Basalt planners recommend Javelin/Black Mountain housing plan to Town Council with conditions

The Basalt Planning & Zoning Commission on July 7 voted to recommend the Javelin/Black Mountain final plan to Town Council after reviewing technical changes and community‑benefit commitments.

Staff described the final plan for a 9‑acre site at 431 Emmer Road that would deliver 64 residential units (a mix of multifamily, townhomes and duplexes) and 12 short‑term rental cabins, with approximately four acres of dedicated open space. Staff said the proposal carries forward an affordable‑housing mitigation package from earlier phases: a set of deed‑restricted units (staff cited 32 deed‑restricted units at the time of this meeting) plus additional restricted‑occupancy units to achieve roughly 50% of units constrained by category/RO rules; the application also includes a $700,000 community‑benefit contribution and commitments for Emma Road and Midland Avenue improvements, a separated bike trail, and required right‑turn lane additions at nearby intersections.

Applicant representatives described efforts to align the design with the town’s 2020 master plan and said they increased their affordable offering through the entitlement process, asking for limited flexibility in how specific units are designated among affordability categories so the development could respond to market demand while preserving the total number of deed‑restricted units. "We moved our offering from 35% affordable units to 50% affordable units, plus the FirstTrax program, bringing the deed restricted units to 81%," the architect said to illustrate the developers’ claimed commitment to housing (applicant‑provided categorizations and the staff counts differ in emphasis; staff provided the technical breakdown for the record). The applicant also confirmed they will update landscaping to meet new wildfire‑resiliency code and that the project would phase infrastructure work and file subplats over a multi‑year schedule.

Commissioners largely praised the project’s affordable‑housing yield and public benefits while urging caution on a few technical points: one commissioner asked staff to confirm eligibility for any Prop 1‑23 incentives (staff said current income caps mean the project is not eligible under the town’s current implementation), another noted much of the public open space falls within a revised floodplain so it will remain largely undevelopable but usable as trails, and several commissioners expressed continued discomfort with three‑story massing in portions of the plan. Commissioner Cindy Hirschfeld said she was not comfortable with allowing the developer to reorder the town’s established priority list for allocation of deed‑restricted units, and asked for that objection to be noted in the record.

The commission voted to recommend the final plan to Town Council; members noted fee waivers (parkland, daycare, and a requested water‑tap fee waiver) remain council decisions. Staff said the council process will include the ordinance readings required for any annexation/PUD changes.

The commission’s recommendation advances the application to Town Council; council will take up fee waiver requests and the formal ordinance readings described by staff.