GLENWOOD SPRINGS – Dozens of area residents filled the Garfield County Board of Commissioners meeting room Wednesday night to sound off on a proposed zoning change to the former Bair Chase property, which could see hundreds of homes built between Glenwood Springs and Carbondale.County Planning Commission members eventually voted in favor of rezoning the property to the highest urban density allowed in the county. Planning commissioners voted three to two in favor of the rezoning.Garfield County commissioners unanimously agreed to return to the rezoning process earlier this month based on a request by Related WestPac, the owners of the 282-acre property, which is now referred to as Cattle Creek Crossing. The company made the request after some area residents contended county commissioners rezoned the property in April without providing proper public notice.The company is considering a proposal to build nearly 1,000 homes on the property. The former Bair Chase property consists of 282 acres located near the Cattle Creek turnoff between Glenwood Springs and Carbondale.

GLENWOOD SPRINGS – Mere practical considerations are driving Garfield County Assessor John Gorman’s decision to focus first on three companies as he begins auditing local natural gas production.Gorman plans to have a consultant look first at the 2001 production of Williams Production RMT, EnCana Oil & Gas (USA) and Petroleum Development Corp. Gorman said he’s going back to 2001 production and moving forward from there so he avoids running into statute-of-limitations restrictions on how far back the audit can go.Garfield County commissioners last week approved paying up to $250,000 to Martindale Consultants to audit gas production for the reporting years of 2002-2007. Each reporting year is for production the previous year, Gorman said.

GLENWOOD SPRINGS – The paperwork wasn’t in order.So Exquisite Development, the company behind an ambitious plan to transform Sunlight Mountain Resort into a possible 800-housing-unit development, is now crossing its “t’s” and dotting its “i’s” as the company prepares to resubmit its redevelopment plan to the Garfield County Building and Planning Department for review.County staff sent a letter to Exquisite Development on Oct. 1, saying its initial plan submitted to the county was “technically incomplete.” Staff outlined 21 points the company needed to make to its development plan after the company submitted it to the county on Sept. 14.Mike Dooley, executive vice president for Exquisite Development, said the company plans to re-resubmit its plan to the county in mid to late January. Exquisite Development, a Destin, Fla.-based company, is under contract with Sunlight owners to purchase the resort. However, the sale is contingent on winning county approval to redevelop the resort.The Sunlight project would occur on 443 acres, of which 313 would remain open space. It actually would consist of two separate developments. Compass Peak would total almost 300 acres, bisected by Fourmile Creek. Nine neighborhoods would have a total of 576 units, including 50 employee housing units.

GLENWOOD SPRINGS – A disgruntled ex-girlfriend appears to be a key factor leading to a series of arrests in a string of recent burglaries.Authorities said five adult suspects and two juveniles arrested in late November were likely connected to a string of around 38 burglaries at businesses in Glenwood Springs, Carbondale and Garfield County since July. However, two of the individuals also were charged with burglaries in 2006.”It’s definitely one of the larger ongoing crime-spree issues that we’ve had in quite some time and I’m really really pleased to see that the arrests were made, and hopefully we’ve got several strong cases to send the message to folks that this is not a good way to make your weekend play money in this town,” said Glenwood Springs Police Chief Terry Wilson.According to an arrest affidavit, David Iuele’s ex-girlfriend had complained about Iuele’s harassing phone calls. He allegedly was upset that the woman might contact law enforcement with information about the burglaries.She gave detectives information about a stolen safe from the Yampah Spa and Vapor Caves and implicated Iuele, 19, and William Riddle, 18, in the crime, leading to their arrests on Nov. 23.Iuele allegedly left messages on her voice mail saying things like, “You’re an accomplice, too. We also did use your car. … You don’t need to be talking (expletive) about me and if you do it, it ain’t going to be too good for you either,” according to detectives.