Smeltertown residents press commissioners to delay Arkansas Valley Sports Group rezone over traffic, wildlife and process concerns

The Chaffee County Board of Commissioners continued a public hearing on a proposal by Arkansas Valley Sports Group (ABSG) to rezone parcels in Smeltertown to allow a large outdoor recreation development, scheduling the next hearing for Aug. 19.

Smeltertown residents and property owners told the board the proposal could harm wildlife habitat, overload local roads and bypass mandatory land‑use-code review triggered by the project’s intended “active/passive park” use. Several speakers urged the county to require the code’s resources-and-park triggers and perform traffic and environmental studies before approving a rezone.

Mikaela Legazma, speaking for the Smeltertown Alliance, said the group “fully support[s] an ice rink and recreational development in Chaffee County. We simply believe that these projects should happen in the right place and in a way that follows our county’s policies, rules, and due process.” She asked the commission to move the hearing to Salida so affected residents would not need to travel to Buena Vista for testimony; planning staff informed the group that request was denied.

Multiple nearby property owners described site concerns. Cheryl Bort said the planning process had not applied required rezoning criteria and that the applicant’s later-disclosed intended use (active/passive park) triggers additional LUC review. “We are asking you to, number 1, evaluate the rezone against the mandatory LUC criteria,” Bort said, and to require the active/passive-park review before any approval.

Barb Vargas, citing Colorado Parks and Wildlife maps, said the area around the parcels contains winter and breeding range for bald eagles, mule deer migration corridors, bat habitat and other protected features. She told the board that the riparian corridor near Parcel R should be treated as high-value habitat and that year‑round recreation, lighting and shoreline activity would displace wildlife.

Property owner Harry Hansen said traffic safety on the narrow rural roads is already a community concern: “My daughter's been in a near head-on collision three different times out there,” he said, and added that heavy trucks already use the roads. Several speakers asked the county to require a traffic assessment, flood and contaminated‑soils reviews and full application of the land‑use-code tests for parks and resource protection.

Planning staff and the board said the hearing had been continued previously and that the applicant agreed to the continuation to allow additional materials to be submitted. The board set the matter for continuation to Aug. 19 to allow more information to be gathered; no rezoning decision was made that day.

Speakers requested a later in‑person hearing in Salida and additional time for residents to review materials; county staff said a standard practice is to hold hearings in the board’s meeting location and that the applicant had agreed to the continuance. Planning staff noted that some mapping errors in Smeltertown are being addressed under the ongoing land-use code “glitch” process, and some speakers said the glitch corrections should be resolved before advancing rezonings that will reshape neighborhood designations.