Crested Butte Mayor Ian Billick Interview

Crested Butte Mayor Ian Billick Interview – It was my pleasure recently to get another chance to sit down, have coffee and chat with the Mayor of Crested Butte – Ian Billick. He has been in office for one year now.

I believe we are all in good hands with Ian Billick as Mayor. We don’t agree on everything, but as Ian says – it is impossible to please everyone on every issue. Ian is a great leader in the valley in many roles, and as the head of RMBL he has accomplished a lot.

Watch Video – Interview Crested Butte Mayor Ian Billick

Transcript – Interview Crested Butte Mayor Ian Billick

KOPF – Hey, it’s Chris Kopf, and we’re in downtown Crested Butte. I’m here with the mayor of Crested Butte, Ian Billick. Super excited to talk to you today. Ian, tell us about what’s happening in downtown Crested Butte, Colorado.

BILLICK – Yeah, we’re really excited about winter. We’ve got a lot of snow. We’re above average. Skiing’s been great. We’ve had good snow pack. They’re going to get the steeps open a little bit earlier this year, so if you’re excited about skiing, this is the winter.

KOPF – Well, great. What are some of the current issues that you’re dealing with in the town? And, what can you tell people about some of the things that you’ve accomplished? And I know that’s a long answer, we could probably break that down into four questions, but tell us about what keeps you up at night right now?

BILLICK – Yeah, I was elected a year ago, and there’s been some really exciting things going on. One of the big things is Workforce Housing. You know, one of the things that makes this a great place is you come to town, you can hit the restaurants, and we struggled the last couple years, but now we’ve got the Sixth & Butte project which is going to bring some housing on, hopefully in two years. We are working with the county south of town, and we’ve got some really good prospects for that housing project. So that’s been one of the sort of big accomplishments for the year that makes me feel really happy, and it helps build the community. So, yeah, you know, Crested Butte is just a great place. We always joke like your server will sit down and have a long conversation with you…, but we need the restaurants open.

KOPF – There’s definitely a correlation, you know? The housing, the workers, the restaurants to serve the visitors, and our tourist economy, which is a big leg in the stool, right?

BILLICK – Yep. You know, and one of the other things th

at we’ve made a lot of progress is one of the main features of town when you’re standing here and you look up to the west and you can see Red Lady or Mount Emmons.

KOPF – Yeah.

BILLICK – And it was the 1970s when the community really committed to tourism, which is the path we’ve been very successful on to transition from mining extraction to focusing on tourism. And we’ve seen a lot of progress with permanent withdrawal of mining from that area, and really sort of putting the final nail on the coffin to focus on amenities and recreation and outdoors. So that’s been exciting.

KOPF – Okay, good. Super excited about the new cell tower that’s been installed over by the water treatment plant in town. Congrats on that. Tell us a little about that. That’s a Veriz

on tower right now?

BILLICK – Yeah, there’s a tower that went up. It’s always a little challenging because I feel like one of the roles of government is to get out the way of business. And so, you know, cell phone companies are private businesses, so trying not trying to nationalize that. But there is a new tower that has gone up on town property, and so we can facilitate when we have an opportunity. And as you can imagine, having a resort town that really expands quickly in terms of numbers of people in July, it can put a squeeze on a lot of our infrastructure, and cell phone coverage has been one of those. So I’m not going to promise that the problems are solved, I’ll just tell you that they’re better.

KOPF – Well that’s good. And I know, you know, hopefully AT&T will get equipment up there as well. I’m an AT&T user so I’m thankful for any additional improvements because it did seem like this summer it was hard to get a text or make a phone call or get a voicemail or something just because the bandwidth is what it is.

How would you respond to what’s going on with the short term rental situation in downtown Crested Butte? Sounds like there’s been a lot of progress now were coming out of that moratorium?

BILLICK – Yep. So the town had put on a moratorium over a year ago just because of panic around housing, and that moratorium has been lifted. There were a lot of concerns that you would be seeing major changes that would be very restrictive. And what we ended up doing as a council was we just made minor tweaks. And so we’re trying to sort of spread the short term rentals out. We’re not taking any STR licenses away from anybody. We’re making it a little bit easier for enforcement. And so if someone’s renting the place next door, and they’re throwing a raging party at two in the morning, you know, we can get that sort of taken care of. So that uncertainty’s gone, no major changes, things that I think will really improve the situation.

KOPF – Okay. If I want to build a garage, a detached garage, in downtown Crested Butte, what’s the status of the zoning on that, or the Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) designation requirement on that?

BILLICK – Yeah, there, it was a similar deal where, and this largely happened before I came on council, but I think I voted against this moratorium but when it came up, but last fall, again, panic over housing.

