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HomeMy WebLinkAboutagenda.council.joint.20160802 CITY COUNCIL & JOINT WORK SESSION August 02, 2016 4:00 PM, City Hall MEETING AGENDA I. Broadband Issues JOINT WORK SESSION OF THE ASPEN CITY COUCIL AND BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS August 2, 2016 4:00pm, City Council Chambers MEETING AGENDA 4pm Broadband Service Improvements 4:30pm Future Agenda Items Information Items: Cozy Point Management Plan Process and Timeline Memo P1 I. P2 I. P3 I. P4 I. P5 I. P6 I. P7 I. P8 I. P9 I. 1 MEMORANDUM TO: Pitkin County, Board of County Commissioners City of Aspen, City Council FROM: Austin Weiss, City of Aspen Open Space Manager THRU: Jeff Woods, City of Aspen Parks and Rec Manager Randy Ready, City of Aspen Asst. City Manager DATE OF MEMO: July 28, 2016 MEETING DATE: August 2, 2016 RE: Cozy Point Ranch Management Plan Update CC: Steve Barwick, City of Aspen Manager Jim True, City of Aspen Attorney Summary: Over the past year and a half, City of Aspen Parks Department staff has been working on developing a management plan for Cozy Point Ranch. The scope of this plan includes the entire Cozy Point Ranch including the leased ranch property, the City managed Cozy Point Open Space, City and County owned Cozy Point South, the Aspen Mass Open Space and the City, County owned Mills Open Space for a total of approximately 250 acres of public property. We are also looking at how trail connections through Intercept Lot can be improved. The goal of the planning effort will be to identify ways to improve the ecological health of the properties, examine the current uses and other suitable uses of the ranch, and to identify opportunities to upgrade the existing facilities and programming of the ranch. This plan will showcase this important gateway to our community. P10 I. 2 Background: The City of Aspen purchased the Cozy Point Ranch property in 1994. The original intent of the purchase of this property was for the preservation of the agricultural heritage of the upper Roaring Fork Valley and as a possible location of additional affordable housing. In 2003 the property became a part of the City of Aspen Open Space program and was put under a conservation easement with the Aspen Valley Land Trust. This conservation easement is intended to protect the property from further development but does not prohibit the property’s existing agricultural, equestrian and other recreational uses. The property consists of approximately 60 acres of irrigated hay meadows and pasture lands, 30 acres of equestrian facilities and 70 acres of rolling sagebrush shrub lands. In addition to the historic ranching and equestrian operations, the property also has an active archery range and has recently become the home of a four season greenhouse that is being used for community-supported agriculture as a part of the AspenT.R.E.E program. The City of Aspen currently leases out a significant portion of the property for the equestrian operation to Cozy Point Ranch, LLC, which is owned and managed by Patti Watson. Cozy Point Ranch, LLC offers kids equestrian camps throughout the summer, year round horse boarding services and riding lessons for all ages. Discussion: Parks Department staff are in our second year of our planning and are currently putting the finishing touches on our first draft of the plan. We hope to have a review of that draft at our August Open Space and Trails Board meeting. That meeting is currently scheduled for Thursday, August 25th at 5:00 PM. At that time, the document will then be available to the public for their review and comment as well. We will then take the draft to a joint meeting with both the City and County Open Space and Trails Boards for review on September 8th. Once that next round of comments is completed, the document will then be edited to reflect the comments received during that period. It will then be back in front of the Open Space and Trails Boards for their final review and adoption of the plan which we anticipate will take place in October. Once the OS&T Boards have adopted the management plan it will then be brought to City Council and the BOCC for final approval. During our planning efforts, City staff has met with many different stakeholders and user groups of Cozy Point Ranch. Those include, City of Aspen, Town of Snowmass Village and Pitkin County elected officials, both the City and County Open Space and Trails Boards, The Aspen Valley Land Trust, The Brush Creek Metro Dist rict, the Woody Creek P11 I. 3 Caucus, The Roaring Fork Valley Horse Council, the Friends of Cozy Point Ranch, longtime local ranchers, numerous experts of sustainable agriculture, including Joel Salatin, Eliot Coleman, AspenTREE, Sustainable Settings, The Colorado Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute and ACES. Other user groups also include, the archery community and the Roaring Fork Mountain Bike Association. As I mentioned, we have met with many different stakeholders and users of the ranch to try to get a complete picture of the property and its role in our community. Through this process we have focused on numerous items for the management plan. These include multiple uses for the open space property including enhancing the equestrian facilities and improving the equestrian experience. The plan will look at new opportunities to provide dedicated equestrian trails and safer ways to access those and other nearby trails. It will speak to insuring that the community has access to high quality equestrian programming for the immediate future. The plan will also speak to enhancing the sustainable agriculture opportunities that have been initiated through AspenTREE. The plan will look at opportunities to integrate some level of local food production and to continue to provide educational opportunities to youth programming. It will look at ways to improve the pasture health of the ranch through rotational grazing of horses and other animals. All of these items we see as opportunities for enhancement of the ranch. These will not all happen at once but are ideas to be further studied and implemented when the time is right. The comments received by stakeholders and the general public are an important component to the plan. It’s also important to note that the conservation values and the preservation of the ranching legacy of Cozy Point Ranch and the neighboring Open Space properties (comprising of over 300 acres) are the foundation of the action items outlined in the management plan. Staff has hired Western Ecological Resource to identify opportunities to enhance the wildlife habitat and native vegetation, along with recommendations of ways to restore the heavily impacted Brush Creek and Cougar Creek corridors as they transect the ranch property. This plan is using science and history as a foundation for our plan. While public input is important as land managers we need to balance all the desired uses with important land management tools. ATTACHMENTS: Exhibit A – Cozy Point Ranch Vicinity Map P12 I.