APRIL UPDATE: The contentious proposed development Harvest Roaring Fork has withdrawn its application for a 1500 unit subdivision in the Cattle Creek area after weeks of community backlash. In an April 6th letter to Garfield County Planning and Zoning, the developer asked the county to stop its review of the development, and hold no further public hearings. The Post Independent reports the withdrawal was to give the development team time to review the proposal and return with a better vision. The withdrawal came soon after the Planning Commission voted 6 to 1 to recommend denying Harvest Roaring Fork after an unfavorable public hearing. The development can still return in the future for another round of county review.
On February 25th, the Garfield County Planning Commission met at Colorado Mountain College to hear from the developer of a potential housing project on Cattle Creek, as well as hundreds of interested locals. Siri Olsen is a member of the Cattle Creek Confluence Coalition, a group of locals concerned with conserving Garfield County's open spaces.
She says the developer's presentation went on for so long that the public comment period had to be cut.
Siri Olsen: There were lots of slides that he tried to go over and a few of his consultants there that I think he was trying to give an opportunity to speak to specific issues, some of which were issues that had been raised in the staff report.
I don't know whether they typically have any kind of time limits with these kinds of meetings for developers. I don't think they do. I think they kind of have whatever amount of time they need to provide an overview for their application. So it's frustrating for those of us that wanted to get to public comment, but it was 10 o'clock basically. I understand why the commission chose to do what it did.
There's no official number for how many people were in attendance, and Olson says she can only estimate. A popular number floating around Facebook is 500. Ken Fletcher, who writes for the Sopris Sun, was also in attendance. Fletcher was in the actual meeting room, and he estimated there were 250 chairs, as well as people standing against the walls. The attendees spilled into the hallway and into overflow rooms. There was no official headcount for Zoom attendees. Fletcher corroborated the idea that there were anywhere from 500 to 600 people.
SO: I think they chose CMC because at least they knew they had some overflow capacity room opportunities for people. You know, those aren't always ideal because, of course, you're watching things on a TV screen.
The next planning commission meeting will be on March 11th, and officials have pushed public comment to first on the agenda.
Find the Harvest Roaring Fork PUD here.
Sign up to attend the March 11th meeting through Zoom here.
