Vision Project

Update: 2/18/18

Town is putting together a vision plan for our community. It will include a history of how we got to this point and start compiling our hopes and dreams for our future. The project will kick off this summer (2018) with a survey to collect your your initial feedback. In the meantime, feel free to shoot me your thoughts and ideas. I will continue to post them here. I will also continue to post the steps and how the plan will be created so that you will have every opportunity to be a part of it.

I believe we need a master plan for this town. How can we keep all the things we love about this town while the world around us continues to grow? I don't want this plan to be my plan. I want this to be our plan. I would like this page to be a place where we can gather our hopes and dreams for this town. I love this town and I want it to stay that same town we all fell in love with. That does not mean that there are not ways we could improve it for the future that would benefit all of us. Maybe the idea is not even something in town but will involve town's support like a recreation center. And there are going to be issues that we will face as tourism grows, such as parking and traffic. The plan might not be the solution to the issue, but it will guide us as we make these decisions that could literally change the face of town. Whatever your idea, I would like to post your ideas here for everyone to see. By having goals and a plan in place, our government can better perform their duties by always making sure that the decisions we make today are in line with our long term goals. Short sited, quick solutions that look great in the moment can have long term, devastating consequences. If we can work together as a community to envision our big picture plan, we can then articulate our goals and strategies for keeping us on course as we move into tomorrow while preserving the world we have today. I see the Town of Crested Butte as the heart of the community in the Upper Valley. We must protect our town and it's community as the areas around us grown and develop. If we do not, I fear that one day we will be trying to recreate the community that we once had, just like so many other Colorado ski towns are today. 

Crested Butte is a mountain town full hard working, hard playing individuals. We are a close, caring community who love the mountains and all the opportunities that they offer. We are a town that values its community.

As a community we value: 

• Each other 
• Our small town lifestyle 
• Having a strong, diverse community 
• Being able to walk and bike around town 
• Our public transportation 
• Community events 
• Our children and school 
• Recreation 
• Preserving our wilderness and open space 
• Our history 
• The local arts, craft and music community 
• Locally owned businesses

• Keep locals, local through affordable housing and rental opportunities
• Charming small mountain town community that is still the heart of the Crested Butte Valley
• A community where most people still walk and bike everywhere.
• That we are still a tight knit, caring community with a voice that still throws events for locals
• A top notch public school that leads the way in education for our children
• A strong Town Recreation program that services locals in the valley and enhances the Crested Butte experience for vacationers
• A developed well thought out plan for our community so that when developers approach us we know if their ideas fit our goals, instead of them selling us on their ideas for our community.

After we have been able to gather a good amount of ideas from the community, we will create a planning commitee made up of locals to develop a written plan that can be presented to the public to review and make changes to.

The plan is to act as a guide. It will help keep us on course and stay true to our town's values. This does not mean that we cannot alter or completely redraft our plans as the future happens, but it will be of utmost importance if we hope to preserve our small mountain town community as more and more people discover Crested Butte.