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Open Space
“[I]f in a city
we had six vacant lots available to the youngsters of a certain neighborhood
for playing ball, it might be "development" to build houses
on the first, and the second, and the third, and the fourth, and even
the fifth, but when we build houses on the last one, we forget what
houses are for.”
– Aldo Leopold, 20th century naturalist Vision: Preserve, protect, and enhance our County’s open space. Background and Existing Conditions “Open space”—the words mean many different things to different people. However, the words also illicit a similar overall sentiment from everyone—an area that provides some type of refuge from the developed landscape. At its core, “open space” is a place to recharge one’s soul, to reconnect with the natural environment, and to recreate. Open space is, in fact, why most of us live in Summit County. A broad variety of lands in Summit County provide open space benefits to our residents and visitors. Open meadows, irrigated hay pastures, forested mountainsides, wetlands, and riparian areas are examples of open space. Open space provides many resources. Some areas are available for passive recreational pursuits, while other open space areas may be more limited in their use—primarily providing a green and “open” landscape view. While open space is often viewed as a pristine landscape, there is also a necessity for smaller open areas in our developed urban settings. These can be in the form of public parks or greenways that provide a visual relief from the developed landscape. As the County continues to develop, protection of these “urban open spaces” is critically important to maintaining our quality of life, while protection of the outlying rural open areas is also needed. We are extremely fortunate in Summit County to have a wealth of readily-available open space areas. The most obvious open space is the mountains which surround our populated valleys. Most of these mountain areas are located within the White River National Forest. In fact, over 81 percent of the land in our County is located on the national forest. Although a variety of activities are allowed on national forest lands, those activities are permitted with an emphasis on protecting the natural environment, including scenic open space values. Almost a third of the lands within the national forest are designated wilderness areas. These wilderness areas provide outstanding open space values. In addition to national forest lands, a smaller amount of land administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is held in Summit County and provides additional open space values. Lands held by state agencies such as the Colorado Division of Wildlife provide some other smaller tracts of open space. County residents have repeatedly expressed their desires to see open spaces preserved to the maximum extent possible. They have backed up these desires by further taxing themselves to allow funds for open space acquisition to be generated. As a result, Summit County government has acquired several thousand acres of land to permanently protect its open space values. Several of the towns, most notably Breckenridge and Frisco, have undertaken similar open space acquisition efforts. Most of the towns also have developed parks which provide some open space benefits. Finally, private landowners have done much to preserve the remaining private open space areas in the County. Over 11,000 acres of private land have been voluntarily placed in conservation easements to protect the open space values of those lands into perpetuity. As Table 4 shows, the vast majority of these conservation easements have been established on ranches in the Lower Blue Basin. In total, about 86 percent of the land base in Summit County can be considered “open space” lands. The following table provides an overview of open space areas protected in Summit County. Tables 1-4 provide more background on open space protected by the County, towns, and through conservation easements. Summit County Open Space Protection ProgramAs a result of the open space property tax levies discussed earlier, Summit County generates several million dollars annually to acquire key open space parcels in the County. Table 2 summarizes properties which have been acquired to date. A typically higher standard for open space is expected of properties acquired by the County, compared to open space that might be preserved as part of a development proposal. These lands must meet a list of criteria established in the County’s Open Space Protection Plan. The criteria address the following: access (to trailheads and recreation), agricultural/cultural, buffers (between urban and undeveloped lands), extensions (land adjacent to public lands), recreational (passive uses such as trails), unique lands (outstanding environmentally sensitive areas), and view corridors. In addition to these criteria, the Open Space Protection Plan identifies general areas of open space protection emphasis for each of the County’s four planning basins. This element recommends that the identification of areas of open space emphasis should continue to be refined in future basin master plans. The Summit County Open Space Advisory Council is responsible for evaluating potential open space acquisitions and forwarding recommendations on acquisitions to the Board of County Commissioners, who make the final determination on open space acquisitions. The Summit County Open Space and Trails department is responsible for staffing and providing technical assistance to the Open Space Advisory Council. |
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1 Includes 82,720 acres in Eagles Nest Wilderness and 12,739 acres in Ptarmigan Peak Wilderness.
