The bottom line

Interestingly, density may not even be the large-scale development’s defining issue. Durango Mountain Resort CEO Derck says that the expansion’s biggest challenge will be whether or not it is marketable, a current unknown.

“Nothing’s been sold at the resort in a decade except seven townhomes,” he says. “We’re going to try to release two or three small project to gauge people’s willingness to invest. Then we’ll see who comes to the party.”

Derck says that he expects those small projects to be two sets of townhomes ranging in price from $300,000 to $700,000 apiece and a group of single-family lots that would be priced anywhere from $100,000 to $300,000 for a “premium view lot.”

Derck adds that attracting builders to partner on some of the projects will be another challenge. “Our hope is that we can find partners like we did on Elk Point with Dale Kneller,” he says. With Elk Point, the seven-unit townhome development that has sold at Purgatory in the last decade, DMR designed the product, went into a joint venture with Kneller to build it and eventually sold the land to Kneller.

A plea to the public

However, Colorado Wild will push density as early as next Monday, and Fouke says that any change will hinge on public involvement. “The appeal we’re making is that without public involvement in this whole process, the changes won’t happen,” he says.

A coordinated La Plata County planning meeting is set to occur Oct. 21 at 6 p.m. at Purgatory. Earlier in the day, the county commissioners will be considering whether or not to enact a moratorium on growth in the Grandview area in order to create a system for transferable development rights.

“Attending the hearings on DMR is treating the disease after it’s started,” Fouke says. “Attending the hearings on the moratorium and transferable development rights is preventing the disease before it happens.”

Derck says that the resort is open to the public’s concerns and to sitting down and addressing them. “I would hope that anyone who’s critical of the plan sit down with us and look at it on paper,” he says. “We’ve been doing this for two years, and we haven’t found a single issue that we couldn’t resolve.”

However, he adds that there may be some who just want to see nothing happen at Durango Mountain Resort.

“I understand that there may be people who may still be upset with growth in general,” he says. “We may not be able to address everyone’s concerns but we will sure try.”

The Oct. 21 hearing is expected to focus on the master infrastructure plans and should be “fairly technical,” according to Lauro. Hearings on the village conceptual plans should be forthcoming and “more exciting,” she added. No dates have been set for hearings on the village conceptual plans, but the public can expect to hear about density in the near future even during technical discussion.

“In their snow removal master infrastructure plan, they only calculated how many acres are needed for an average snow year,” says Berman. “That means for only one of every two years, they would have enough space for all their snow.”