Crested buttes balancing: new owners hope to widen customer base with ski-base development.

• Author: Titus, Stephen
• Position: Who owns Colorado?

Crested Butte hasn't changed a bit--or has it? It's still the funky, friendly town with the old-time main street. The drive up from Gunnison still covers vast stretches of open ranch land, veined by miles of unsurpassed trout fishing, much of it protected by conservation easements that promise it will stay that way.

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And the ski resort is still packed with experts-only terrain serviced by surface lifts and 450-feet-per-minute chairs.

But behind the open space, mountain-town hipness and slow chairlifts, are changes in the shape and tone of development that has the town of Crested Butte and Crested Butte Mountain Resort cooperating in a way neither side has seen in 30 years.

The result is a rebirth for the sometimes-scruffy resort, and a symbiosis with the town that both sides hope will translate into more skiers and healthy growth for the entire area.

"For so long it was a battle," said Bill Coburn, a member of Crested Butte City Council, of the relationship between the town and the ski-resort owners. "In the past, the model was to sell off real estate and pay bills. The new owners are investing in the resort."

The nuances of Crested Butte politics could fill an encyclopedia, but according to locals and the ski area's new management, much of the rub came from a difference of business models. The ski area's previous owners, who seemed perpetually strapped for cash, needed real-estate sales to make any improvements to the mountain and base area. But the real estate development and improvements they proposed conflicted with the town's vision for itself as a historic mountain community full of businesses that supported the throngs of skiers visiting the nearby resort. Much of the proposed development at the ski area included large areas of commercial property that would directly compete with the town. The previous owners also wanted to expand skiing to parts of the mountain that were considered untouchable.

New owners Tim and Diane Mueller hope to take a more symbiotic approach and redevelop the base area into a bedroom community serviced mostly by the town. So far, this sits well with the Town of Crested Butte and its leadership.

"There was a lot of commercial development planned for the area," said Michael Kraatz, vice president of real estate development for Crested Butte Mountain Resort. "We're trying to minimize that, it creates a certain amount of friction with existing commercial property...