The monthly Montezuma County Planning and Zoning meeting was standing room only on March 13, as community members crowded into the hearing for a proposed high-end glamping development outside Mancos.
More than 80 community members showed up, easily filling the seats and perimeter of the upstairs board room at 109 W. Main St.
Ultimately, the board passed a motion to recommend the Board of County Commissioners deny the application, which means “the application doesn’t automatically move forward,” said Planning Director Don Haley.
The motion carried 3-2. Most everyone in the room cheered.
Vice Chair Haley Leonard-Saunders, Jason Armstrong and Mike Lynch voted in favor of recommending the board deny the application. Mike Doyle and Ted Neergaard voted against it.
“We will have to see if they (Under Canvas Inc.) can petition the BOCC to hold a public hearing,” Haley said in an email.
Before the meeting, word had gotten out about Under Canvas’ application to set up camp on hundreds of acres in Mancos.
More than 530 people signed a petition against the development, and an online flyer encouraged people to attend and “Protect Mancos.”
The Under Canvas team of representative Jamie Schmitt, attorney Kim Perdue, traffic specialists and Wildfire Mitigation specialist Steve Underwood presented the application.
Schmitt said that though the property at 12695 Road 40 consists of 346 acres, the camp features would be concentrated on just 4.46 acres, 1.16% of total acreage.
Come winter, tents would be taken down and stored, and nobody would be on-site. Schmitt called the development “low impact by nature,” as there’s “little to no permanent structures, hard scaping or landscaping.”
Plus, she said, they “pursue local staffing,” employing up 90 seasonal staff and three full-time positions.
“I spent a day downtown (Mancos) talking to business owners and individuals, and most of it was well received,” she said, which made attendees at the meeting laugh.
Schmitt said Under Canvas “provides a camping experience to visitors, typically from big cities, already coming to the national parks.”
Water would come from Montezuma Water Co., and each of the 75 tents would use an estimated 100 gallons a day, or 7,500 total gallons a day.
“That might seem like a lot, but the Montezuma Water Company’s capacity is 4 million gallons per day and that’s expanding to 6 million,” the attorney said. “We don’t foresee any shortage or problems with it.”
“That’s ours,” someone in the crowd shouted.
The Under Canvas team announced plans to enhance safety and reduce fire hazards in the area. They would add turn deceleration lanes at the intersection of Road 40 and Colorado Highway 184, and remove the flammable understory on the property.
Before public comment, the planning and zoning board asked the Under Canvas team a few questions.
Facing questions from board member Mike Doyle, Schmitt said they had data to back up their estimate of 100 gallons of water per day for a family of four. She also responded that for the six-month season, roughly 30 people would be working on-site at any given time.
The team underscored that the mixed-use zoning would include 200 acres for “open space or in ag production with grazing permits we will offer,” the attorney said. A small section would be “a commercial operation, a recreation campground, intended to remain in character with the community.”
Right now, the property is zoned ag-residential. Under Canvas applied for a high impact/special use permit and general planned unit development on it.
Board member Mike Lynch addressed the proposal, and said “it raises some of the issues about our land use code that are not specific, not very detailed.”
“And because it’s not very detailed,” Lynch went on, “it allows people to make assumptions about how it can be put together and you end up with a commercial operation in an ag area.”
At this comment, the crowd cheered in approval.
According to the county land use code, a general planned unit development “is a tool to provide flexibility regarding site and design features.”
“This PUD is applicable to small-scale mixed uses, such as business and residential combinations,” said Lynch.
“Commissioner (Gerald) Koppenhafer is on record in a meeting saying that the general PUD was never designed to be used in this way,” Lynch said. “It was designed for an ag operation where the resident wanted to make some extra money with a small business out of their home. … We’re talking small scale, not large scale.”
In regards to high impact permits, Lynch said it’s intended for commercial or industrial developments. Special use permits, he said, are for “special” events only.
“Like a Woodstock, a special event,” Lynch said. “A one-time-of-year event. Not a continuous special-use deal.”
Thus, “I contend this is not properly submitted.”
He added that “there’s a lot of issues with our land use code that need to be worked out so this doesn’t happen anymore.”
The time for public comment, usually set at three minutes per person, was limited to two because of how many community members wanted to speak. Still, public comment lasted more than an hour.
Commenters raised concerns such as fire danger, water use, noise and light pollution, traffic and stress and first responders. Several argued that the camp, with its own restaurant, would compete with existing campgrounds and accommodations in Montezuma County.
Not one person spoke in favor of the development.
One neighbor, who could have tents “less than 10 yards from my back fence,” reached out to someone who lived next to the Under Canvas development near the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee.
“Under Canvas has a track record of turning peaceful and natural spaces into carnivals of noise,” he read. “The immersive experience they offer is a joke, a disturbing blend of late night parties, rowdy campers and constant droning of vehicles, far from offering peace.”
Sasha Cucci, co-owner of Moondog Café in Mancos, said accepting such a proposal sets a dangerous precedent that could attract other billion-dollar companies to the valley.
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Another added, “We need economic growth, but to me this isn’t it.”
A resident of Mancos for eight short days but camper for 70 years said, “The city people, which is their target market, come in, and their idea of camping is we don’t ever have a fire, lets have the biggest damn fire we can have.”
“If they’re from New York, they might even try to tip a cow,” another person said. “That’s really all I have to say.”
Another community member said they’d rather see a subdivision go in “with the highest density allowed by county, and it wouldn’t be as impactful as having 75 new people every two days.”
“We don’t know, and we don’t want to know, the kind of people who pay hundreds of dollars a night to stay in a tent,” someone said.
An ambassador from the Wildfire Adapted Partnership questioned the long-term fire mitigation plans, since gamble oak “just keeps coming back.”
A self-described introvert said, “I have never had contact with a community that so loves its community, that so loves Montezuma County. … “And not to be rude, but Mancos was mispronounced by people who want to come in here and change the whole character.”
After public comment, the board asked Under Canvas to address some of the public’s concerns, in addition to a few follow-up questions of their own.
The traffic specialist said their scope only concerned the intersection of Colorado Highway 184 and Road 40, not Road 40 itself, which is unpaved and would be heavily trafficked.
The attorney said they’d be happy to talk about maintenance and do their part to keep up Road 40.
She added that they spoke with the Cortez and Mancos Fire Protection Districts about emergency services. Mancos Fire replied and said they were volunteers and quite busy.
Schmitt added that Under Canvas qualifies for dark sky approval.
John Hernandez, the chair of the Planning and Zoning Board who didn’t vote that evening, said that it simply, “doesn’t fit.”
Board member Doyle said that he wasn’t surprised there were no positives from the crowd and said that one potential positive is tax revenue.
“There’s a reason we only have two deputies on duty,” he said. “At some point, we do need revenue here.”
Doyle said that Kinder Morgan Inc. is backing out and “the burden on this county isn’t going to get easier.”
In fact, half the county’s property tax revenue comes from oil and gas, but property tax accounts for only 16% of total county revenue. Therefore, about 9% of the county’s total revenue comes from Kinder Morgan.
The proposal ultimately failed planning and zoning since it wasn’t in conformity with the land use code and “shall possibly generate significant adverse impact on other property in the area.”
Chairman Hernandez told Under Canvas speak with Planning Director Haley about next steps, and the hearing ended at nearly 10 p.m.
