{"id":1310794,"date":"2019-05-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-29T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=979580"},"modified":"2019-05-29T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-05-29T06:00:00","slug":"basalt-council-votes-5-0-to-support-compromise-on-pan-and-fork-property","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/basalt-council-votes-5-0-to-support-compromise-on-pan-and-fork-property\/","title":{"rendered":"Basalt council votes 5-0 to support \u2018compromise\u2019 on Pan and Fork property"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"swift-gallery\" readability=\"6.5645933014354\">\n<ul id=\"imageGallery-979580-764\" class=\"gallery list-unstyled\">\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/05\/panandfork-atd-052919-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/05\/panandfork-atd-052919.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Courtesy image | This site plan for the Pan and Fork property combines residential and commercial uses along with parkland. The third time was a charm. Two former developers' plans were rejected.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-1.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"8\">\n<p><strong>This site plan for the Pan and Fork property combines residential and commercial uses along with parkland. The third time was a charm. Two former developers&#8217; plans were rejected.<\/strong><br \/>Courtesy image<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/05\/panandfork-atd-052919.jpg\" alt=\"This site plan for the Pan and Fork property combines residential and commercial uses along with parkland. The third time was a charm. Two former developers' plans were rejected.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/05\/panandfork-atd-052919-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/05\/panandfork-atd-052919-1.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Aspen Times file | After seven years of debate, the Basalt Town Council approved a developer's proposal for the former Pan and Fork site, on the right side of this photo, enclosed by the black fence.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"0\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"11\">\n<p><strong>After seven years of debate, the Basalt Town Council approved a developer&#8217;s proposal for the former Pan and Fork site, on the right side of this photo, enclosed by the black fence.<\/strong><br \/>Aspen Times file<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/05\/panandfork-atd-052919-1.jpg\" alt=\"After seven years of debate, the Basalt Town Council approved a developer's proposal for the former Pan and Fork site, on the right side of this photo, enclosed by the black fence.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"caption-toggle\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/news\/local\/basalt-council-votes-5-0-to-support-compromise-on-pan-and-fork-property\/#\" class=\"show-captions\">Show Captions<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/news\/local\/basalt-council-votes-5-0-to-support-compromise-on-pan-and-fork-property\/#\" class=\"hide-captions\">Hide Captions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Basalt took a giant step forward Tuesday night to solving one of its longest-running controversies when the Town Council gave first-round approval to a proposal on the former Pan and Fork Mobile Home Park space.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The council voted 5-0 to approve a plan that provides land for expansion of an existing park and a mixture of commercial and residential development.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The future of the 2.3-acre site west of downtown has been debated \u2014 often intensely and sometimes bitterly \u2014 for the past seven years. The nonprofit Roaring Fork Community Development Corp. acquired the property.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Councilman Auden Schendler said the deal was the epitome of a compromise. Some people wanted all park while others wanted more development.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cIs it as good as what I think should be there? No,\u201d Schendler said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Someone in the audience told him not to vote for it if that was the case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Schendler responded that compromise is a reality of politics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe have to move on past this now,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not perfect. I understand, but I think we ought to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The <a id=\"N0x1b3f610N0x1cc4ca0:N0x1b3f610N0x1bdaf60\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/basalt-council-tells-pan-and-fork-developer-to-add-community-benefits\/\">project was proposed<\/a> by Basalt River Park LLC, a development <a id=\"N0x1b3f610N0x1cc4d00:N0x1b3f610N0x1bdaff0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/local\/new-development-group-sets-sights-on-pan-and-fork-land-in-basalt\/\">group headed by local businessman Tim Belinski<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The major terms of the deal are:<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText ListBullet\">The town government buys roughly 1 acre of the eastern portion of the property for expansion of the river park for $1.2 million as well as a corridor of open space between Belinski\u2019s development and Rocky Mountain Institute for $146,517. The town\u2019s total cost for the land purchases is $1.34 million or the appraised value, whichever is lower.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText ListBullet\">Basalt River Park LLC gets approval to build 24 residences ranging from rent-controlled units, free-market apartments and lucrative river cabins. There also would be about 27,000 square feet of commercial space.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText ListBullet\">Basalt River Park agrees to build a restaurant on the east side of its development, closest to the parkland. The restaurant would be about 3,000 square feet with a 1,500-square-foot patio.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText ListBullet\">Basalt River Park funds $600,000 of essential improvements along Two Rivers Road, including road and sidewalk improvements, bus stops, public bathrooms and a parking area. That increases the amount the developer pays and reduces the amount the town pays to about $244,000.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText ListBullet\">Basalt River Park gets to increase the size of the river cabins to about 1,900 square feet from 1,600 square feet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText ListBullet\">The town agrees to buy the space earmarked for the ArtBase community arts center for $158,000 or the appraised value, whichever is less.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The council heard from supporters and foes of the proposal during public comment. Basalt businessman Royal Laybourn told the council to reject the project and provide more park.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThe public is not getting what they want,\u201d Laybourn said. \u201cThe developer is getting what he wants.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Basalt resident Gerry Terwilliger said fewer than 7 percent of town residents surveyed in the past supported residential at the site.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cIt is really time for this council to represent the citizens and not the developers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Supporters said Belinski\u2019s latest proposal was an effective compromise. One speaker said it is time for Basalt to look forward rather than get stuck in the past feuds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cTalk about vitality, if that\u2019s what we want, this (project) is what we want,\u201d the woman said. \u201cI\u2019m in favor of it. I know it\u2019s contentious, very contentious.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Former Basalt Councilman Bernie Grauer agreed that 77 percent of people surveyed in the past wanted the property to be all park. But when a ballot question was put in front of them, they weren\u2019t willing to put the money up via increased property taxes, he said. Now the town has budgeted to buy a lesser amount of parkland with a sales tax dedicated to open space and trails.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Grauer said the current proposal provides both parkland and a development that is economically viable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWhat we have here, I believe, hits the sweet spot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Councilman Gary Tennenbaum echoed Schendler\u2019s comments that the project wasn\u2019t perfect but a good compromise. Tennenbaum said he never has been a big supporter of residential development at the site, but the current proposal provides a lot of community benefits in return for the residential.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">A prior developer proposed 150,000 square feet of development. The current project reduces that by roughly 33 percent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Tennenbaum said people he has talked to want to see the debate resolved after several years. Time has changed since the survey indicated people wanted all park on the site.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThat survey was done four years ago, and four years ago things were different,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Basalt Mayor Jacque Whitsitt, who was vehemently opposed to earlier proposals for not providing enough park space, said the debate produced an acceptable compromise.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cPeople have been divided on this for so long, we can\u2019t let that go on any longer,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Councilmen Bill Infante and Ryan Slack also spoke in favor of comprising. Councilwomen Katie Schwoerer and Jennifer Riffle weren\u2019t able to attend the meeting due to prior plans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The council granted first-round approval. The project must come back for another round of approval with greater details.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\"><a href=\"mailto:scondon@aspentimes.com\">scondon@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/news\/local\/basalt-council-votes-5-0-to-support-compromise-on-pan-and-fork-property\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This site plan for the Pan and Fork property combines residential and commercial uses along with parkland. The third time was a charm. Two former developers&#8217; plans were rejected.Courtesy image After seven years of debate, the Basalt Town Council approved a developer&#8217;s proposal for the former Pan and Fork site, on the right side of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1310794","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-18 06:40:29","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1310794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310794\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1310794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1310794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1310794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}