During this week’s regular meeting, Basalt Town Council held a second public hearing for a potential residential and storage unit development in Southside, and, once again, found it lacking community benefit.
“This is a departure — completely — from what the Master Plan envisions for this parcel,” said Mayor David Knight.
However, discussions around the development also centered around potential road improvements to account for increasing traffic density in an area already burdened by high school commuters.
At the March 24 meeting, when this development was previously discussed, the council generally agreed that the development wasn’t quite meeting the community’s needs, especially in the form of affordable housing. At the time, 11 of the 47 proposed units were slated to be price-capped and deed-restricted, representing 23% of the total units and just above the 20% minimum required by the Town. In response to that concern, the applicant has doubled the number of deed-restricted units to 22, so that nearly half of the residential portion of the development would become affordable housing. In comparison, the recently approved developments at Basalt Center Circle and Jadwin are 60% and 50% affordable housing, respectively.
The councilors were skeptical about whether the storage units would be used exclusively for storage and were concerned about potential traffic generation if the units might be used for alternate purposes, such as hosting small businesses. Since then, the project’s traffic study was updated to reflect a possible increase, and the applicant has proposed restricting 30 of the 54 units as storage use only.
Much of the discussion around the development was devoted to consideration of improvements to the intersection of Fiou Lane and Basalt Avenue. Fiou Lane narrows considerably going east from the intersection, and would need to be improved in the event of the development’s construction, for safety reasons alone. This area is already the site of heavy traffic buildup, especially for commuters to and from Basalt High School, and councilors were concerned at the previous meeting that increased urban density in the area would add to the problem.
Town staff contracted transportation specialist Jim Charlier to determine possible improvements to Fiou lane. Charlier, who came out of retirement to aid the Town, proposed six alternatives and ultimately recommended rebuilding the intersection, extending Summerset Lane into a new access road and adding new bike/walking lanes.
Mayor Knight pointed out that any of these improvements were ultimately contingent on whether or not the property would be developed. Councilor Rick Stevens noted that Charlier’s recommendations did provide a potential blueprint for how the area could be improved in the event of any increased density, apart from the development in question.
Councilor Angela Anderson asked Assistant Planning Director James Lindt if the Town had any plans to improve Fiou Lane separately from the development. Lindt said that the Town had neither plans nor funds in place to do so. Lindt also said that roughly 30 residential units were expected to “come online” at Stott’s Mill in the near future, which will increase traffic.
Ultimately, the council ended on a similar note compared to the previous public hearing, and expressed that, even with the present changes, the development still was not sufficient to meet community needs. An additional public hearing is planned to be held on May 12.
In other news
The Town of Basalt has signed a contract with Wold Architects and Engineers for design and entitlement services for a new Public Works and Police Department building.
The new building, which will host both departments, will be constructed on two adjacent Town-owned parcels southwest of the Original Road and Highway 82 intersection. While the western parcel is currently in use by Public Works, the eastern parcel is vacant and was previously used by Umbrella Roofing.
In 2025, the Town commissioned Wold to complete a needs assessment for both the Police and Public Works facilities, which determined that both departments were in need of an upgrade. While the Town received 10 different proposals from architecture firms after advertising a request for proposals, the selection committee ultimately recommended Wold to tackle the project.
The council unanimously approved a contract with Wold to proceed with designs for a safe, efficient and modern building.