Last night, the Basalt Town Council had a thoughtful discussion on next steps in the Town Planning process. There was a sense of excitement about the vision presented by the citizen-led Downtown Area Advisory Committee, laden by the important responsibility of crafting a final plan that satisfies current residents and holds promise for future generations.

As oft described in past newsletters, last month DAAC made their recommendations to the Town Council and staff following 10 weeks of intensive evaluation and re-working of the hundreds of maps and thousands of ideas presented by community groups.

Central to DAAC's recommendations were:

• Connectivity between downtown and the rivers through visual and physical access
• Improvement of Lion's Park
• Allowing density to drive revitalization
• Putting "There There"

Read the full DAAC report with exhibits here or watch the presentation at the Basalt library.  

Out of the Town Council members' discussion came these key observations:

• A certain amount of density is essential to the Town's vitality
• The community must grow with demographic diversity, inclusivity and accessibility
• Prospective developers must "buy in" to the vision generated by the community process
• The Town must make investment in Basalt attractive and feasible
• The Town must move quickly to landscape and improve the river parcel to attract people to downtown

Councilman Garry Tennenbaum described a "big bubble" over areas that the Town doesn't own, and the Council considered:

• How is new development mixed effectively into an existing downtown core?
• How can a community take a conceptual vision, zone it appropriately, and work with private owners to address financial, feasibility and regulatory issues in order to realize the vision that came out of the DAAC process?
• How does the Town re-frame its development process to create a structure that supports the Town's common vision, while remaining tenable to potential investors and builders?

Town Manager Mike Scanlon observed that the Our Town Planning process and the concrete vision presented by DAAC has already impacted prospective developers. Lowe Enterprises principal Jim DeFrancia, for one, has followed the DAAC process closely and expressed alignment with the principals put forth. In November, Lowe Enterprises announced an exploratory development agreement with the nonprofit Roaring Fork Community Development Corporation, owner of a portion of the riverfront parcel, and later described an interest in maintaining open space, public access and visuals to the river. 

 

At this week's meeting, the Town identified 15 project areas key to constructing a careful and strategic road map forward. They relate to infrastructure deficiencies, potential legal and regulatory obstacles, physical constraints, Master Plan considerations, steps toward creating river park and pedestrian connections to downtown, affordable housing, and identifying financial tools available to make the vision a reality. You'll fine the outline in more detail on pages 69 and 70 of the January 13, 2015 Town Council agenda.

 

Each project area is categorized and assigned to an existing individual, committee or department - the next stage in the Our Town Planning process. 

 

Members of the Town Council again thanked the 10 citizens who carried out the condensing and shaping of the earlier community input. They applauded the smooth channeling of the DAAC vision into the current concretizing stage. Last Friday, a timely article crossed my desk that lauds this very process of "stakeholder-driven governance."

 

By the looks of it, the Town of Basalt and its citizens are way ahead.

Now for some winter fun, please mark your calendars for a ribbon cutting party and open house on January 28 at Faboo and Basalt Emporium and Flying Circus in Basalt's beautiful, historic downtown.