By Laurie Loeb

I first came to the Valley in the summers of the mid-‘50s to play in the Aspen Music Festival, on track to become a symphonic percussionist. I loved it so much that after a few summers of playing, I decided to move to Aspen in 1961. The mountain lifestyle, the cultural activities, the unconventional people and the degree of civic engagement — it all totally enthralled me. I even worked on Hunter S. Thompson’s campaign for sheriff.

By the mid-‘60s, I could see the changes coming. Aspen only had 750 people and one paved road, but absentee ownership was beginning. I looked around and found Carbondale, which only had 600 people and no paved roads. I bought a piece of property for next to nothing and, from the get-go, started going to the town council meetings. I really liked the modesty and a sense of shared responsibility about Carbondale, and I didn’t want to see what happened in Aspen happen here.

In 1977, a portion of Colorado Rocky Mountain School’s property was annexed by Carbondale and zoned “commercial.” In 1999, they sold 24 acres to a California wanna-be developer, who subsequently proposed a big-box style development that would have had 252,000 square feet of buildings with an anchor building bigger than Sopris Park.

Despite more than two years of negative input from the townspeople, the Town Fathers, aka the Town Trustees, approved the proposal in 2003. As a trustee myself in the 1980s, I knew there was a channel to fight this, so a few friends and myself decided to form the Town Mothers. We didn’t feel the Town Fathers were doing justice to the will of the people. We circulated petitions, which forced a referendum. The new town manager at the time was told by a colleague, “Keep the government out of the way of the Carbondale people.” Boy, he didn’t know what was coming!

The developer had a display center on Main Street in what is now the Brass Anvil. There were renderings of the proposal that had a building of solid brick walls, two blocks long, with not a window or door. The developers’ campaign was based on fear. They claimed that the town would go broke without increased sales tax revenue, and they threatened the possibility of higher taxes. There was negativity and divisiveness; they pitted people against each other.

The Town Mother’s campaign, on the other hand, was very lively and creative. We had a display center right across the street in a donated hair salon, and we called it: “The Other Side of the Street, the Other Side of the Story.” There, we had an architect’s model, and an aerial photo of the town with the template of the proposed development laid on top, and it covered the entire downtown.

We sat in salon chairs, greeted people and had discussions. We used a visual depiction of anticipated traffic that would be generated by this development. One of the spouses made “Carbondale Mother Lover” hats. We had posters around town, and we used canning jars for donations. We had pins stamped with “Town Mothers” and we wore aprons in the July Fourth parade.

Frank Norwood wrote a wonderful song about big box development that was played repeatedly on KDNK. We had a banner that said, “Don’t change Carbondale. Let Carbondale change you.” We had an email list that hosted lively discussions and educational events on taxation and the importance of maintaining Main Street businesses. We had a fundraising concert with the largest audience ever seen at Steve’s Guitars.

The Denver Post, as well as local newspapers, gave us massive coverage. Our name helped, because it is not cool to badmouth mothers. One of the ads we ran in the Valley Journal gave reasons to vote “no” on this proposal: 1. Mom says, “I need to find out about your friend before you hang out with them.” 2. Mom says, “Never buy a pig in a poke.” 3. Mom says, “Never bite off more than you can chew.” 4. Mom also says, “Try to work things out!”

We won the referendum 57% to 43%. It was the largest voter turnout in the entire history of Carbondale, and we had a celebration in the middle of Main Street with bottle rockets.

In 2012, there was a subsequent proposal for Home Depot. The developer threatened a lawsuit based on an ex-parte communication, if he didn’t get approval. But the Trustees knew that, had they approved the proposal, the Town Mothers would rise up again. Wisely, they approved the development on the condition that it goes to a public vote. That time, we won 2-1.

Following that, an economic development roadmap committee formed and meetings were held to gather information on what people wanted in terms of growth and development. There was consensus in preservering the small town character and agricultural heritage, especially cattle drives through town.

Fast forward to 2016, a proposal made by a different developer for a City Market promised to be the most environmentally-friendly Kroger store in the state. There was way less opposition from the community, and the Town Mothers were burned out after years of active civic engagement. Unfortunately, nobody picked up the ball as watchdog, and the Trustees naively approved the development.

Now we see rampant development, which has changed the character of our town. But the heart of the community still remains “The Carbondale Way:” friendliness, mutual respect, collaboration, shared responsibility, creativity, fun and honoring the natural environment.

HerStory is part of August VOICES Radio Hour, presented by VOICES in collaboration with Circa 71 Productions. The monthly content is aired every second Friday on KDNK from 6 to 7pm, exploring different themes from different voices that make up our dynamic town.