the main roadway from the Grubbs bridge crossing and off the Mount Sopris Ranch. V. RESOLUTION NO. 2003-07 XI PROHIBITED VACATIONS Resolution No. 2003.07 §XI states that the Board shall not approve any petition or request to vacate a county or public road right-of-way when the following information has been submitted: • The subject county road or public road right-of-way provides any access to public lands; • The subject county road or public road right-of-way abuts or is connected to any property including any easement owned by the federal government, State of Colorado, municipality, county, or special district, where such property or easement constitutes a public park, recreational area or trail; • The subject county road or public road right-of-way is currently used or will be used in the foreseeable future for any county or public road purpose; -4- Staff Finding The present County zoning map to the right shows the road terminating on the Applicant's property. Also the map below shows that there is BLM "in - parcel" to the west of the ranch that is not publically accessed from the portion of CR 118 that falls within the Applicant's ranch property. PC 02/13/2008 FJ Staff discussed this vacation question with a property owner, David Stover, who used to have access through the ranch; he indicated this easement has now been dissolved and Mr. Stover uses an alternate access through River Valley Ranch. However, Mr. Stover still maintains a US Post mail box on CR 118 and indicated that he would not support a vacation if it meant eliminating his mailbox at that location. Regarding the history of CR 118, the Applicant has submitted a substantial set of maps, deeds, etc. that indicate the northern most segment as it crosses the river and lands on the west bank of the Crystal was actually deeded in 1906 from the Grubbs to the County. From then on, there are a wide variety of state and county maps showing various alignments of CR 118, most all of which depict the road terminating either at the gate of the Perry Sopris Ranch or just inside the property. Nowhere in any of the documentation does the road show an alignment providing access to the BLM property to the west. In 1992, the County expended public funds to improve the bridge across the Crystal and pave a short portion of the road from SH 133 across the river. The County's HUTF documents indicate a decrease in mileage maintained from 0.39 to 0.19 miles; that latter of which section would still remain a county road after vacation. There appear to be four other properties that had access at one time from CR 118 which include Stover (mentioned above) and MacCReady which have both vacated their easements and the Fasching House and Ruth Brown property which have been acquired -5 PC 02/13/2008 FJ by the Applicant with the purchase of the ranch and were accessed via easements or private internal ranch road. The only other parcel is owned by the CDOW which will not be affected by the proposed vacation as it will still have the portion of CR 118 that would remain a county road. VI. STAFF RECOMMENDATION Based on the information above, Staff recommends that the County Planning Commission recommend the Board of County Commissioners approve the request to vacate a portion of County Road 118 as described on the Applicant's survey finding the following: 1) That proper public notice wa provided as required for the hearing before the Board of County Commissione 2) The subject county road or public road right-of-way does not provide any access to public lands; 3) The subject county road or public road right-of-way does not abut or is not connected to any property including any easement owned by the federal government, State of Colorado, municipality, county, or special district, where such property or easement constitutes a public park, recreational area or trail; 4) The subject county road or public road right-of-way is not currently used or will not be used in the foreseeable future for any county or public road purpose; 5) That for the above stated and other reasons, the proposed public right-of-way vacation is in the best interest of the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of Garfield County; 6) Any resolution shall include a "Whereas" statement that indicates the Town of Carbondale shall still have access as it has historically had in order to maintain the Bowles and Holland Ditch that the Town owns; and 7) The Applicant shall provide the County Road and Bridge Department with a turn- around design that meets their requirements and shall construct any associated improvements requested by the Road and Bridge Department prior to the vacation of CR 118. -6-