MOUNTAIN VILLAGE – More than two years after the Town of Mountain Village began crafting its first comprehensive plan with the help of a dedicated, 16-member volunteer task force, town staff, consultants, and massive public input, it will reach a major milestone next week when Town Council and members of the community review a final version of the plan.

At that meeting, which will take place at the Mountain Village Town Hall beginning at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 28, the Comprehensive Plan Task Force is expected to ask council to formally adopt the plan. If so, the first step of the extensive planning process will officially conclude, leaving council to begin deliberating on the plan in 2011.

As with all Comprehensive Plan meetings and events, there will be an opportunity for community members to ask questions and provide comments.

While the original developers of Mountain Village and San Miguel County planned the first 30 years of Mountain Village’s existence, the plan being presented next week stays true to the developers’ original values while moving Mountain Village forward into a new era of sustainability. It recognizes what needs to be preserved from the original vision while refining what needs to be changed.

The final Mountain Village Comprehensive Plan, the fruit of untold hours of effort by the task force, explores upzoning certain active open space and single-family parcels to ultimately achieve community goals of economic vitality and professional housing.

Originally conceived of as the “15-Year Plan,” it evolved to double that timeframe envisioning the community 30 years from now and is borne out of a series of vision statements generated through community input and adopted by council during the summer of 2009.

Those vision statements specified the goals of increased economic vitality, affordable housing and public amenities, while protecting the open space, view corridors and quality of life beloved by Mountain Village residents and visitors alike.

The end product is the final Mountain Village Comprehensive Plan which is comprised of the Future Land Use Map and Policies, Subarea Concepts and Policies, and Plan Policies like professional housing, economic development, natural environment, community character, open space and recreation, transportation and parking, and responsive governance.

Many of the policy statements directly correlate to the town’s vision and are more specific and actionable, giving the town something to measure decisions against. The Future Land Use Map and Policies illustrates the overall land use pattern that will be maintained in Mountain Village, outlining land use categories, allowable uses, design considerations and other provisions.

The various Subarea Concepts and Policies – eight in total – are what set Mountain Village’s Comprehensive Plan apart from typical community plans.

These plans provide detailed guidance for the development and redevelopment of areas of Mountain Village identified early on by the task force and town officials as enabling the town to achieve economic and social vibrancy without compromising the town’s characteristic spaciousness and environmental quality. While they are not development plans, they do present possible scenarios to meet an optimal level of efficiency in the plan’s objectives.

The subareas include the Mountain Village Center, Town Hall Plaza, the Meadows, Boomerang and Commanche, the Mountain Shops Parcel, the Town Gateway, Hood Park and Boston Commons.

The Mountain Village Center should be further developed and redeveloped to reinforce its role as the center of tourist activity, conferencing, and accommodations, while also providing commercial, cultural, recreational and civic spaces to maintain year-round vibrancy.

Meanwhile, the goal at Town Hall Plaza would be to enhance the site as the civic hub of the community by encouraging the development and redevelopment of a variety of needed commercial, public and service uses that support year-round residents and also serve a purpose for visitors, such as a medical center or a medical office building.

Policy within the Meadows would promote a variety of land uses there to reinforce its strong role of providing professional housing in the community, while the vision for the Boomerang and Commanche subarea would be to create a unique, high alpine hotel, hotbed development that is tied to Mountain Village Center by a pulse gondola. A flagship hotel and accommodations and housing nestled into the hillside would assist in meeting the goals of economic vibrancy, year-round vitality, housing and tourism and a 1,500-seat capacity amphitheater for summer entertainment is also included in the subarea plan.

The Mountain Shops subarea would either relocate existing mountain shops in order to develop a single- and multi-family professional housing community that is complementary to adjacent neighborhoods and well connected to jobs and the high-density subareas, or expand and improve the existing shops while including fewer deed-restricted, single-family lots.

The Town Gateway would provide a sense of arrival and set the tone for Mountain Village through a new entry building, enhanced landscaping and enhanced signage, and the Hood Park Subarea would provide an open space area within its single-family residential setting that also provides for a small, neighborhood pocket park.

Finally, the Boston Commons subarea would provide for single-family development in a primarily forested setting.

Once the Comprehensive Plan is adopted by council, the second phase of the process will involve updating the town’s Land Use Ordinance and Design Regulations in order to conform to and implement the Comprehensive Plan.

The LUO and Design Regulations are amended by the creation and adoption of an ordinance by Town Council, which would occur in either regular or special council meetings, both of which allow time for public comment.

The third phase of the process – full implementation of the plan – will most likely take decades.

In the meantime the town will update the Comprehensive Plan periodically to reflect the community’s ongoing evolution. Council will also annually evaluate how the town is achieving the principles and policies of the Comprehensive Plan.

Visit www.townofmountainvillage.com/compplan to access the Mountain Village Comprehensive Plan prior to the Dec. 28 presentation. The presentation will also be streamed live on the web at www.townofmountainvillage.com and on Mountain Village Cable Channel 15. The town will provide hors d’oeuvres and refreshments as well as free childcare during the presentation. Please e-mail Community Relations Manager Nichole Zangara at HYPERLINK "mailto:nzangara@mtnvillage.org" nzangara@mtnvillage.org if you are in need of this service. Those watching remotely may also email Zangara during the presentation with questions and comments.