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Blue Sky Ranch Takes Baby Steps |
Bill Hudson | 3/26/08
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As you north head to Pagosa Springs on Highway 84, rounding a bend and heading down a long gentle downhill stretch, a dramatic vista of the San Juan Mountains opens up suddenly, about two miles from downtown. And about where Light Plant Road — or maybe we should call it Hot Springs Boulevard? — forks off Highway 84 on your left, you see a pastoral scene, off to the right, of an agricultural meadow surrounded by distant pines.
This majestic meadow, with its central cluster of cobalt blue barns, provides one to the “biggest” views in the whole county, spreading nearly 180 degrees from Pagosa Peak in the north to Square Top in the south. In the summer, the meadow is usually speckled with livestock, grazing the green grass.
 A couple of years ago, I started hearing rumors that a group of investors had purchased the Blue Sky Ranch, and that the area was destined to become residential homes — most likely, high-end second homes — with a centrally-located golf course as part of the rumored plans. The name I heard mentioned was "Blue Sky Ranch."
Blue Sky Ranch did indeed come before the Pagosa Springs Planning Commission yesterday, at a very preliminary stage. From that very preliminary presentation, it sounds like high-end homes and a golf course are in the mix — but perhaps in an unusual mix.
The issue before the Planning Commission at their regular meeting yesterday was a proposed change in the Comprehensive Plan boundaries. When the Comp Plan maps were drawn two years ago, the planners draw a thick red line to define the areas in which the Town had a planning interest — even though many of those areas lay outside the Town limits.
One of those red lines ran right through the middle of the Blue Sky Ranch — including the area nearest Highway 84 in the Comp Plan’s boundaries and leaving the eastern portion of the ranch out in the “unplanned” county area.
The developers also wanted to designate that new addition — if approved — as Rural Residential, the least dense residential designation available in the Comp Plan.
Blue Sky Ranch developers’ representative Nancy Lauro of Russell Engineering explained to the Planning Commission yesterday that the investors wanted the entire ranch parcel to be included in the Town’s planning area. The alternative — to leave only part of the ranch included — obviously posed problems, with half the ranch needing to meet Town standards and the other half needing to meet County standards. She referred to the Comp Plan amendment as "the first baby steps" in a very long process.
Lauro noted that the developers were currently planning a residential density even lower than Rural Residential’s minimum of one unit per five acres — and were additionally hoping to include some uses not currently specified by the Comp Plan’s Rural Residential designation. But those decisions were not part of Tuesday’s approval process.
After a brief discussion and a couple of questions about the project from the reporters in the room, the Planning Commission voted unanimously to extend the Comp Plan boundaries farther east to include the rest of the ranch.
This change does not address numerous other planning and approval issues which lie off in the future. It doesn’t include, for example, a possible annexation of the ranch into the Town, a move that would allow the developers to hook up to the Town’s planned $4.5 million sewer treatment plant, for example. The change also says nothing about any future subdivision of the ranch, or any future Planned Unit Development.
Lauro was asked if the Blue Sky Ranch is directly connected to the Blue Sky Village, which is located about a half mile north of the ranch and which is also a candidate for possible annexation. Lauro said that some of the investors in the Ranch are also investors in Blue Sky Village, but that the two projects are not directly connected.
“In some ways, the developers see the Blue Sky Village serving the Blue Sky Ranch, with the Blue Sky Village having some commercial and — um, hopefully — some affordable homes, lower end, smaller lots. Blue Sky Ranch is not going to be ‘affordable’ — it’s going to be a very high end development, the way they’re conceptualizing now.”
Following the approval, I asked Lauro to give a few details about the tentative plans, in relation to the “one unit per five acres” designation. She noted that a planned 100-unit hotel would be counted in that density calculation, and said that the developers were planning to include substantial open space.
“That whole meadow that you see there, they are planning to preserve that whole area in agricultural use.” She said the existing blue barns would also remain. Lauro is concerned about the Town making changes to its PUD (Planned Unit Development) codes which might negatively impact some of her clients.
The Town is currently rewriting its Land Use and Development codes, under the guidance of consultants Clarion Associates.
“As long as this development group stays involved in the Blue Sky Ranch — they’ve been through a lot, but as long as they stay involved — I’m excited about coming back with the next set of plans. [The developers] plan to keep the whole meadow as it is, they are proposing an equestrian events center, there will be a golf course. You probably won’t see housing units; they’ll be back in the tree line.”
“I think this will really be a win-win project.” |
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