Delta jurors get a snocat, bus and gondola tour of the Valley Floor
By Douglas McDaniel
It may be to the good fortune of the Town of Telluride that the sun was not shining too brightly on an overcast, then snowy Tuesday over the Valley Floor.
A sunshine brilliant clear day could be of little benefit to the Town during its Final Valuation Trial as the six jurors and four alternates from Delta were shepherded by a tight-lipped Town of Telluride Police Chief James Kolar around the 540-acre parcel.
So if you are looking for clues on how Day Seven of the trial went: The Valley Floor looked beautiful, if not too beautiful as early afternoon snow flurries made the view of the east end of property from the Gondola cabin look like a spackled grayish blob, and those all important pricey vistas bearing nothing more than a whitewash of merged mountaintops and sky.
The trial started on its seven day with a snocat tour of the property in question, lunch on the second floor of the Shell Station (in the trial, it’s still referred to as the Texaco station), followed by a tour by a Telluride Galloping Goose bus up to Mountain Village, and then, a gondola ride. The jurors, led in a line through the Mountain Village core, were all smiles and seemed to be enjoying themselves as they awaited lift-off from the gondola.
Any time mingling with Telluride culture or residents was avoided. Though their Galloping Goose led them around the traffic circle at the gateway to Town to head up to Mountain Village, they spent little more time in town than enough to get off the Telluride gondola station and back on another bus to continue their tour.
On the previous day of the trial in Delta, comparative views on and around the Valley Floor became an aspect of the Town of Telluride’s attack.
On the stand, the Town’s appraiser, Richard Chase, said he focused his comparative sales strictly to the region, as opposed to the San Miguel Valley Corporation’s appraiser, Larry Stark, who also compared Telluride’s prices to other ski towns such as Aspen and Steamboat Springs.
Chase said the issue of views from lots, one of the factors used for determining price, showed that the Valley Floor’s low-lying vistas were less desirable – and therefore less expensive – than for such mesa-top plots found on Grayhead, Diamond Ranch and Sunnyside.
All three properties are perched on mesas on the northern slopes near the Telluride Regional Airport.
“Views are what sell in this market,” Chase said. “Grayhead has superior views to the Valley Floor. The mesa-tops offer multi-dimensional views versus the one-to-two dimensional views of the Valley Floor.”
Telluride’s lead attorney in the trial, Leslie Fields, asked Chase about the possible development scenarios as they related to the Town, Mountain Village and San Miguel County. Chase told the court the most likely scenario which he based his analysis on was that any development would likely occur under the county’s jurisdiction.
“Certain issues suggested Telluride and Mountain Village wouldn’t be able to annex,” he said. Telluride couldn’t annex a developed Valley Floor, he said, because of limitations to its water supply. Mountain Village couldn’t annex, Chase said, because of the obstacles of trying to connect utility systems between two vastly different elevations. In addition, he said, “The Mountain Village never had a Master Plan that incorporated the Valley Floor … so it would be with the county.”
The most likely development scenario, which he based his calculations on, was under the one per 35-acre option.
“The highest and best use was for 35-acre home sites,” Chase said. “It’s a relatively easy, straightforward process, an expedient process at the county level.”
That’s because, as Chris Dunn, the Town’s expert land planner testified earlier in the day, the development option required minimal development infrastructure, no affordable housing requirements, no transportation mitigation, no school sites or public parks, and so on.
This development scenario differed greatly than Stark’s appraisal, which focused on three possibilities. Stark based his value conclusions for the two possible develop options for the Valley Floor as follows: $40,600,000 for Alternative A and $56,750,000 for Alternative B.
Alternative A involves 15 units under a one unit per 35-acre analysis; Alternative B involves 77 lots or approximately 1 unit per 7 acres on the south side; and, Alternative C involves a plan of up to 1,200 people on the south side of the Valley Floor with up to 800 units of density.
To arrive at his estimate for the south side of the Valley Floor, Stark indicated that the final figure reconciled the two prices from Alternatives A and B.
