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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1.0 APPLICATION Application for Major Comprehensive Plan Amendment and Sketch Plan Review 1 THE COTTONWOODS: Application for Major Comprehensive Plan Amendment Approval and Sketch Plan Review December 17, 2012Entitlements Landscape Architecture Land Planning Civil Engineering Geotechnical RPM, Inc. The Cottonwoods2 Dear Garfield County Planning Commission, It is with great pleasure that we submit this application for a major amendment to the Comprehensive Plan 2030 and Sketch Plan Review. We have been fortunate to work with such a qualified and amazing team on this Cottonwoods project for nearly two years and now are thrilled to be able to bring this forward to the commission. We are excited to visit with you in February and explain in greater detail the information you see presented here in this package. We look forward to fielding your questions and gathering your thoughts on this exciting project we are embarking on in western Garfield County. THE COTTONWOODS Proposed on 347 acres just off of County Road 204 (Roan Creek Road) in western Garfield County, The Cottonwoods project will encompass a mixed use learning, research and living facility that will become the epicenter of research and outreach for the conservation and stewardship of large-scale, intact western landscapes. This application for a Major Amendment to the Garfield County Comprehensive Plan 2030 and Sketch Plan Review provides information regarding background, land uses, layout and infrastructure sufficient to describe the overall vision and intent of the campus. BACKGROUND OF THE HIGH LONESOME RANCH The High Lonesome Ranch is a large private ranch located on the western slope of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains near DeBeque, Colorado. The ranch’s nearly 35,000 deeded acres, most non-contiguous, and 250,000 leased acres, are interwoven with public (BLM) land, forming a roughly 300 square mile canvas. This area includes the North Dry Fork Creek and Kimball Creek valleys as well as a series of high mesa mountains and high alpine terrain. Finally, the ranch includes several non-contiguous desert parcels near the town of Loma. The future of this land is being guided by a group of owners, led by Texas attorney and conservationist Paul R. Vahldiek, Jr. The physical scale of the High Lonesome Ranch is matched by the owners’ mission to: Embrace a model of sustainability that, using public, private and non-governmental organization (NGO) partnerships: provides stewardship of a large-scale, intact western landscape; maintains biological diversity and ecological connectivity; restores degraded habitat; ensures long-term conservation of critical open space; and preserves western Colorado’s important ranching heritage while carefully balancing mixed land uses that economically support the ranch’s long-term legacy goals. 435 N 8th St. Carbondale, CO 81623 Contact: Heather Henry TEL: 970.618.3324 E-MAIL: hh@connectonedesign.com www.connectonedesign.com December 17, 2012 Application for Major Comprehensive Plan Amendment and Sketch Plan Review 3 The High Lonesome Ranch operates a guest/sporting ranch that currently focuses on big game hunting, wing shooting, fly fishing and sport shooting (sporting clays). The ranch provides owners and guests with a broad array of recreational and wildlife experiences, ranging from horseback riding, mountain biking, hiking and cross country skiing to bird watching, photography, archeological exploration, and orienteering. The ranch also owns approximately 550 head of cattle that utilize historic grazing rights associated with the original homestead ranches that comprise HLR. CHALLENGES FACING WESTERN LANDSCAPES Privately held lands throughout Colorado and the West are seriously at risk. Landowners struggle to maintain and manage their holdings against external pressures that continually put ecological and economic demands on their land. In the face of this pressure, landowners are left with few options and often sell off land for subdivision, mineral extraction or other single use opportunities that provide short term financial gain while sacrificing long term habitat connectivity, native vegetative communities and healthy ecological processes. With millions and millions of privately held acres throughout the west the long term risks to these intact healthy ecosystems is unfathomable. THE HIGH LONESOME INSTITUTE To achieve the vision of the owners of this property The High Lonesome Institute (HLI) was established for the purposes of advancing scientific and scholarly knowledge relevant to ecological, economic, and social sustainability and conservation of natural resources on mixed-use landscapes on the western slopes of the Southern Rocky Mountains. The scientific research that has formed the foundation for HLI has been on-going at on The High Lonesome Ranch for the past five years. HLI will help establish a future in which private lands in the West are resilient, healthy, and biodiverse, providing for sustainable commercial enterprise and robust natural processes. It will export broadly accessible economic and ecological models that help landowners restore and maintain natural resources and improve their financial bottom line. While the mission of HLI is broad-reaching and exemplary, the physical facilities from which it have been pursuing this work is lacking. Graduate students and visiting professors utilize makeshift and portable lab equipment and squeeze in to work spaces and living spaces that overlap with The High Lonesome Ranch’s guest accommodations. Ranch owners have become increasingly aware that HLI will only achieve its vision with the proper physical and financial foundation. After two years of study the Cottonwoods property was selected as the new home for HLI and the Trustees that will make this vision financially possible. THE COTTONWOODS The main property, 347 acres located directly adjacent to Kimball Creek Road (County Road 202), serves as the gateway to the entire Kimball Creek Valley and will serve as the home of The High Lonesome Institute. Uses will include a research, classroom and auditorium facility which will serve as