{"id":91498,"date":"2019-11-29T20:03:31","date_gmt":"2019-11-29T20:03:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-owner-sheds-light-on-plans-for-recently-purchased-animas-valley-property\/"},"modified":"2019-11-29T20:03:31","modified_gmt":"2019-11-29T20:03:31","slug":"new-owner-sheds-light-on-plans-for-recently-purchased-animas-valley-property","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-owner-sheds-light-on-plans-for-recently-purchased-animas-valley-property\/","title":{"rendered":"New owner sheds light on plans for recently purchased Animas Valley property"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Animas Valley is seeing a lot of development pressure, and the new owner of a 20-acre property says he will take his time to determine the right project for the land.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A prime piece of undeveloped property in the Animas Valley previously owned by the U.S. Forest Service sold for nearly $1.7 million this summer, but don\u2019t expect to see bulldozers and construction equipment out there anytime soon.<\/p>\n

In an interview with The Durango Herald<\/em>, the owner of the property, Kurt Carter, said he has no immediate plans to develop the property.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, I have to crunch some numbers, see what the community needs, see what everyone could be happy about going there, and find out what makes financial sense,\u201d Carter said. \u201cI want to do something more beneficial than what I think other developers would do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carter is one of three new owners of the Durango Hot Springs Resort and Spa (formerly named Trimble). But, he said, this venture is not related.<\/p>\n

Bidding opened in June for the 20-acre property in question, about 8 miles north of Durango at 373 Trimble Lane, behind the Trimble True Value hardware store. The online auction closed in August with the winning bid at $1,690,000<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Durango
Durango Herald file<br><br>A 20-acre piece of property previously owned by the U.S. Forest Service sold to a Florida man with ties to the Durango area. The new owner has not yet decided what he wants to do with the property.<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

For years, the property has been a vacant horse pasture, with a few structures on it, surrounded by luxury subdivisions. The Forest Service a few years ago announced its intent to sell the property<\/a>, saying it no longer had a use for it.<\/p>\n

Carter said he lives in Florida but has ties to Durango that date back at least 25 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned how to ski on Purgatory when I was 5 years old,\u201d he said. \u201cI come out there quite frequently; that\u2019s how I found out about the property out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carter said he\u2019s never developed property in Durango but has been part of projects like banks and offices in Florida.<\/p>\n

For the land in the Animas Valley, he sees great potential.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an impeccable piece of property out there with gorgeous views in every direction,\u201d he said. \u201cRegardless of what\u2019s done on it, it\u2019s a beautiful piece of property.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carter said he\u2019s aware of the development pressures in the Animas Valley. Recently, another developer proposed a 28-lot RV park and tavern on 4 acres<\/a> adjacent to his newly acquired land.<\/p>\n

The Animas Valley is one of the only areas in unincorporated La Plata County with zoning. The property is zoned \u201cneighborhood commercial,\u201d which according to county records, carries no \u201cuses permitted by right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, there are a variety of possible development options for the property under a special-use permit. That process requires a developer to propose the project to the county and ultimately obtain a special-use permit.<\/p>\n

For the Forest Service\u2019s part, the agency has said it will use money from the sale to help fund a new office building for the Columbine Ranger District in Bayfield. James Simino, Columbine district ranger, said previously that process is ongoing.<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Florida investor has stake in Durango Hot Springs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1920,475,549],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-91498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-animas-valley","tag-la-plata-county-colorado","tag-united-states-forest-service"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91498"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=91498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}