Despite the apparent plentifulness of open space in the County, there are still numerous prized open space areas that could be impacted by development in the future. While some development will be necessary to accommodate projected growth in Summit County, there is an accompanying need to preserve open space in these areas so that new residents continue to have open space opportunities in close proximity to their residences and to maintain the overall community character. Depending on specific site conditions, the open space contributions of a project may vary considerably. Some areas may have prominent landscapes, visible from public viewpoints, that should be maintained. Other areas may contain environmentally sensitive areas which should be protected. Finally, some areas may contain little in terms of high quality open space areas but land could still be set aside for small pocket parks, possibly containing playgrounds or developed recreation facilities such as basketball courts. This element emphasizes that open space needs should be evaluated in all future development proposals. Goals, Policies, and Actions Goal A. Preserve and protect the County's open space and minimize the negative impacts on open space associated with development. Policy/Action 1. Protect open space through the use of regulations, incentives, and other mechanisms including land exchanges, land dedications, transfer of development rights, cluster subdivisions, sensitive site design, and other methods. Policy/Action 2. Prevent the encroachment of incompatible land uses into open space areas. Policy/Action 3. Create and maintain open space buffers around each of the County’s urban areas to create a distinct separation between urban areas, to preserve community identity, and to prevent urban sprawl.
Policy/Action 4. Designate a portion of land in new developments for open space purposes, when critical open space is documented. Policy/Action 5. Open space protection efforts should consider effects on private property rights. Goal B. Protect open space in Summit County through acquisition of property interests in addition to other incentive-based and regulatory techniques. Policy/Action 1. Seek permanent protection of open space through public acquisition of property interests such as full fee simple ownership, conservation easements, and access easements, when regulatory and incentive programs are insufficient to protect open space. Policy/Action 2. Support the continued existence of the County's open space acquisition program, specifically:
Policy/Action 3. Regularly update the Summit County Open
Space Protection Plan to address community open space issues and to
promote implementation of the plan.
Policy/Action 4. Pursue innovative approaches to leverage monies used for open space acquisition purposes by integrating the efforts of the County’s open space acquisition program with other appropriate programs and agencies, including:
Policy/Action 5. Utilize the County’s Open Space Protection Plan to provide guidance on the types of lands to protect, the open space selection criteria to be used, and the operating procedures of the County’s open space acquisition program. Policy/Action 6. When creating basin master plans, identify areas of open space protection emphasis in each basin by utilizing the open space selection criteria found in the Open Space Protection Plan as a guideline.
Policy/Action 7. Provide education to property owners and residents about the County’s open space acquisition program and other open space protection options and incentives to protect open space values on private land (e.g., conservation easements). Policy/Action 8. Work cooperatively with landowners who wish to donate property interests to protect the types of open space lands identified in the Open Space Protection Plan. Policy/Action 9. Sustainably manage open space areas through appropriate means (e.g., management plans) to protect their open space resources. Policy/Action 10. Place open space acquired by the County in an appropriate type of long-term restriction on use (e.g., rezoning to Open Space Zone district, conservation easement), with the exception of parcels identified during the acquisition process as suitable for disposal, so that open space resources are protected. Sustainability MeasuresSustainability indicators are used as a means to assess progress toward achievement of specific goals and policies/actions outlined in this element. The indicator is a quantitative measurement that reflects data available from the Open Space and Trails Department.
Implementation
Strategies
Many of the policies and actions identified in this element require some future work in order to see their successful implementation. The table below identifies specific strategies needed to fully implement the element. Priorities are identified to give an indication of the current relative importance of a particular implementation strategy. These priorities are provided as guidelines only.
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