WHO OWNS WINTER PARK?

• Author: TITUS, STEPHEN
• Position: Winter Park Resort, Colorado - Brief Article

GRAND COUNTY EXPANSES DRIVE DEVELOPMENT

THE CITY OF DENVER MAY BE RECONSIDERING ITS OWNERSHIP OF THE WINTER

Park Resort, but property developers haven't lost any lust for the land around it.

The availability of land to buy and the expense of buying and building elsewhere in Colorado's mountains has boosted development in Grand County, particularly around Winter Park, to an all-time high, according to county and city planners.

"The vast majority of private land is owned by ranchers," said Bill Murphy executive vice president of Silver Creek Golf and Ski Resort, which itself is embarked on a resortwide makeover north of Winter Park. "You're not going to pay the same for a lot in Grand County as you will in Eagle County" Murphy said of Vail's home county.

In fact, the plentiful open property in and around Winter Park Resort is keeping prices there under control, planners said. About 10 miles from the ski area, one-acre and larger lots in the Pole Creek Valley development are listed for less than $100,000, and a ski-in/ski-out condo at Winter Park Resort can be had for less than $270,000.

"There's more land available up here than anywhere else in the mountains," said Bill Woodley, director of planning at Winter Park Resort. Speaking of the area as a whole, Woodley said, "It's the last good deal in the mountains. It doesn't seem inexpensive here, but it does for people who have been shopping in other places."

Low-priced land makes development cheaper, but it hasn't gotten any easier.

One example is Rendezvous, which until recently was known as Maryvale. The 1,145-acre project, under development by Denver-based Koelbel and Co., has faced stiff local opposition Because of its large footprint in the valley and its proximity to wetlands. The development spreads out through the untouched landscape running along U.S. 40 between Winter Park and Fraser. Its first phase of 110 homes broke ground in July Plans include another 1,400 residential units and more than 150,000 square feet of commercial space. "It's controversial because it's fabulous open space," said Jeff Durbin, community development director for the Town of Fraser, "If you ask most people, I think they would say 'I'd rather it stay the way it is."'

But as Durbin and Rendezvous' project manager, Jack Bestall, point out, plans were approved for the acreage in the late 1980s. Koelbel purchased the property in August 1999, and the company is following a development plan that Bestall said will...