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Enough with Crossroads delay

Don RogersDaily Managing Editor

Crossroads, all 99 feet tall at peak and broad-shouldered to fill the lot, should be approved quickly from here. Then let’s bowl, have Street Beat where merchants won’t whine about the crowds, and see movies where the carpet isn’t tattered and seats patched with duct tape.Then let’s do something else: End the swiss cheese planning of Vail. Crossroads, like Four Seasons, like Village Inn, like just about every project in Vail, requires approval to change the zoning to accomplish the project.To suddenly claim fealty to zoning and old master plans is frankly a reach. When has Vail followed its own long-range plans? Besides, creating new limits for each project is a tacit recognition that the town’s zoning and other means of long-range planning are outdated, obsolete. And beyond that, old zoning doesn’t necessarily make for a better building anyway.So, finish it out. Crossroads has been at the table too long to try to suddenly whip off like a table cloth. Approve what will be a vast improvement over that monstrosity that’s been sitting there all these years. If anything could be said to be blighted in Vail, it’s the current Crossroads. But then Vail’s leadership should take a hard look at its long-term vision. The swiss cheese style of development demonstrates that there isn’t one, not really. Like all things, that can change. But it should be fair, not in the 11th hour. Enough already. Vail, Colorado


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