New Beaver Creek subdivision receives go-ahead from Eagle County commissioners
Commissioners also approve numerous variances for the project, allowing developer to deviate from the county's land-use code
On Tuesday, the Eagle County Board of Commissioners approved forming a new subdivision in Beaver Creek, the first step in a process that could bring 12 new homes to a parcel described as the ski area’s last potential development site.
The homes include a mix of single-family, duplex, and triplex units, with floor areas ranging from 3,100 to 4,500 square feet.
The commissioners also approved numerous variances for the project, allowing the developer to deviate from the county’s land-use code to avoid the hardships the commissioners said the builders would experience as a result of the regulations.
Veteran land-use planner Dominic Mauriello presented the developer’s application to the commissioners. Mauriello started his presentation by saying the process was “a little bit of a different experience” for him than the others he’s seen in his 30 years as a land-use planner.
“First time I’ve ever done a minor application when it’s taken more than 12 minutes to get through the approval process,” Mauriello said.
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The meeting would last another four hours.
Secret meetings alleged
Mauriello was hired by the developers on the project, the Aidan Group out of Denver. The project is known as Arcadian on Beaver Creek. The Aidan Group also developed Peregrine Villas in Beaver Creek, a series of luxury homes that were built in 2020.
Joanna Hopkins, the owner’s representative on the project, said the Arcadian on Beaver Creek idea came about while the Aidan Group was developing Peregrine Villas.
“As they were completing Peregrine Villas, another opportunity presented itself to plan and design on the last new development parcel within the gates of Beaver Creek,” Hopkins said.
Just when the Arcadian on Beaver Creek project began proved to be a point of controversy on Tuesday, as Beaver Creek Metro District board member Mac Slingerlend accused Beaver Creek parent company Vail Resorts of withholding its plans from neighbors in the area.
“Vail Corp and the developer worked in secret on this project for two-plus years before contacting any adjacent homeowners,” Slingerlend said. “Years ago when Vail Corp actually had a development-dedicated team, they concluded this tract was not developable. The new non-development employees saw an opportunity for Vail Corp’s earnings per share, regardless of the objections of the community.”
Mauriello said he got involved in the project in November of 2023 and wasn’t able to respond to accusations of secret meetings.
“There’s no obligation of a developer to meet with neighbors before making an application,” Mauriello said. “Sometimes that happens — a lot of times that happens — but there’s certainly no legal obligation that that occur.”
‘It’s still in the PUD’
Slingerlend was one of a dozen or so residents to speak out against the project on Tuesday. Many of the objectors took issue with the classification of a watercourse that ran through the property, saying it was a creek and therefore — according to the county’s regulations — should be subject to 75-foot setbacks, which would effectively kill the project.
The commissioners said they didn’t see it that way, instead agreeing with the consultants the county had hired to determine the status of the watercourse. Those consultants said they believe the channel fits the characteristics of a ditch rather than a stream.
But regardless of the channel’s status as a ditch or a stream, the 75-foot setback rule would not apply, the commissioners said, because there was already an approved development guide for the area that said no setbacks were necessary for the waterway.
In agreeing to grant the subdivision and variance applications, the commissioners all agreed that the original planned unit development guide for the area envisioned development on the site.
“There may have been an opportunity at the property owners association or the metro district or the resort company to go in and make an amendment to the PUD saying we actually don’t want this piece developed, but that was not done,” said commissioner Kathy Chandler-Henry. “It’s still in the PUD as an approved use.”
Seven variances granted
Commissioner Jeanne McQueeney said the subdivision application should have been an easy decision.
“We got distracted by a lot of information that was not what we were here to consider,” McQueeney said. “This was an established PUD that was asking to apply some lines so that it could be finished.”
But before those lines could be applied, first several variances had to be granted with regard to the roads that will service the units. The developer requested seven variances in total, including a variance from the requirement to provide curb and gutter; a variance from the requirement to provide sidewalks; a variance to allow the existing and proposed access to the Beaver Creek Maintenance Facility and homes within the proposed subdivision to have grades of approximately 9% instead of 8%; a variance from the vertical curve standards; a variance from a pavement section; a variance requiring dual access to five of the units; and a variance from the sight distance standards.
In determining whether to approve a variance, the commissioners, according to their standards, are required to weigh “the hardships to the applicant of not granting the variance” versus “the adverse impact on the health, safety and welfare of persons affected, and the adverse impact on the lands affected.”
Commissioner Matt Scherr said he felt the impacts to the community would be minimal if the variances were granted.
Scherr cited “sidewalks that really wouldn’t seem to serve any purpose and other things in that community that just don’t seem to make any sense.”
McQueeney agreed, saying she didn’t want to see different standards in the new subdivision than were applied to the existing roads in the area.
“If we were to live with gutters and curbs where no one else was living with gutters and curbs, that just seems silly,” she said.
Chandler-Henry also agreed, saying “the hardship on the applicant outweighs the adverse impact on health, safety and welfare, or on the land,” she said. “I think actually the improvements that are proposed by the applicant will maybe be an improvement to safety of that road in the future.”
With the subdivision and variances approved, Aidan Group will now turn its attention to the remaining steps that need to be completed before development can begin, including Beaver Creek design review board approval, compliance with Beaver Creek Metro District requirements, and the issuance of grading and building permits.