Granby trustees postpone decision on permit for animal shelter
On March 11, the Granby Board of Trustees voted to continue the hearing for a conditional-use permit, which would allow Grand County Pet Pals to build an animal shelter within a district zoned for industrial use.
The item was moved to the March 25 trustee meeting due to staff discovery of a 40-year-old water pipe that could pose problems in the future.
Grand County Pet Pals purchased a plot of land at 505 Park Lane in Granby in 2024. The property is in an industrial district, so the organization applied for a conditional-use permit to build an animal shelter. The town’s planning commission recommended approving the application March 3 and gave its findings to the board. The commission didn’t find any negative impacts of issuing the permit.
Contract planner Britt Palmberg’s memo also noted no negative impacts of the animal shelter’s location and wrote that the shelter aligns with the public uses associated with the park, ball fields and other uses to the west of the animal shelter.
“The location of the animal shelter works well, because it is not adjacent to any residential or lodging land uses, and enjoys good transportation access from Park Lane and Highway 40,” the memo stated.
Town Manager Ted Cherry explained that staff had a concern regarding a 40-year-old waterline near where the shelter is to be built. Cherry explained that there were a couple of options available to the board, including moving the building location.
Following discussion, trustees decided to postpone approval of the permit to first gather information on finances and logistics of replacing the waterline.
- Cherry explained that the town received an additional $3 million in funding with low-interest loans from the Colorado state revolving fund for the North Service Area water plant project. Trustees approved an early work contract with Velocity with additional cost items for $3,503,868.
- Trustees approved moving forward with a $220,775 contract with Norris Designs for parks and recreation planning. The project comes with three parts, including trails design for the conservation easement, a feasibility study on a recreation center and an update to the parks master plan. The motion passed 6-1 with trustee Seth Stern voting against.
- Trustees approved a building and planning consultant contract with outside contractor Carin Aichle. The agenda stated that the retirement of the town’s previous clerk left a hole in the town’s planning department. Aichle’s contracted rate is $85 an hour.
- Granby’s street department indicated it would like to move to a chip-and-seal process for 2025 rather than mill-and-overlay operations. The town has budgeted $500,000 for road repair and construction paving for 2025. Trustees approved moving forward with the chip-and-seal project and put the project out to bidders.
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