There was a moratorium placed on accessory buildings, and we should see that lifted within the next couple months. And so we’ve got sort of a pathway. It’s already been in front of council. I don’t know exactly how it’s going to end up, but that uncertainty should go away, I would guess by the spring. So if it’s something that’s important to you, and you’re really wondering what can I do and not do, you’ll know pretty quick. This council, they make some big moves in some places and not in other places. I’m guessing kind of like with the STRs, we’ll see a really interesting conversation, but I don’t know that we’ll see anything revolutionary in terms of change.

KOPF – Okay. Super excited about the progress with some things in town. The school expansion, nobody wants increased taxes, but, you know, I think that’s a very important thing. There have been other things as well with recreation. You mentioned to me the other day something about a new designation regarding floodplain. Maybe wrap all those things in one answer, if you could.

BILLICK – Colorado is a, I wouldn’t call it a low tax state, you know, we have Florida and other states, Texas, where there are no income tax. Our property tax is pretty low.

KOPF – It is compared to a lot of areas.

BILLICK – Compared to a lot of states. And so when you look at the combination of income and property tax, we’re actually not a bad tax state. And so we passed several ballot initiatives this fall that will involve investments in the school and also involve investments in education.

Now those investments are going to take three to five years because it takes a while for those projects to get off the ground. But I think those are, we know that those are some of the biggest drivers of property values.

And the investment in recreation is a unique investment that you’re not going to find in many other places in Colorado, even in the country. And so what the voters did is we’re making an annual investment, both in operating and capital projects to get our trails open, to make capital improvements, to have soccer fields. And that’s on the north end of thevalley. And when you look at real estate development, trails are a cheaper way of providing a lot of amenities that drives just as much value. So I think that’s going to be a huge driver, both not just of value in real estate, but just in quality of life. And those two things are obviously linked. And so 5 or 10 years, I think we’re already known as being one of the best places to recreate. Now we’re doubling down, and it’s

really going to be something special.

KOPF – That’s awesome. One other question I get a lot from second homeowners is, “I’m not sure I feel like I’m represented in Crested Butte”. I know you’ve tried to open up some things with regard to the Community Compass. Talk a little bit about that.

BILLICK – Yeah, and I’ll make one comment and sort of joke. It’s like, it’s not just the second homeowners, – (laughing) You get it from everybody. – I get it from everybody. And I’ll tell you as mayor, I get it. So it’s not just you…

KOPF – Like “Hey, can you fix that pothole right over there?”

BILLICK – We’re in it together. So that’s just, part of what makes Crested Butte special… we have characters, we have people that are passionate, that really care. And while it can seem like it’s directed at you, the reality is it can be directed at everybody.

KOPF – Right.

BILLICK – And so, you know, we’re always working to make this an inclusive community. How we define whether a person is residential or non-residential, I think is irrelevant. So it mattered 20 to 30 years ago. Now people are moving around, where they pay taxes is not necessarily the place that they love. They’re just trying to manage their tax loads. So we’re really trying to think creatively about how we bring everybody into that community discussion. We have people who don’t live in Crested Butte, but live just south of Crested Butte and have been here for 30 years. And we want them to be part of the conversation. So just whether you’re a non-voter because you live year round a hundred feet south of our down boundary, or whether you live in another state, you’re all part of our community.

We’ve been really thinking about how to bring in non-voters. We went through a planning process called the Community Compass, and we included a second homeowner on there to represent interest, someone who is involved. And all of the discussions was more involved as a committee member maybe than even the council. So, you know, we can definitely do more, but we have been trying to increase representation for all elements of the community.

KOPF – Very good. Well we appreciate all the things that you do. It’s not easy being mayor and being on the council and making hard decisions, and it seems like you’re making great progress and doing it in a thoughtful way. And so appreciate all of your efforts and the council and the staff, everybody in town. Thanks for the hard work. Any last words that you’d like to say about Crested Butte, Colorado?

BILLICK – Yeah, I just think Crested Butte is just such a unique, special place. And it’s not for everybody, but I ask a lot of people, you know, how did you first get here? And they’ll say, “you know, I showed up and it just felt right. I had no intention of buying, and then the next day we were at the real estate agency and we picked up a parcel”.

So, you know, if you get a chance to check it out, just feel, see if it resonates with you and whether it just feels right because it’s a great place… I’m here 35 years later and they’re a lot of us who know this is home. So, if it is home for a couple days, home for a month, home for 30 years, you know, we want you, if it’s something that feels right to you – to feel like it’s home and to be accepted.

KOPF – Very good. Awesome. Well thanks Ian. Appreciate you taking the time. Have an awesome day!

BILLICK – Yeah, you too, Chris.

How can I help you with Your Crested Butte Real Estate Needs?

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