In a narrow vote taken several times, the Town of Estes Park Trustees denied an application to rezone a nearly 1-acre plot of land at 860 South St. Vrain Ave. from Estate to Multi-family Residential at its Jan. 28 board meeting.
The applicant, Charles Santagati, owner of Glacier Creek Construction of Estes Park, planned to build 10 three-bedroom townhomes provide for workforce housing ownership opportunities.
Six of the units would have carried workforce housing deed-restrictions and would have been priced in the low-$700,000s, said Santagati. The other four would have been priced in the high $700,000s.
Staff recommended approval based on the three rezoning criteria outlined in the development code: 1) that the property has experienced a change in condition (workforce housing ownership opportunities are needed); 2) that the rezoning is compatible with the Estes Forward Comprehensive Plan and existing Development Code restrictions; 3) and that service providers would have the ability to provide utilities and other services to the property.
“It checks a lot of the boxes, such as close to schools, hospitals, downtown, accessible to multi modal transportation,” said Santigati. The parcel is directly adjacent to an open-space plot and another single-family home on approximately one acre, and across from the golf course.
Trustees Kirby Hazelton, Bill Brown, and Mark Igel voted for the amendment, and Trustees Cindy Younlund, Marie Cenac, and Frank Lancaster voted no. Mayor Gary Hall ultimately voted no. The property remains zoned Estate.
Arguments against the rezoning included the significant increase in density on the land as a result of the development and that even the deed-restricted units would be out of reach for the majority of the workforce in Estes Park to purchase.
A large contingent of people associated with Preserve Estes Park were on hand to speak against the development as well.
Other action items: support for Salud Clinic and acceptance of a budget report
At the Jan. 14 Town Board meeting, trustees were asked to create a resolution of support for the Estes Park Salud Clinic, which faces an uncertain future and is $1 million short to keep the clinic running through the rest of the year.
Resolution 9-25 stating support for the local clinic was adopted unanimously on Jan. 28.
Town Administrator Travis Machalek presented a financial planning and budget report, which was required on a quarterly basis under Policy Governance for the Town. “I am pleased to report full compliance with this policy… you will get those reports annually moving forward, we do usually post those as well to the website for the public to review any questions about the policy governance monitoring,” he said.
Town Hall outage report
“I heard all sorts of crazy rumors about what was going on in Town Hall,” said Machalek during his comments at the board meeting. “It was truly just an overloaded electrical system. We realized that our main panel is dramatically undersized to carry a modern load.” The existing electrical panel dates back to the 1960s, he said, and the building is 90 years old.
“The wiring is good, but we needed to make sure that we had a handle on where the problem was, to make sure that the building was safe for occupancy. So, that was the reason it was closed on Thursday. We were able to get that issue addressed and make the building safe to reenter. We had a great contractor and Friday, we came back on board. The long-term fix will take until spring,” said Machalek.
The Town’s PIO Kate Miller reported the outage which closed Town Hall on Thursday, Jan. 23 was due to space heaters overloading the system as well as the age of the electrical infrastructure at Town Hall.
The outage also disrupted phone service to the building, but 911 calls were not affected.
Estes Valley Voice reporting uncovered additional electric load was caused by power tools used during the Town Hall renovation of its restrooms and that the Town did not pull building permits for that work.
Miller said that “the Town Hall restroom upgrade plans were reviewed by the Building Division which determined that no permits were required. This would have been the same outcome for a private party doing the same project.”
The factors that led to this determination were that there would be no structural work, no change to plumbing or electrical capacity, and no effect on ADA/ASNI code requirements, she said.
There is a “remote possibility” another outage could happen, but Town staff are reducing their load until a permanent fix can be made, said Machalek.
RMNP reports on transponders, housing, and Moraine Park Campground
Rocky Mountain is the first national park that is implementing transponders to work at fast-pass entrance gates at RMNP, said Kyle Patterson, management specialist and public affairs officer for the Park.
While the “first batch” of transponders work well, there have been some software issues with the transponders that were sold after June 2024, she said. “Until we are sure that the software is consistent, we do not want to sell more, just to have people have headaches on whether they work or not. We are really close with the software engineers that we’ve contracted with to have this figured out.”
The fast-pass transponders can now be used at the entrances at Beaver Meadows and Fall River, and in a couple of months, Grand Lake, she said.
Superintendent Gary Ingram introduced his deputy superintendent, Caleb Waters, who reported that restoration of the Grand Lake entrance station, which was destroyed during the East Troublesome Fire in 2020, is “substantially complete.”
Waters also said that the Park received $70 million approved to complete housing projects for Park employees. “This is both building new housing, demolishing old, antiquated housing we have and replacing it with new, and rehabilitating housing we currently have in stock.”
Ingram said that when he arrived at Rocky Mountain last year, he set three priorities: fire prevention and rehabilitation, housing, and the timed-entry program at the Park. In fire prevention, slash pile burning has been actively occurring when the weather permits, the fire-scarred areas of the Park are being monitored for invasive species, and the wood frogs and fish on the west side of the Park are making a comeback.
The Moraine Park Campground renovation is still underway, but the campground should be open by summer, said Waters.
Town staff directed to create IGA with the housing authority for right of first refusal on Town properties
During the Study Session on Jan. 28, Deputy Town Administrator Damweber explained Colorado House Bill 24-1175, which allows local governmental a right of first refusal on any multi-family rental property that may come up for sale.
The law also says that the Town would have right of first offer on any multi-family property that is more than 30 years old with less than 100 units.
Damweber suggested the Estes Park Housing Authority be asked to take over compliance with this law, and the Trustees agreed. A draft intergovernmental agreement will be prepared and presented at a future Town Board meeting.
The next Town of Estes Park Board meeting will be held on February 11 at 7 p.m. in the Town Hall board room.
I’m glad it didn’t pass. I don’t think small, squeezed in homes for over $700,000 is the kind of workforce housing that we want here.
Joy, what would you like to see and where?
The Town is going to have difficulty with zoning requests until they come up with a more specific definition for “change of conditions.” Right now it’s in the eye of the beholder.