After nearly three hours of conversation in their regular meeting on Tuesday, April 12, the Buena Vista Board of Trustees rejected the proposed Stackhaus Annexation in the last moments of voting. The board adjourned for the night almost immediately after the votes concluded, at 11:15 p.m.
As proposed, the development, located at 15750 County Road 306, would have been zoned R-3, high-density. Alex Telthorst, the applicant, said the development was intended to meet the needs of the “missing middle,” residents who make 80-120 percent of the area median income (AMI).
Telthorst made the case that the property is within the three-mile planning area and municipal service area and that the town has been looking at the property “much longer than [he has].” Additionally, he pointed to the 2020 Chaffee County Comprehensive Plan, which states that “the Future Land Use Plan aims to intensify developmental potential around existing communities and maximize investments in infrastructure in order to reduce pressure on the County’s rural areas, agricultural lands, and sensitive ecological assets.”
In his rationale for zoning the development as R-3, Telthorst said the infrastructure and transportation routes were already present and that the development would be 50 percent R-2, with townhomes and single-family homes. Telthorst said he also met with the Westwinds Homeowners’ Association, agreeing to lower the building height limit, place the high-density apartments closer to CR 306 to give neighbors more space, and size buildings to blend in with the existing developments.
Proposed Stackhaus Annexation. Courtesy of the Town of Buena Vista.
The plan called for the development to be done with Fading West, and Telthorst said he would be working with the Chaffee Housing Authority (CHA) to ensure priority went to in-county people. He recognized the initial dust and noise of getting infrastructure finished but pointed out that once that was completed it would be a few weeks per unit.
Joseph Teipel, Planning Director, explained the town staff’s recommendations for the Development Agreement, including a clarified height limit of 30 feet, an increase from 30 percent to 79 percent long-term housing, no condominiums (exempting deed-restricted affordable units), the removal of the single-family equivalent (SFE) water limit, a minimum requirement of 50 apartment units, and clarification of the unit count to include accessory dwelling units (ADUs).
Trustee Gina Lucrezi, who was attending the meeting on Zoom, wanted to confirm that the units would be for local residents, and Telthorst explained that his assumption was that the rentals would be for the local workforce, some townhomes would be attainable and others would be permanently affordable, and the single-family homes would be sold at market rate in order to support the cost of the rest of the project. He’d also be working with CHA to meet the need to qualify people into those units.
“The need is immense,” he said. “What I’m doing in this project is what I think I can afford to do.”
The Stackhaus Annexation was on the agenda as a public hearing, and more than 30 people joined in person and on Zoom to listen in and register for comment, many of them from the Westwinds subdivision off County Road. 306. One of the main arguments was whether R-3 zoning was truly appropriate for the proposed development.
“We are trying to understand the rationale of putting an urbanized high-density zone property in an area surrounded by semi-rural, low-density properties,” said Ed Boxer, who joined the meeting virtually. “This appears to violate the intent of the R-3 zone district as found in the Buena Vista Municipal Code.”
“If R-3 zoning on this property does not fit any of the designated purposes of the R-3 zoning district, then why is there a rush to do it?” asked Debra Zinik, another Westwinds resident. “Can we all agree that affordable housing is needed and see it is also agreed by over 100 residents that this is the wrong place?”
Annotated Site Plan of the proposed Stackhaus Annexation. Courtesy of the Town of Buena Vista.
Another theme of the public comment was the potential impacts the development might have on the traffic on CR 306.
“The traffic studies that the Stackhaus developer did in 2021…were taken in May, which is the wrong time of the year to get an accurate picture of the traffic on County Road 306,” said Carol Colgate. “Apparently the company doing this analysis does not understand the truckloads on County Road 306 through summer, which is the height of the tourism season. Traffic counts would have to be done in June through August to understand existing values.”
Susan Shampine, the co-founder of the nonprofit Mini Blessings, expressed her concerns about the impacts of increased noise and traffic on the horses.
“[I] had a horse that, once the tip of the highway was reopened with Cottonwood Pass …developed stomach ulcers and narcolepsy and I had to remove that horse,” she said. “So we’re very concerned about the impact of additional traffic on our livestock there.”
Daniel Willmann expressed concerns about who would be upholding equitable lending processes in the development and the potential for short-term rentals (STRs), and architectural engineer Christine Mertes said that there was no precedent or jurisdiction requiring the developers to sell properties below market rate.
“Alex even says he hopes his proforma is right. He hopes that he can make enough money off of the first phase to build the second phase,” she said. “And that will leave us with a lot of market-rate houses built and nothing else at the end. I was also disappointed to see, after the zoning meeting, the Zoning Commission said they’d like to see this be 60 percent or 76 percent long-term housing and not short-term rentals, and yet Alex did not change his presentation at all to include any other comments from his own commission.”