the primary structure to house the High Lonesome Institute. Additional facilities for the institute will include storage, housing facilities for professors and students as well as outdoor spaces for recreation and outdoor learning. The trustee’s portion of the campus will include small residential cabins, a lodging facility, a small exercise facility and additional outdoor elements such as outdoor patios, firepits, employee housing, maintenance facilities, utility infrastructure and a handful of hand-picked single family homesites. The final plan was devised through extensive GIS mapping and intensive site visits to ensure that the proposed solution fit with the nature of the land. The development is nestled on the site in already disturbed areas, and near existing infrastructure. This allows more than 90% of the 300 acres to be developed as restored land for existing wildlife habitat, existing agricultural uses and ecological water processes. We anticipate further discussion as to the exact nature and specifics of the major amendment to the Comprehensive Plan 2030 but at this point are proposing a new site specific designation or ‘asterisk’ for a ‘Civic or Institution Center’. The Cottonwoods4 MEETING THE APPROVAL CRITERIA OF THE GARFIELD COUNTY COMPREHENSIVE PLAN 2030 The Cottonwoods project will meet the approval criteria of the Comprehensive Plan 2030 in the following ways. 1. The existing comprehensive plan and/or any related element thereof is in need of the proposed amendment. The current comprehensive plan was not able to able to envision all the unique land uses or site specific needs that may take place in the rural lands of Western Garfield County such that this area, like most of the surrounding rural lands, were designated for medium density single family residential, allowing for over 150 single family homesites on this particular 347 acre property. 2. The proposed amendment is compatible with the surrounding area, and the goals and policies of the Plan. The current plan for The Cottonwoods is both compatible and complementary to the surrounding land uses. Much of the surrounding lands are used in context with its rural character including, ranching, farming, residential uses, mineral extraction and recreation. The low density and mixed use nature of The Cottonwoods will concentrate similar uses in a highly developable portion of the valley and within its boundaries will expand upon all of those same uses furthering the existing ethos of the entire valley. This rural employment center is a physical representation of all the goals and policies to which the Comprehensive Plan espouses by bringing together in a mixed use landscape natural resource preservation, recreation and open space, trails, renewable energy, mineral extraction, economic opportunity and diversity, agriculture, healthy water systems, employment opportunities and housing. 3. The proposed amendment will have no major negative impacts on transportation, services, and facilities. Because of the self sufficiency of the project in areas of transportation, energy, water, wastewater and supplemental emergency services the project will have no negative impact on the transportation, services or facilities of Western Garfield County. 4. The proposed amendment will have minimal effect on service provision, including adequacy or availability of facilities and services, and is compatible with existing and planned service provision. The project represents a significant ‘downsizing’ of the density and impact on services from that represented in the current Comprehensive Plan. 5. The proposed amendment is consistent with the logical expansion of services. Because there is little to no impact on local or regional services, the project can be developed without the need for an expansion of services. 6. The county or the general area in which an amendment is proposed has changed or is changing to such a degree that the amendment is in the public interest. Pressure on landowners to sell off property to mineral extraction, subdivision or simple abandonment continues to increase every year. Western Colorado is desperate for model projects that can find healthy and sustainable economic and ecological ways to preserve huge tracts of land in perpetuity. This site specific use will provide exportable models to other ranchlands that can provide landowners with alternatives to subdivision. 7. Strict adherence to the Plan would result in a situation neither intended nor in keeping with other key elements and policies of the Plan. To envision these lands and those surrounding it utilized as two acre subdivided residential lots presents a tremendous risk to the intact landscapes that must be preserved throughout the west. 8. The proposed plan amendment has a significant public benefit; will promote the public welfare and will be consistent with the goals and policies of the Garfield County Comprehensive Plan and the elements thereof. The owners of this project care about the health of their lands and the wildlife that roam on them. This effort will Application for Major Comprehensive Plan Amendment and Sketch Plan Review 5 foster the ecological, social, and economic conditions that will sustain the integrity of western North America for present and future generations. Our voluntary actions will contribute significantly to conservation of the landscapes, livelihoods, and open spaces that make the West so globally unique. APPLICATION SUBMISSION TABLE OF CONTENTS FORMS PAGE 6 LAND USE CHANGE PERMIT PAGE 6 PRE-APPLICATION CONFERENCE SUMMARY PAGE 8 STATEMENT OF AUTHORITY PAGE 14 INDIVIDUAL ACTING ON AUTHORITY PAGE 15 PAYMENT AGREEMENT FORM PAGE 16 SKETCH PLAN SUBMISSION PAGE 18 CONTEXT PAGE 18 FIGURE 1: VICINITY MAP - 3 MILE PAGE 19 FIGURE 2: VICINITY MAP - 200 FEET PAGE 20 ON AND OFF SITE FEATURES PAGE 21 PROPOSED LAND PLAN PAGE 22 PROGRAM SUMMARY PAGE 23 CIRCULATION PAGE 24 LANDSCAPE PAGE 24 GRADING AND DRAINAGE PAGE 25 UTILITIES PAGE 26 VISUAL ANALYSIS PAGE 29 FIGURE 3: ON AND OFF SITE FEATURES PAGE 30 FIGURE 4: SKETCH PLAN MAP CONTEXT PAGE 31 FIGURE 5: SKETCH PLAN MAP ENLARGEMENT PAGE 32 FIGURE 6: CONCEPTUAL CIRCULATION AND EMS PLAN PAGE 33 FIGURE 7: CONCEPTUAL UTILITIES PLAN PAGE 34 APPENDIX A - PROOF OF OWNERSHIP