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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019.10.17 OSTB Regular Session minutes_S MINUTES OPEN SPACE AND TRAILS BOARD REGULAR SESSION Oct. 17, 2019 530 East Main St.Aspen OSTB Present: Graeme Means Howie Mallory Amy Barrow Michael Kinsley Wayne Ives Dist. 1, Chair Dist. 2 Dist. 3 Dist. 4 Dist. 5 Chair Staff Present: Dale Will, Gary Tennenbaum, Janet Urquhart, Kim Arensdorf, Jessie Young, Suzanne Wolff, Richard Neiley Others Present: Sunfire Ranch representatives Jason Sewell, Doug Pratt, Connor Coleman, Alex Sewell, Justin Nyberg Howie Mallory called the meeting to order at 9:03 a.m. PUBLIC COMMENT None. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES Wayne Ives moved to approve the Open Space and Trails Board's regular and executive session minutes of Oct. 3, 2019 as amended. Michael Kinsley seconded. Motion passed(5-0) Sunfire Ranch Open Space Master Plan Dale Will explained the Open Space Master Plan process and the role of the Open Space and Trails Board in reviewing such a plan. The goal of the plan is to create a land-use plan simultaneously with a conservation easement purchase so that the landowner, the county and Open Space and Trails all understand what will be permitted under the plan. The process has been used for large ranch properties; the Sunfire Ranch application is more complicated than others the county has approved, Will said. The Open Space Board's role remains to review the application in general terms and decide if it meets the terms contemplated in the contract to purchase a conservation easement. The technical aspects of the land-use application are in the purview of the county's Community Development Department and the Board of County commissioners. Will said OST staff recommends approval of the Open Space Master Plan for Sunfire Ranch by the Open Space and Trails Board. He commended the master plan as an inspiring vision for the future of the historic ranch and said most of the ranch will be conserved, and its most important habitat protected, under the master plan. Jason Sewell, Sunfire Ranch owner, said discussion of an Open Space Master Plan began 16 or 17 years ago. The plan contemplates the future needs of the ranch. To remain economically sustainable, the ranch will need flexibility and economic diversity, he said. That's why the plan combines elements of agriculture and tourism at the ranch. Paul Holsinger entered the meeting at 9:21 a.m. 10/17/2019 OSTB Regular Session Minutes Page 1 of 7 Doug Pratt, land-use planner for Sunfire, offered an overview of the application. He said the gravel resource area on the property will remain part of the ranch; it is not divided out as a separate parcel in the application. The proposed six free-market lots are located outside the wildlife habitat. The master plan accommodates either the lots or the development of a family compound. It is one or the other, Pratt said. Once the family decides to pursue sale of lots or development of the compound, the other development opportunity is extinguished. Howie Mallory asked what triggers the lots versus the compound. It is up to the family, Sewell said. The plan gives the family flexibility to have the compound or sell lots if that influx of funds is needed, or sterilize the lots if there is a funding source to conserve the lots rather than develop them. Under the plan, the compound can only be built out as needed, Connor Coleman said. Suzanne Wolff reviewed the application and the proposed conditions of approval the Community Development Department has drafted for the master plan. There are elements that will be approved if the BOCC approves the master plan and others that will require further, special review before they can be implemented at the ranch. The details of proposed development or activity are established in the special review, she said. The proposed master plan complies with the Crystal River Master Plan and the Crystal Caucus has endorsed the plan, she said. Under the plan, all future development at the ranch will be exempt from the county's Growth Management Quota System, she noted. The ranch won't compete for square footage in order to pursue development contained in the master plan because the owners are giving up existing development rights in exchange for the plan, Wolff said. Sunfire Ranch currently has rights for development of 29 single-family homes. The Open Space Master Plan replaces that development scheme with one that reduces the density and intensity of development at the ranch significantly, Wolff said. It also decreases the area of the ranch that can be developed. The master plan allows about 58,000 square feet or 62,000 square feet of residential floor area(depending on development of the lots or the compound). The ranch currently has about 16,000 square feet of developed floor area, of which about 7,600 square feet is residential. The rest is garages