For years, mountains of dirty snow scraped from Durango’s streets have come to Cundiff Park, its final resting place before melting. But that may change this winter.
The city is looking to buy 3.35 acres of open space above the Durango Tech Center. It could be used for snow storage and possibly as a trailhead, Community Development Director Kevin Hall said.
The Natural Land Preservation Advisory Board on Tuesday recommended the City Council buy the land for about $375,000. The council will consider the purchase Sept. 20, Hall said.
“This is a prime example of a wise way of using the open space money,” said Councilor Sweetie Marbury, the board’s liaison.
Only about an acre is needed for snow storage. Remaining land could be used for bike amenities and for trailhead because it is adjacent to other open space and trails, he said.
“There should be some opportunities there to have some biking activities,” Hall said
The site is already heavily disturbed, so development wouldn’t destroy habitat, he said.
It is also much further away from residential areas, compared with Cundiff Park, so no one will be disturbed by trucks moving snow in the middle of the night.
Residents of Rivergate Lofts, which is across the river from Cundiff, have long complained about truck noise, Parks and Recreation Director Cathy Metz said.
It is also much further from the Animas River, which will have some natural water-quality benefits, Hall said.
In addition, stormwater management infrastructure is below the site to handle drainage, he said.
But city planners will evaluate the site to see if more water-control work will be needed.
Moving snow storage helps open Cundiff Park for development, and the city is proposing spending $450,000 on designs for the park and early phases of construction next year, Metz said.
But first the city plans to go through a community process next year to gather input. In 2015, the city had proposed building a bike park at Cundiff. However, the city wants to reach out to multiple users to see how people would like the 17-acre space to be developed, Metz said in an earlier interview.
Cundiff is home to a BMX bike track, and one of the early improvements could be an electrical hookup for the BMX start gate, which currently runs on a generator, Metz said.
Some residents have been raising money to help pay for the hookup.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
