Trustees approve WAP amendment, CPW land swap

Trustees approve WAP amendment

The board voted to approve an amendment to the town’s 2023 Water Allocation Policy. Former town planning director Joseph Teipel also made comments as a member of the public during the hearing for the amendment, urging the board not to expect the WAP to drive policy on its own.

“We can see that there were zero SFEs used in the economic development bucket over the previous 12 months. We're allocating 20 more. You all are considering that, and I think that's excellent. That's a statement that we want more room in that bucket. We need, as a community, more year-round jobs, which I think is absolutely appropriate and in line with all the feedback you got for your comprehensive plan, everything we all know about our community, everywhere we want to grow as a community,” he said. “And yet, simply by allocating more SFEs to that bucket does not mean you will get more economic development. … I would encourage you as the policymakers and elected officials for our community to make sure that you're taking the next step.”

The board last discussed the WAP during a work session in February. 

The amendment up for adoption on March 25 makes minor changes to wording for clarity and adds a reference to the Unified Development Code that sets minimum and maximum allocation of water based on UDC subdivision requirements. 

The amendment would also redistribute SFEs among the policy’s various “buckets” in response to development trends, as well as a potential purchase of 20 acre-feet of water from the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District this year. The town had previously planned on purchasing 5 acre-feet per year for 5 years, but reserves in the Water Enterprise Fund could allow it to purchase 20 AF this year.

Early in 2024, the town agreed to a plan to purchase a total of 50 acre-feet from the UAWCD over the next 10 years.

The amendment allocates most of those 20 acre-feet in the form of 60 single-family equivalents to the General Development bucket and 40 SFEs to the “Affordable, Attainable and Workforce Housing” bucket. Additionally, 20 SFEs would be added to Economic Development from the UAWCD water, 15 SFEs to non-infill single-family dwellings and accessory dwelling units and 5 SFEs to the Infill bucket.

Trustees approve land swap with CPW 

Trustees approved a trade of land with Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

CPW will receive Buena Vista’s “town farm” 10 miles north of town, which was purchased in 2021 for its water rights.

If the swap is approved by the state as well, the town will receive CPW land south of town on the east side of Highway 24.

“The valuation of our land and water and their land and water was a $1000 difference,” said town senior policy advisor and project advocate Joel Benson.

“We’ve wanted this land for forever,” mayor pro tem Devin Rowe said. “The big thing was having land to trade. They didn’t want to sell it, they wanted land to trade.”

Bringing the land into town would clear one obstacle in the effort to extend Steele Drive across Highway 24 to connect with County Road 317.

The trade also needed to be approved by the state. Benson said that the review by the state capital development committee was set for March 27. The capital development committee approved the swap unanimously.