and other outbuildings. Total square footage at the ranch, including residences and other buildings, could eventually total about 130,000 to 135,000 square feet under the master plan, Wolff said. If the master plan is approved, the development rights it contains will be permanently"vested" - in other words, they won't expire, Wolff said, even though many of them will need further approval through special review. Uses at the ranch will be limited to residential, commercial and tourist accommodations, according to Wolff. Special review and BOCC approval would be required for various elements of the plan, including a special events venue, meeting hall/conference center, campground, educational classes and commercial gravel extraction. The special review would established all of the details of these uses, establishing the number of uses, size and other limitations, she said. With each special review, the county will look at the cumulative impacts of all the existing uses at the ranch, including uses already approved through previous special reviews, Wolff said. The expansion of uses could occur over a long period of time. The Conservation Easement will apply to lands outside of the building envelopes. Nothing can happen in the conserved areas that isn't 10/17/2019 OSTB Regular Session Minutes Page 2 of 7 allowed by the easement, Will said. Some uses proposed in the plan are not currently allowed in the county code, according to Wolff Future code changes would be required before those uses could be considered through special review. Some of the educational activities envisioned at the ranch would require a code change, she noted. Wolff noted the housing proposed for ranch staff and interns cannot be converted to guest ranch housing or converted to free-market rental housing without special review. In addition, it will be deeded restricted as staff housing. In addition to special reviews that will be triggered by development of various elements within the master plan, Sunfire Ranch will be subject to county review every five years to ensure that activities at the ranch remain in compliance with the master plan and county code, Wolff said. In addition, Open Space and Trails conducts a compliance audit on conservation easements annually, Pratt noted. Special review uses, such as events, for example, could also trigger additional monitoring, Wolff said. The special review approvals will go to the BOCC,but the Open Space Board would have the opportunity to review proposals through a referral. The Open Space Board and staff can weigh in with advisory comments, Will said. Though the Open Space Board has no approval authority in the special review, the board's comments are fairly influential, he said. Open Space and Trails Board members suggested several tweaks to the conditions of approval that have been proposed to apply to the Sunfire Ranch Open Space Master Plan. Wayne Ives suggested modification of Condition No. 25 in the conditions of approval that have been proposed to apply to the Sunfire Ranch Open Space Master Plan. He asked that it allow the manipulation of vegetation for the benefit of habitat, as well as agriculture. Howie Mallory asked if a condition could mandate the clearing of pinon/juniper within the conserved lands to improve habitat but other board members did not support the suggestion. The language of the Conservation Easement can accommodate the action without mandating it and allow Open Space and Trails to propose habitat enhancement, Dale Will said. Amy Barrow questioned the allowance of camping within the conserved lands - including the use of yurts with floors - as proposed in the master plan. That use would require special review and approval, and Colorado Parks and Wildlife would review proposed locations for camping, Wolff said. The structures would be moved around to prevent perennial impacts, she said, and a plan to mitigate and minimize impacts would be defined in the special review. The ranch would collaborate with CPW on the proposal, Pratt said. And, the activity would occur in the summer/early fall when the activity would not overlap with wildlife use of the habitat, Coleman said. Graeme Means asked about the visual impacts of proposed greenhouses. There is a one-acre cap on their size, Sewell said. They are required to be clustered and there can be no more than two clusters, Coleman added. New structures require site plan review, which addresses visual impacts, Wolff said. The greenhouses are not part of the total development square footage in the master plan because they are considered agricultural production square footage, according to 10/17/2019 OSTB Regular Session Minutes Page 3 of 7 Sewell,but Wolff said it would be appropriate to acknowledge the square footage of the greenhouses in the plan approval. Amy Barrow asked if there is public access to the ranch outside of participation in its programs. If there are no classes to satisfy