La Plata health district takes final step toward ballot

La Plata County Commissioners approved placing a question to form and fund a county-wide health district. The district would serve as a funding agency to increase access to primary care, enhance mental-health services,and improve preventive-care services. The ballot question would include a 1.7 mill levy to fund the district and the election of a seven-member board of directors. A district judge will set the election date in the coming weeks.

Read the full article in the Durango Herald

Land rush for affordable lots in Aspen

The last official land rush in the U.S. took place in Oklahoma in 1893, but the tradition lives, albeit in a more organized fashion, in some western communities.

175 people recently submitted applications to be one of seven lot owners in Aspen-Pitkin County Housing Authority's upcoming lottery. Five resident-occupied lots are priced at $150,000 and two are are priced at $119,400. Lot buyers can begin construction in July. Houses may be up to 2,200 square feet, plus a 500-square-foot garage. Construction costs for each of the five resident-occupied lots cannot exceed $640,000, and costs for the Category 6 lots are capped at $428,100.

The 2003 median sales price for home in aspen in 2003 was $3.18 million.

Read the full article in the Aspen Times

Next developer please?

The Bair Chase golf development south of Glenwood Springs has gone belly up again and this time it took a historic barn and elk winter haunt with it. PlainsCapital Bank of Austin, Texas, which holds the deed of trust to the land, has filed for foreclosure and sale of the property.The 280-acre property has been mired incontroversy since it come before the Garfield County Planning Commission as a 500 houses / 18-hole golf course / 700,000 square feet of commercial development PUD. That plan was eventualy denied by the County Commissioners at a late meeting after dozens of citizens had spoken against the project. The property then changed hands to a company the eventually filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The most recent approval for the property included 62 single-family lots and 168 multifamily units surrounding an 18-hole golf course. Earthwork began on the ranch last summer, leveling the historic barn and tearing up the hay field that a couple hundred elk used during the winter, apparently before the permanent financing became permanent. Recently a Bull elk was a seen standing on top of a man-made hill on the property, apperently wondering what is going on.

Read the full article in the Post Independent

Just exactly are we going?

With the economy returning to flex its muscle like it did during the mid-1990s, many of Colorado' mountain communities are concerned about where grwoth is taking them and want more clarity of vision. To wit, Our Future Summit is hosting a forum on "Creating a Common Vision: What Is Your Preferred Future for Summit County?" from 7-9 p.m. Thursday, February 9th at the Summit County Community and Senior Center near Frisco.In preparation for the forum, the group seeks viewpoints from a broad spectrum of the community and would appreciate the benefit of your perspective. You can submit your vision for the future of Summit County by logging on to http://www.ourfuturesummit.org/Misson%20Survey.html

Read the full article in the Summit Daily News

Pitkin County caps size of McMansions

Pitkin County officials clamped down on monster homes Tuesday, agreeing to limit mansions to 15,000 square feet.The decision came at the land-use code revision meeting between the Board of County Commissioners and the Planning and Zoning Commission, and means that the construction of compounds the size of Saudi Arabian Prince Bandar's 55,000-square-foot palace will be forbidden once the new law takes effect later this year.

According to Cindy Houben, the community development director, one to two submittals are made annually for homes exceeding 15,000 square feet, which is roughly the size of the Pitkin County Courthouse.

The maximum square footage permitted for a home in Pitkin County, precluding the purchase of transferable development rights (TDRs) or meeting growth management requirements, is 5,750 square feet. Before the revision adoption, there was no cap on the size of a house.

The land-use code revision is an ongoing process between the BOCC and P in an effort to update current code.

Revision meetings will continue into March, and dates and times can be found on the county Web site at aspenpitkin.com.

Read the full article in the Aspen Daily News

Real estate records fall in 2005

A record $725 million in real estate changed hands in Tellluride last year -- $100 million more than in 2004 (a 17 percent jump despite the number of transactions in the county only increasing from 855 to 884, an increase of 4 percent).The average price for a single-family home in Telluride was $1.49 million; in Mountain Village, the average price was $3.2 million,

Read the article in the Telluride Daily Planet

Melbourne plans to "drive" cars from city centre

Under Melbourne City Council's draft strategy, cars will be "driven" out of the city in favour of public transport and bicycles under a radical new council strategy that abandons plans for a multibillion-dollar cross-city tunnel and suggests slashing speed limits in the central business district.The strategy calls on the State Government to invest heavily in improved train, tram and bus routes, as well as lobbying for off-peak tolls on major roads to spread peak-hour demand.

An average of 640,000 people visit the city each weekday, with that number forecast to rise to 1 million by 2014. Almost half of those commuters travel into the city by car.

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