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Cordillera appeals plan for treatment center

Cordillera property owners are appealing a Baltimore company's plan to buy The Lodge and Spa at Cordillera and convert it into a health/wellness and addiction treatment center.
Special to the Daily |

EDWARDS — Cordillera property owners appealed a plan to convert the Lodge and Spa at Cordillera into a health, wellness and addiction treatment center.

In their appeal, submitted by Lew M. Harstead, the property owners say Cordillera is intended to be a nearly self-contained resort residential community. The Village Center is intended to provide a community focal point and social gathering place.

“The county commissioners should properly exercise their jurisdiction and discretion in order to reverse the determination of the director,” the property owners say in their appeal.



Noah Nordheimer is president and CEO of the Concerted Care Group, the Baltimore-based business that won initial approval for the plan from Eagle County’s community development department and director Bob Narracci.

Narracci said that under Cordillera’s development guidelines, a medical facility is an allowed use.

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Nordheimer said Concerted Care will invest more than $70 million in the property.

He said he expects to employ 75-100 people in Cordillera, with an average salary of around $100,000.

‘Discriminatory actions’

Some Cordillera homeowners have said in letters to the county commissioners and their appeal that the intent of those regulations does not include an addiction treatment center.

“They are saying anyone in the world can live at or visit this property, except for those suffering from addiction. It is a protected class for a reason,” Nordheimer said.

Nordheimer referenced the American Disabilities Act and Federal Fair Housing laws, which protects those suffering from addiction from discrimination.

“The discriminatory actions being taken are sad and unfortunate, until people in this country stop stigmatizing addiction we will never be able to successfully tackle this disease,” he said.

Nordheimer, a real estate developer by vocation, overcame his own addiction demons. A back injury left him addicted to prescription pain medication. He got help, and says he’s now about helping others find their own path out of that darkness.

Four-part appeal

In their appeal, Cordillera’s property owners say Narracci erred in determining Nordheimer’s proposed treatment facility is allowed under Cordillera’s development documents.

They base their contention on four issues:

The facility is inconsistent with the central purposes of the Cordillera.

It does not meet the legislative intent of the use of the lodge and Village Center parcels.

The community development department failed to apply the actual language of the Cordillera planned unit development; and,

The community development department’s interpretation effectively represents a wrongful major modification of the Cordillera planned unit development.

The county commissioners are scheduled to hear the Cordillera case on July 18 from 4 to 7 p.m.

Staff Writer Randy Wyrick can be reached at 970-748-2935 and rwyrick@vaildaily.com.


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