Regarding the choice to use a calculation that used 40 percent of Alternative A and 60 percent of B to come up with a $50 million price tag, Chase said the approach was highly unusual.
“I only heard about stories like that in Las Vegas, to tell you the truth,” he said.
For Alternative A, Stark reviewed his 10 comparable sales of property. The locations were from the Telluride area, Jackson, Wyo., Aspen and Steamboat Springs. The range of value for these comparables was approximately $20,000 per acre up to $160,000 per acre.
For Alternative B, Stark reviewed his four comparable sales of property. The location of the comparables include: the Telluride area, Jackson, Wyoming, Steamboat Springs and Breckenridge. The range of value for these comparable was approximately $87,000 per acre up to $185,000 per acre.
But Chase criticized the need to compare the Valley Floor to sales outside the region. He said mega-resorts with twice to three-times more skier days than Telluride, such towns as Vail, Aspen, Breckenridge and Steamboat Springs, shouldn’t be compared to a relatively new resort area.
"The Telluride area, if you try to compare to other international resorts, is up and coming, but is in my opinion still in its infancy,” he said. “Telluride hasn’t hit the mega-resort status yet.”
His first comparable sale, Grayhead/Ruffner Peak, is a 1,368-acre property that sold for more than $19 million, or, $14,368 per acre, in 1997. The second comparable sale, the 432-acre Diamond Ranch, went for $9.3 million, or, $775,000 per 35-acre lot. The third comparable sale, Sunnyside, just north of the Valley Floor, but at a higher elevation, involved 811.62 acres for $20.8 million, or, $861,000 per 35-acre lots.
Chase’s bottom line price after his analysis: a total “take” value of $25,983,800 as of Jan. 9, 2006, the so-called “date of value.”
This was based on the 35-acre lot value of $1.8 million per lot under Alternative A, which he viewed as the most reasonable development scenario to base the price on.
The trial will return to Delta on Wednesday with more testimony by Chase, and then a likely cross-examination by SMVC attorneys Darrell Waas and Mikaela Rivera.
It may be to the good fortune of the Town of Telluride that the sun was not shining too brightly on an overcast, then snowy Tuesday over the Valley Floor.
A sunshine brilliant clear day could be of little benefit to the Town during its Final Valuation Trial as the six jurors and four alternates from Delta were shepherded by a tight-lipped Town of Telluride Police Chief James Kolar around the 540-acre parcel.
So if you are looking for clues on how Day Seven of the trial went: The Valley Floor looked beautiful, if not too beautiful as early afternoon snow flurries made the view of the east end of property from the Gondola cabin look like a spackled grayish blob, and those all important pricey vistas bearing nothing more than a whitewash of merged mountaintops and sky.
The trial started on its seven day with a snocat tour of the property in question, lunch on the second floor of the Shell Station (in the trial, it’s still referred to as the Texaco station), followed by a tour by a Telluride Galloping Goose bus up to Mountain Village, and then, a gondola ride. The jurors, led in a line through the Mountain Village core, were all smiles and seemed to be enjoying themselves as they awaited lift-off from the gondola.
Any time mingling with Telluride culture or residents was avoided. Though their Galloping Goose led them around the traffic circle at the gateway to Town to head up to Mountain Village, they spent little more time in town than enough to get off the Telluride gondola station and back on another bus to continue their tour.
On the previous day of the trial in Delta, comparative views on and around the Valley Floor became an aspect of the Town of Telluride’s attack.
On the stand, the Town’s appraiser, Richard Chase, said he focused his comparative sales strictly to the region, as opposed to the San Miguel Valley Corporation’s appraiser, Larry Stark, who also compared Telluride’s prices to other ski towns such as Aspen and Steamboat Springs.
Chase said the issue of views from lots, one of the factors used for determining price, showed that the Valley Floor’s low-lying vistas were less desirable – and therefore less expensive – than for such mesa-top plots found on Grayhead, Diamond Ranch and Sunnyside.
