by Guest Writer
This is a guest post by Bud Surles. The owner of Bud Surles Consulting Group, Bud has over 30 years of award winning parks, resort, and environmental management and planning experience. He has won national awards in both the public and private sectors in the design and management of resort and public recreation areas. Outdoor Design Group has recently partnered with Bud Surles Consulting Group to provide planning and landscape architecture services for resort projects throughout the country.
New Times Demand New Ideas
Most of us can fondly remember the housing bubble of the first decade. It seems that all you had to do was “build it and they would come.” Billions were invested in well thought out and not so well thought out housing developments, sub-divisions, and second home resort complexes. Each one seemed to build upon the success of the other. Of course, all that came to a terrifying close in 2008, and today the landscape is littered with evidence of the failure of over-development. People were millionaires one day and bankrupt the next. Individuals were secure in an ARM one day and facing foreclosure the next. Good jobs were lost and economics were drastically turned upside down across our land.
Today, many well-conceived housing developments of a few years ago lay dormant on the landscapes of lakes, rivers, mountain areas, and beaches. Lots cannot sell and developers are hanging on waiting for better times to return. However, economic indicators give little hope for that to happen within the staying power of many. But there is good news. It requires a change of vision, but there are opportunities to convert the investment in planning, roads, and infrastructure into a meaningful and profitable cash flow. It is time developers who are in the position of “hanging on” to re-think their investments and look to converting their developments into RV and Resort properties.
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by Matt Corrion
Below is a conceptual site plan graphic for a new assisted living / memory care facility that we are currently working on in the metro Denver area:
The project includes extensive therapy gardens and many interesting site features for the residents and their families. Site design for elderly and special needs users presents many unique design challenges and opportunities.
This plan is conceptual and subject to change. I will provide more images and details about the project after the design and construction are completed.
This is the official blog of Outdoor Design Group, Colorado Landscape Architects. For more information about our business and our services, click here.
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by Matt Corrion
As tax revenues continue to drop, towns and municipalities everywhere are trimming their budgets and looking for places to make cuts- in some cases by converting paved roads to gravel.
Here are excerpts from a recent article I came across at the Denver Post (Clarke Canfield, AP), on this emerging trend:
Ever since the invention of the automobile, paved roads have meant progress. Now some cash-strapped towns and counties are finding progress too expensive, and they are tearing up battered roads and putting down gravel.
The high price of pavement and the sour economy have driven municipalities in states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Vermont to roll up the asphalt — a mile here, a few miles there, mostly on back roads — rather than repave. (more…)
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by Matt Corrion
Here are excerpts from an interesting article from USA Today (Larry Olmstead), on the trend of specialized themed communities, including several located in Colorado and the west:
Themed communities now are targeted at hunters and anglers, cyclists and equestrians, pilots and gardeners, even oenophiles. “Developments are becoming more specialized,” says Orlando real estate broker Scott Kauffman of Golfcoursebusiness.com, an expert on master planned communities. “People have different passions.” (more…)
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by Matt Corrion
UPDATE: Collecting Rainwater in Colorado will be legal beginning on August 10, 2016. Please see our new post regarding the use of Rain Barrels in Colorado, and House Bill 16-1005.
Two new legislative bills were passed in Colorado this summer that seem to be causing some confusion regarding water rights. Senate Bill 09-080 and House Bill 09-1129 allow for the collection of rainwater- but only in very limited circumstances.
Many businesses and homeowners are looking for ways to be more sustainable, to save water, and to conserve resources to help their bottom line. I have been surprised to find that many people are not aware that collecting rainwater- even in a simple “rain barrel” system from your roof for use in watering a garden, is illegal in Colorado.
Historical Precedent
I think the Colorado Division of Water Resources website summarizes well the historical precedent in layman’s terms: “Colorado water law declares that the state of Colorado claims the right to all moisture in the atmosphere that falls within its borders and that ‘said moisture is declared to be the property of the people of this state, dedicated to their use pursuant’ to the Colorado constitution. As a result, in much of the state, it is illegal to divert rainwater falling on your property expressly for a certain use unless you have a very old water right or during occasional periods when there is a surplus of water in the river system. This is especially true in the urban, suburban, and rural areas along the Front Range. This system of water allocation plays an important role in protecting the owners of senior water rights that are entitled to appropriate the full amount of their decreed water right, particularly when there is not enough to satisfy them and parties whose water right is junior ro them.” (more…)
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