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Open Space Element
Background and Existing Conditions
“Open space”—the words mean many different things to different people. However, the words also elicit 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 the 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 the County to have a wealth of readily available open space areas. The most obvious open space is the mountains that 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 in 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 the 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 the County can be considered “open space” lands. Table 1 provides an overview of open space areas in the County. Tables 2-4 provide more background on open space protected by the County, towns, and through conservation easements.
Summit County Open Space Protection Program
As a result of the open space property tax levies discussed earlier, the County generates several million dollars annually to acquire key open space parcels. 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.
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 the 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, which should be maintained. Other areas may contain environmentally sensitive areas that 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.
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