Southwest Colorado given $195,000 to cope with growth

Southwest Colorado given $195,000 to cope with growth

December 15, 2001

By Shane Benjamin
Durango Herald Staff Writer

Southwest Colorado has received two state grants to study growth and development patterns and to protect land along the San Juan Skyway.

The grants were two of 14 awarded by the Colorado Heritage Planning Grants program to "assist local governments in anticipating and responsibly addressing the unique public impacts caused by growth," according to a news release from the Office of Smart Growth in Denver.

The first grant was for $95,000 to prepare plans and strategies for protecting key open space areas along the San Juan Skyway corridor, said Ken Francis, with the Office of Community Services at Fort Lewis College, who helped prepare the application for the grant.

The grant was awarded to Montezuma, San Juan, Ouray and San Miguel counties, and the town of Rico. Rico is between Dolores and Telluride.

Francis said there are 10,500 acres targeted for protection in the Red Mountain area, between Silverton and Ouray.

The grant money will be used to plan methods for protecting that area, he said.

"It’s a fairly sizable grant, but it’s too early to achieve the objective of protecting key open space along" the San Juan Skyway corridors, he said.

Charlie Unseld, director of the Office of Smart Growth, said Saturday from his home in Denver that it is important to preserve the scenery along the San Juan Skyway to protect the tourism economy in the region.

"It’s primarily to preserve the agriculture and historical and scenic values along the highway," he said.

The second grant was for $100,000 to assist Mancos, Durango, Creede, San Juan County and Lake County in studying growth and development patterns in Southwest Colorado.

The grant will also help them develop an impact-fee structure that will help recover public infrastructure costs associated with growth, according to the news release.

The Colorado Heritage Planning Grants program awarded a total of $650,000 in grants this year. It is the second year of the grant program.