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Resort Vision

The vision of Durango Mountain Resort is to create an alpine resort community in the tradition of small resort towns spread throughout Colorado. In accomplishing this goal, the traditional character of northern La Plata County and southern San Juan County will be maintained, while allowing for a variety of residential and commercial uses within a resort setting. The development of the Durango Mountain Resort community is intended to provide residents and guests with a clear and special sense of place.

A principal element of the Durango Mountain Resort vision is an emphasis on protecting and enhancing the natural environment. Plans for development are based on careful analysis of the physical and ecological characteristics of the land. Development plans will ensure that only a fraction of the land is developed or disturbed and that residential and commercial neighborhoods will be compatible with the environmental systems in the area.

Perhaps most importantly, Durango Mountain Resort has been conceived as an integrated, planned resort community with requisite maintenance and operating entities and established development standards and design guidelines. When people make the choice to live in Durango Mountain Resort, it will be with a clear understanding of what the community and its surroundings will be like, both now and in the future.

Major Plan Elements

Clustered Village Development
The Durango Mountain Resort Master Plan identifies six (6) distinct villages, each with its own purpose, density and amenities. Within the villages, development is encouraged to cluster on the flatter, upland areas, leaving steep slopes, wetlands and vegetative separation undeveloped between clusters.

Community Diversity
The Durango Mountain Resort Master Plan encourages a range of housing types and prices and a diversity of commercial and community support facilities. The resort community will support diversity by offering a variety of resort housing opportunities for all ages and socio-economic levels of buyers from singles through large families to empty-nesters.

Traffic Reduction
Durango Mountain Resort is planned and designed to reduce reliance on the automobile and to minimize and contain vehicle trips by:

  • Providing commercial, support and recreational uses within convenient walking distance of most residential units, minimizing the need to drive.
  • Providing regular bus transportation within the North County and to/from Durango to reduce both North County trips and trips to and from Durango.
  • Incorporating significant trails and one or more grade separated crossings of US Highway 550 to encourage pedestrian versus vehicular modes of transportation within the project.

Trails and Open Space
Durango Mountain Resort will provide for major additions to the North County trail system including:

  • Four (4) public trailheads including trailheads at the Gelande parking lot, south Twilight Village, north Twilight Village and Boyce Lake Estates with trails leading to adjoining Federal lands (subject to US Forest Service approval.)
  • A major community park with access to on-site and off-site trail systems.
  • A comprehensive internal pedestrian, bicycle and skier trail system to encourage non-motorized transportation and on-site recreation.

Wildlife
The plans for Durango Mountain Resort place strong emphasis on promoting wildlife, including:

  • The preservation and enhancement of large upland and riparian areas as wildlife habitat or migration corridors.
  • Attention to both game and non-game wildlife needs.
  • A unique set of development standards and design guidelines prepared to minimize conflicts between wildlife and development through fence design, landscape design, domestic pet controls, etc.
  • Opportunity for wildlife appreciation and interpretation via the proposed public trailheads and community park.

Design and Development Standards
Plans and designs for Durango Mountain Resort have been built from the ground up with sensitivity to the site’s unique qualities and character. The built community will be based on land-sensitive standards including:

  • Tucking new development into the landscape, and the avoidance of “skylining” on ridgetops.
  • Locating roads to follow natural contours where ever possible to minimize visual impacts of road cuts.
  • Designating building envelopes to ensure maintenance of maximum treecover and to minimize visual impacts of development.
  • Designing landscape envelopes around homes to ensure the predominance of indigenous vegetation and reduce water usage.

Water Conservation
A water conservation program will be employed to reduce water requirements for Durango Mountain Resort compared with conventional development. The conservation program will include:

  • A xeriscape or low water consumption approach to newly installed landscapes.
  • Use of advanced irrigation technology.
  • Building design requirements for low flow or low water use fixtures.
  • Educational materials provided to all homeowners.
  • Capturing of snowmelt for reuse in summer months.