Town Attorney Jeff Parker said that there was a protest filed against the zoning of the property, so when the town voted to zone it as R-3 they would need four of the six seated members to vote in favor for it to pass (Ordinance No. 12). Additionally, all four resolutions and ordinances would need to pass for the annexation to go through. After around three hours of discussion, debate, and proposed amendments to the development agreement and annexation agreement, the board began to vote, with the Annexation Agreement and DA amended as follows:
- 32 ft. height limit
- 80 percent prohibition of STRs
- A minimum of 30 percent of the land area required used for apartments and related infrastructure
- Condominium moratorium for ten years
- 25 percent of any condominiums created after ten years must be sold into 80-100 percent AMI, using covenants
- Apartments would be priced to serve 80-140 percent AMI
- 25 percent to serve 80-100 percent AMI
- The average of all rents for apartments will not exceed 120 percent AMI
- Preference will be given to in-county residents via the tenant selection criteria as managed by the CHA to the extent allowed by applicable law
- Remove SFE (single-family equivalent) limits for water
- Require the developer to study off-site traffic impacts and mitigation efforts upon subdivision application
- 101 dwelling units plus an allowable 13 ADUs
Resolution No. 25 was approved, confirming the annexation’s eligibility and approving the Annexation Agreement and DA. Trustee Lucrezi was not able to cast the first vote, as she was joining virtually. Trustee Cindie Swisher was the only no vote, saying she didn’t agree with the R-3 zoning.
“I think it’s a fantastic idea. I don’t agree with the location.”
Courtesy of the Town of Buena Vista.
Ordinance No. 10 and Ordinance No. 11 were approved, “flagpole” annexing the to-be-developed property on CR 306. Trustees Swisher and Lucrezi both voted against both ordinances.
“This is the last vote and we need to get four for this,” said Trustee Devin Rowe before the final ordinance. “And if we don’t, this probably won’t happen, and I really feel like this is something the town really needs…We just spent three hours talking about this, and I feel like I’m all of a sudden surprised that this might not go…It may not be exactly what we all want, but I feel like it’s going to do a lot of good for this town.”
“For several years, this property has been in the Three Mile plan. It’s been in the desired area of growth, and it’s been in the municipal service area, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it will be developed in some way soon,” added soon to be sworn in Mayor Fay. “This seems like a lost opportunity to do something good…To achieve affordability requires R-3 zoning and proximity to existing infrastructure.”
“We definitely need more housing,” said Lucrezi. “But I just think, unfortunately, this was the wrong place to pick…There have been tons of comments and the petition and a ton of voices coming forward asking for consideration about their side of it, and not one person besides the developer comes forward saying they want this to happen from in town.
“Deciding what we do tonight sets a precedent…I understand the town will grow, but there’s lots of opportunity for development in town currently, and I think we should be focusing on that versus pushing out…I understand we sat here for three hours but that’s our job. That’s what we do.”
“[As] soon as this board gets serious about building some housing, you’ll go somewhere,” concluded Mayor Duff Lacy, “but until that happens you can talk about all the housing you want.”
Ordinance No. 12, zoning the property as High-Density R-3, failed to get the required four votes, with Trustees Swisher and Lucrezi voting no. With the failure of this ordinance, the annexation failed.
The board adjourned a few moments later at 11:15 p.m., skipping over the usual Trustee-Staff interaction.
“This was a well thought out concept, and all the pieces were in place to make as much affordability as we could happen,” Telthorst said after the meeting wrapped. “The dominos had to fall just right… In the planning and zoning meeting, it was brought up that while it seems like this is right at the edge of town now, in a few years one mile from the stoplight will be pretty close to town and will only become more so over time…I invested a lot of time and resources, and the town invested a lot of time and staff. I just wish it had gone another way.”
Though disappointed that the annexation failed, Telthorst said he “[doesn’t] think we’re done talking about this piece of property.”
“The town’s been thinking about this piece of property for way longer than I have, so something will happen there, either under my stewardship of it or somebody else’s,” he continued. “It’s concerning because of how much good there was in the project, that there is in the project. The idea that [the location of the planned development] seemed to be the killer is pretty surprising to me.
“This is a setback tonight,” Telthorst concluded, “but we’re not done yet.”
The board’s next regular meeting will be at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 26, after a 6:00 p.m. work session on the Rodeo Grounds Master Plan. Meetings are held at the Buena Vista Community Center, 715 East Main Street, as well as on Zoom. More information about the meetings, including packets and agendas, is available on the town’s website.
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