DEAR EDITOR:
By now, just about everyone in San Miguel County knows that the Diamond Ridge “spot zoning” for workforce housing is probably dead. The question remains, how did the Town of Telluride Town government and the San Miguel County government screw up so badly? In my opinion, there were several big mistakes made by both governmental leaders and staff.
First, the collaboration between Hilary Cooper and Lance McDonald trying to figure out how to make workforce housing happen on Diamond Ridge was flawed from the beginning. Basically, these two wanted to create a “Community Housing Zoning” as quickly as possible with the least amount of input from the public and neighboring property owners. A major project like this should have allowed an extended amount of public input given the sensitivity of the Diamond Ridge location adjacent to the Telluride Regional Airport, and the historical low-density zoning of Diamond Ranch and the surrounding low-density subdivisions.
Second, since the District Court Judge J. Steven Patrick said that the “BOCC misapplied the law by spot zoning the Diamond Ridge Property in disregard of the Master Plan and other regulations,” Town of Telluride Attorney Kevin Geiger and San Miguel County Attorney Amy Markwell should have advised their respective leadership that the Diamond Ridge development was a high-risk venture that could easily fit the legal description of “spot zoning.” Unfortunately, they did not, and they both supported this “spot zoning.”
Third, both the Town of Telluride and San Miguel County contracted and jointly paid over $7 million for this land without doing any basic due diligence such as soils report, traffic study, environmental impact study, a wildlife impact study, especially for the large elk population on that mesa, nor any cost of construction or development cost. In other words, both government entities had no idea of how much this workforce housing project would cost nor its impact on the surrounding neighbors and larger community.
At the end of the day, this was the most reckless financial decision that I’ve seen any local government make with taxpayer money in the almost 40 years that I have lived in Telluride. At a minimum, Lance McDonald, Kevin Geiger and Amy Markwell should no longer be employed, and Hilary Cooper should have the dignity to resign. Furthermore, the two county commissioners and the five Telluride Town Council members that voted for this debacle should publicly apologize for voting for this mess. All seven of these elected officials should tell the public how they are going to get that $7 million dollars and deposited into their respective workforce housing accounts.
Lastly, we owe a great thank you to Telluride Council members Lars Carlson and Jessie Rae Arguelles for voting against the Diamond Ridge project and hope that their voices become more supported in the future. Everyone knows what a challenge it is to create more workforce housing in our region, but full public input should be heard for any suggested location with the costs and impacts fully researched for every site possibility.
George Harvey