the public benefit of the master plan, there is the opportunity for four tours of the ranch per year, Sewell said. A naturalist-guided tour of the conserved lands a few times per year would be appropriate, Will added, but no regular access via trail, for example, is part of the master plan or the Conservation Easement. Access is always something the Open Space Board should consider when purchasing an easement, Barrow said. Trail access onto the ranch would attract hundreds of people and be a"nightmare,"Michael Kinsley said. Howie Mallory asked if hunting/outfitting would be allowed on the conserved lands. That is included in the master plan, Sewell said. The special review for the guest ranch operation will establish the parameters for hunting, and CPW will be involved, he said. Hunting will be allowed in the Conservation Easement as it relates to what is allowed in the master plan and under state hunting regulations, Will said. Mallory also asked about restrictions on the gravel extraction area. The Conservation Easement does not restrict it; gravel extraction can occur with additional permitting. After it is extracted, the area rolls into the greater easement on the property, Will said. That operation also requires special review and approval; the review would establish whatever remediation is required, Wolff said. The master plan only creates an approval of the activity envelop defining the gravel extraction area, Pratt said. Liza Mitchell entered the meeting at 11 a.m. Dale Will summarized the requested tweaks to the conditions of approval suggested by the Open Space Board: • Include specifics of size and location of greenhouses, and level of review for greenhouses, within the conditions of approval. • Amend condition 25a to allow manipulation of vegetation for agriculture and/or wildlife habitat improvements with a correlating provision in the Conservation Easement that allows habitat improvement and collaboration with Open Space and Trails. • Require the referral of future land-use reviews required by the master plan to the Open Space and Trails Board. Dale Will, Richard Neiley, Jason Sewell, Alex Sewell, Doug Pratt, Connor Coleman and Justin Nyberg departed the meeting at 11 a.m. 2020 Open Space and Trails Budget Gary Tennenbaum noted the board previously reviewed the major pieces of the proposed 2020 OST budget and the work plan. If the board votes to recommend approval of the budget, it will go to the Board of County Commissioners next month, he said. If commissioners make major changes, the budget will come back to the Open Space Board for review, Tennenbaum added. 10/17/2019 OSTB Regular Session Minutes Page 4 of 7 Colorado Parks and Wildlife provided additional clarification regarding its request for$70,000 for ongoing elk studies, Tennenbaum said. Howie Mallory said he was bothered by the brevity of CPW's presentation at the board's Oct. 3 budget discussion. Mallory said the presentation was incomplete and it seemed CPW was taking OST funding for granted. CPW made a more detailed presentation a year ago, at the outset of the studies, Tennenbaum said. It's only because of OST funding that the local elk herd is being included in the calf-cow study, he said. CPW points to low calf-cow ratios when it opposes local trail projects; it will be helpful to the Open Space program to define why the lower ratios are occurring, he said. The elk study will also help inform an ongoing study of wildlife habitat in the Roaring Fork River watershed, Tennenbaum said. Graeme Means questioned whether CPW would be asking for$70,000 for each of the remaining four budget years in the six-year study and if the board is willing to continue funding the project at that level for the outlying years. There are four more years of additional budget requests, Tennenbaum concurred. Michael Kinsley asked if Open Space and Trails was committing to future years of funding by recommending the $70,000 for 2020. The board can't commit funding beyond the next budget year,but it can let CPW know it wants future allocations to be lower, or that it wants the agency to identify other, additional funding partners, Tennenbaum said. The study data will be extremely useful for the Open Space program, he said. Means and other board members indicated they didn't realize the project would result in ongoing budget requests from CPW. Last year, the agency presented a plan that called for$54,000 for three consecutive years from Open Space and Trails, Tennenbaum said. The board can say it won't continue funding the project at $70,000 in future years, he said. Dale Will and Richard Neiley entered the meeting at 11:42 a.m. The increase to $70,000 allows CPW to collar 25 6-month-old elk in order to better understand over-winter survival rates, explained Liza Mitchell. That is a new element to the study not envisioned during last year's presentation, she said. Another piece of last year's funding, for a bighorn