All three properties are perched on mesas on the northern slopes near the Telluride Regional Airport.
“Views are what sell in this market,” Chase said. “Grayhead has superior views to the Valley Floor. The mesa-tops offer multi-dimensional views versus the one-to-two dimensional views of the Valley Floor.”
Telluride’s lead attorney in the trial, Leslie Fields, asked Chase about the possible development scenarios as they related to the Town, Mountain Village and San Miguel County. Chase told the court the most likely scenario which he based his analysis on was that any development would likely occur under the county’s jurisdiction.
“Certain issues suggested Telluride and Mountain Village wouldn’t be able to annex,” he said. Telluride couldn’t annex a developed Valley Floor, he said, because of limitations to its water supply. Mountain Village couldn’t annex, Chase said, because of the obstacles of trying to connect utility systems between two vastly different elevations. In addition, he said, “The Mountain Village never had a Master Plan that incorporated the Valley Floor … so it would be with the county.”
The most likely development scenario, which he based his calculations on, was under the one per 35-acre option.
“The highest and best use was for 35-acre home sites,” Chase said. “It’s a relatively easy, straightforward process, an expedient process at the county level.”
That’s because, as Chris Dunn, the Town’s expert land planner testified earlier in the day, the development option required minimal development infrastructure, no affordable housing requirements, no transportation mitigation, no school sites or public parks, and so on.
This development scenario differed greatly than Stark’s appraisal, which focused on three possibilities. Stark based his value conclusions for the two possible develop options for the Valley Floor as follows: $40,600,000 for Alternative A and $56,750,000 for Alternative B.
Alternative A involves 15 units under a one unit per 35-acre analysis; Alternative B involves 77 lots or approximately 1 unit per 7 acres on the south side; and, Alternative C involves a plan of up to 1,200 people on the south side of the Valley Floor with up to 800 units of density.
To arrive at his estimate for the south side of the Valley Floor, Stark indicated that the final figure reconciled the two prices from Alternatives A and B.
Regarding the choice to use a calculation that used 40 percent of Alternative A and 60 percent of B to come up with a $50 million price tag, Chase said the approach was highly unusual.
“I only heard about stories like that in Las Vegas, to tell you the truth,” he said.
For Alternative A, Stark reviewed his 10 comparable sales of property. The locations were from the Telluride area, Jackson, Wyo., Aspen and Steamboat Springs. The range of value for these comparables was approximately $20,000 per acre up to $160,000 per acre.
For Alternative B, Stark reviewed his four comparable sales of property. The location of the comparables include: the Telluride area, Jackson, Wyoming, Steamboat Springs and Breckenridge. The range of value for these comparable was approximately $87,000 per acre up to $185,000 per acre.
But Chase criticized the need to compare the Valley Floor to sales outside the region. He said mega-resorts with twice to three-times more skier days than Telluride, such towns as Vail, Aspen, Breckenridge and Steamboat Springs, shouldn’t be compared to a relatively new resort area.
"The Telluride area, if you try to compare to other international resorts, is up and coming, but is in my opinion still in its infancy,” he said. “Telluride hasn’t hit the mega-resort status yet.”
His first comparable sale, Grayhead/Ruffner Peak, is a 1,368-acre property that sold for more than $19 million, or, $14,368 per acre, in 1997. The second comparable sale, the 432-acre Diamond Ranch, went for $9.3 million, or, $775,000 per 35-acre lot. The third comparable sale, Sunnyside, just north of the Valley Floor, but at a higher elevation, involved 811.62 acres for $20.8 million, or, $861,000 per 35-acre lots.
Chase’s bottom line price after his analysis: a total “take” value of $25,983,800 as of Jan. 9, 2006, the so-called “date of value.”
This was based on the 35-acre lot value of $1.8 million per lot under Alternative A, which he viewed as the most reasonable development scenario to base the price on.
The trial will return to Delta on Wednesday with more testimony by Chase, and then a likely cross-examination by SMVC attorneys Darrell Waas and Mikaela Rivera.
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