The major agenda item of the Feb. 25 Town of Buena Vista Trustees meeting was review of a proposed ordinance regulating camping, parking and recreational or camping vehicles on private property in town limits, meant to replace its current ordinance. Of particular importance is regulation during the critical, high tourism time frame from April 1- Sept. 30. The new ordinance would limit camping and recreational vehicle use on private property to two nights per month, with up to 21 user days per year. No camping will be allowed to stay on any town of Buena Vista public property unless covered by a special event permit.
A “Pin on Land Yacht”. Photo courtesy of Pinterest
“Most changes are to tighten up the code and give us more enforcement teeth,” explained Code Enforcement Officer Grant Bryans.”This is enforceable – it gives us good teeth to make this work.”
Trustee David Volpe asked about overnight parking and overnight camping in the downtown area. Town Administrator Phillip Puckett responded, saying “We kicked around overnight parking, but not in the northern railroad area.”
Trustee Libby Fay asked that the ordinance language be adjusted to say that the private property where a company’s employees would be allowed to park be owned or leased by the business owner, not just owned. “That gives them some more flexibility to lease space for their employees,” said Fay.
Puckett confirmed that during the first year of adjusting to the new ordinance, there will be no administrative fee to process the permits. Volpe made the motion to approve the ordinance, Fay seconded, and it passed unanimously.
Puckett updated trustees on discussion with the Boys & Girls Club regarding a town-owned parcel next to Avery Parsons Elementary School and behind Newbees. The club is using space in the school. Facing growing community need and use, it needs a permanent home. While no permanent decisions have been made, the Boys & Girls Club is preparing some design concepts, and taking into consideration spaces that could provide more recreational and community space for the town, not just the Boys & Girls Club.
Recreation Manager Earl Richmond asked trustees to consider changing town ordinance Chapter 11, covering special event permit application time frame, to allow the town more notice before special events on town property.
“Before they could do something between 18 months to up to 14 days before a special event. It’s just too short [notice],” said Richmond. “So now with this change, it’s 12 months [prior] to no less than 30 days prior [to the event]. Motion to approve that change was made by Norm Nyberg, seconded by Lawanna Best, and passed unanimously.
Trustees moved to approve the Chaffee County offer of $69,696 to cover the cost of a road and bridge street paving project near Rodeo Rd. Public Works explained the amount covered labor, plus more than $55,000 just in asphalt, which would save the town considerable expense. Motion to approve allowing the county to proceed on the “not to exceed” budget was made by Trustee Cindy Swisher, seconded by Mark Jenkins, and passed unanimously.
Trustees unanimously approved Resolution 18-2020 transferring their federal fiscal year 2020 allowance of $150,000 from Buena Vista airport to Salida Airport, Harriet Alexander Field. The annual general aviation allowances for aviation facility improvements are set up so that four central Colorado airports combine those funds in rotation. Every four years each airport gets $600,000 toward their facility improvement needs and this year is the Salida Airport’s turn.
The Trustees have a board strategic planning session scheduled for March 5, to go over the key vision areas of the town’s long term plans and discuss strategies and policies to meet the town’s objectives. Former Buena Vista Mayor Joel Benson, who will lead the interactive planning session, said the current plan is five to six years old and needs updating. Of particular interest he said, is reviewing the way in which town government interacts with the community.
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