sheep study, was not used, Tennenbaum added. Michael Kinsley said the study probably doesn't make sense without multiple years of data. Other activities by Open Space and Trails will be informed by the results of the study, he said. Kinsley said he isn't bothered by the cost of the study in relation to the value of the data as the Open Space program looks to spend millions of dollars on land conservation and acquisition. The data will be publicly available and will inform not only recreation decisions, but potentially land-use decisions, Tennenbaum said. He suggested Eagle County could be approached for some funding of the study. In addition to the study of calf-cow ratios and calf survival, CPW is studying the impact of recreation on elk. The collar data will aid in that study, Tennenbaum said. Michael Kinsley asked if the study results would apply to other wildlife species, in addition to elk. It would apply to other ungulates,particularly deer and possibly bighorn sheep, Tennenbaum said. Good elk habitat is good for a lot of other species, Wayne Ives added. If quality elk habitat has no elk in it, that also raises questions, Tennenbaum said. 10/17/2019 OSTB Regular Session Minutes Page 5 of 7 Ives said he could support the $70,000 allocation with the caveat that the board does not expect to fund the study at that level in succeeding years and that CPW look for additional partners. Ives said he'd like to know what future costs are anticipated for the study. Tennenbaum said he will contact CPW and report back to the board on Nov. 7. Tennenbaum also explained the proposed additional seasonal maintenance staff person in OST's 2020 budget and the $50,000 expenditure toward a full-time Forest Protection Officer position within the U.S Forest Service. The Forest Service has proposed hiring two full-time FPOs with Open Space funding half of one and the county's general fund paying for half of another. The Forest Service has had difficulty hiring seasonal FPOs, but full-time posts can be filled, providing a regular enforcement presence at the Wildwood put-in for North Star throughout the summer, and enforcement of wintertime closures and wilderness violations. In addition, the county wants better enforcement of the off-highway vehicle ban on county roads. The funding is not likely to be a one-time request, Tennenbaum said. Tennenbaum said a budget request for a Crystal River streambank stabilization project will be presented to the Open Space Board on Nov. 7 Graeme Means said he'd like to see a breakdown of how much money is being spent in each of the three segments of the Open Space budget -Acquisitions, Trails and Maintenance - since expenditures must stay within certain ranges for each category over the life of the program's tax authorization. That information will be presented well before the 2021 budget discussion, Tennenbaum said. Tennenbaum said the additional seasonal maintenance position will help with smaller restoration projects that the program is undertaking. Operations and maintenance costs will continue to rise as the program buys more properties and builds additional trails, Michael Kinsley said. Wayne Ives expressed support for the Forest Protection Officer funding but said it's unfortunate that the county has to help fund the operations of the federal government. Amy Barrow said she also supports the expenditure. The county is fortunate to have the resources to help fund the positions and to have amenities it wants to protect, she said. Howie Mallory said he doesn't believe the county can deal with increased recreational pressure solely through more enforcement and said the county will need to manage access to outdoor destinations, through paid parking at trailheads, for example. BOARD ACTION Sunfire Ranch Open Space Master Plan Wayne Ives moved to recommend approval of the Sunfire Ranch Open Space Master Plan with the amendments to the conditions of approval suggested by the Open Space and Trails Board. Michael Kinsley seconded. Motion passed(5-0). 10/17/2019 OSTB Regular Session Minutes Page 6 of 7 2020 Open Space and Trails Budget Michael Kinsley moved to recommend adoption of the 2020 Open Space and Trails budget by the Board of County Commissioners, acknowledging the Crystal River steambank stablization project may be added. Graeme Means seconded. Motion passed (5-0). EXECUTIVE SESSION The OSTB entered executive session at 12:25 p.m. in accordance with (CRS 24-6-402(4)(a)), (CRS 24-6-402 (4)(e)) and (CRS 24-6-402 (4)(b)) for the purpose of acquisitions, negotiations and attorney consultation. The OSTB adjourned the executive session at 12:21 p.m. ADJOURN The OSTB Regular and Executive meetings of Oct. 17, 2019 adjourned at 1:45 p.m. Approved: Attest: Howie Mallory, Chair Janet Urquhart Pitkin County Open Space &Trails Board Pitkin County Open Space &Trails Stewardship and Outreach Coordinator 10/17/2019 OSTB Regular Session Minutes Page 7 of 7