Tippet Rise plan withdrawn
EDWARDS — Peter and Cathy Halstead have withdrawn a land-use application to create a small music education and performance facility near the top of Lake Creek.
The Halsteads had applied to Eagle County for a special-use permit for a facility called Tippet Rise. In a February meeting of the Eagle County Planning Commission, the Halsteads described the facility as having a 10,000-square-foot music library and studio, along with a 1,500 square-foot home for artists in residence. The facility was also to use a portable bandshell for outdoor performances of pianos and stringed instruments.
NEIGHBORS OPPOSE CENTER
The primary intended audience was small groups of local school children. While the Eagle County school district and groups including the Vail Valley Foundation and the Bravo! Vail Music Festival were enthusiastic supporters of the plan, many neighbors were opposed.
Some of those neighbors created a website to help stop the plan. That site claimed 1,000 online petition signatures in support. At a Feb. 18 meeting of the Eagle County Planning Commission, several neighbors said they were worried about traffic on the road and noise from performances.
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In a letter withdrawing the application, the Halsteads wrote, “Unfortunately, it has become clear that our intent and the specifics of what we have proposed have been misunderstood. In part, this was due to media coverage that mischaracterized what we were planning. The perception became that we were proposing something much larger in scope or that it would grow into something much larger, despite our commitment to put restrictions on it in perpetuity so that it would always have been entirely free and never have grown in size.
“We do not want to create something that will divide our community,” the letter continued. “For that reason, we have decided not to build the educational facility or the outdoor pavilion and to permanently withdraw our application to the county.”
