Whether ’tis nobler to welcome the tourists who dine in our restaurants, shop in our stores and provide jobs for our locals or take arms against the new development that we need, however modest it might be, to accommodate them….
Yes, once again, Telluride is at an existential crossroads. Will we, as a community, devise a plan for the redevelopment of the Lift 7 base area to “sustain” ourselves, or will we stop development plans as “unsustainable.”
Sustainability is the new golden ideal, taking a seat at the table along such gilded concepts as truth and freedom. But like with truth and freedom, the concept of sustainability can be trumpeted to mean radically different things.
To those already organizing against the Town of Telluride’s efforts to rethink how the Lift 7 area ought to be used, redevelopment there can’t possibly be sustainable if it draws more people, if it has a carbon impact, if it fails to recognize that skiing itself is not sustainable in a warming world. More, by this definition, is bad.
To others, our community is not economically sustainable without more visitors, and we therefore should do what we can to bring them here … and where better to accommodate them than at the base of our ski area?
The battle is joined, and it is easy to predict that it will be long and protracted, at least if those of us who care about economic sustainability care enough to fight. There is no question that the “just say no” side will fight. The sad truth is, they have nothing better to do and have the passion of zealots.
The resolution will come from the people in the middle, those who do in fact need the economy here to be sustainable to survive but are also concerned about over-development and want to preserve all that is good about Telluride. Those folks, and particularly those who live and own property in the Lift 7 area, have legitimate interests at stake in any development plan, legitimate questions and concerns, and the process should address all of their issues if any redevelopment plan is ultimately approved.
But will they get the facts – or be persuaded by rhetoric and paranoia?
First, is global warming a reason to slam on the brakes and do nothing? I would counter that it is a reason to act decisively to prepare for our sustainability if and when snow becomes less reliable. (Global warming could produce more snow. Nobody knows.) If we have fewer skiers in the future, does that mean we need visitors less? No, though we may need different activities to draw them.
Do we really need to accommodate visitors? Well, what else sustains this economy? Trust fund dividends? Even the real-estate and construction economies ultimately depend on visitors. All of our local businesses, every single one of them, need visitors as customers and there simply aren’t enough second homeowners to shoulder that burden, (not to mention that second-home development is far more impactful and unsustainable than hotel development).
Should we build housing and not hotels at the Lift 7 base? No! Yes we need housing, but not at the base of the ski area, and surely not on the last best location for hotel rooms in the town of Telluride. Though skiing may have an uncertain future, it does have some future, and visitors should be housed as close to lifts as possible. That’s sustainable! They can walk to the ski area and walk to the center of town if they are staying at Lift 7.
Is density bad? No, because the opposite of density is not open space, it’s sprawl. Density at the base of a lift, close to shops and restaurants, is a good thing. It is both economically and environmentally sustainable.
Is change good? Well, that may be the wrong question. Change is inevitable, and particularly in a world whose climate is changing. We will not adapt to the changing world by trying to stop the clock. We must adapt by a process of thoughtful community planning, and that is just what the Lift 7 effort has the potential of being, if we engage in it honestly.
Can Telluride pull together and plan its future rationally? Or will the future simply roll over us? Will we be a vibrant resort community or an increasingly exclusive country club?
Following similar debates in the past decade, Telluride has made choices that have favored the country club alternative, driving up the cost of living here, reducing the tourist economy in favor of second-home development, rewarding sprawl over density, and pushing workers down valley, all factors that contribute to a languishing and unsustainable economy and environment.
Here we go again.
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