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Long-Range Planning Committee: Let’s begin with the Long-Range Planning Committee, which recently expanded to include wider and more inclusive participation from our community. At its March 30 monthly meeting, the Board appointed three new members and re-appointed a fourth.
New to the committee are John Spiess, who lives in Old Town; Carl Hostetter, who lives in The Boundary; and Kevin O’Keefe, who lives in The 24 (Fairways) Townhomes. Bill Brown, a part-time resident who lives in The Settlement, was originally on the committee when it was established in October 2020, is now re-appointed. Bill, John, Carl and Kevin join existing committee members Cari Shurman, Charlie Lozner, Brian Leasure, Michael Banbury, and Leslie Marcus. The Long-Range Planning Committee is chaired by Board member John Lund. All members represent the entire RVR community – all 552 properties – not just the neighborhood where they live.
The committee’s expansion comes at a time when its activities are ramping up, as it begins working with the McMahon Group, which the Board recently selected as a consultant to help us through the long-range planning process. Representatives from McMahon are scheduled for their first visit to RVR on May 3. This “Discovery” visit will include on-site reviews of our existing facilities and staff interviews. They will also meet with the Long-Range Planning Committee and selected members of the Board.
You will be hearing a lot more about this important committee’s work in the months ahead. They will be reaching out to the RVR community to make sure they – and the McMahon Group – clearly understand what our homeowners want as we look to make the Ranch House and its surrounding property relevant over the next 25 years.
Strategic Planning Workshop: On April 7, the Board and RVR’s Leadership Team met in a four-hour session, designed to focus on the community’s strategic plan. The event was the third and final workshop in a series that began last fall. The first session looked at understanding and defining “What is RVR?” The second focused on “What do we Want RVR to Be?” And the third session earlier this month, was meant to bridge the gap between those two states – to get RVR where we believe the community wants it to be.
At the April session, we spent a lot of time developing an “aspiration statement,” which is the Board and management’s way of characterizing, in a few carefully chosen words, what we think the community aspires to be. The core of this aspiration statement is that RVR should be a place we all “love to live.” Some of the key values we discussed that make RVR what it is: Community, Family, Openness, Natural Beauty and an Active Lifestyle.
The purpose of these strategic planning workshops is to set goals for the RVR Master Association, and develop a plan to achieve them. These sessions allowed the Board and our management team to step back from day-to-day operations and define the community’s priorities. This effort is integral to the Long-Range Planning process, as well.
Over the next few months, you will hear a lot more about the strategic plan we are developing, how we intend to achieve it, and how it benefits RVR.
The RVR Golf Course: Last summer, the RVR community came together and spoke very loudly about its feelings on the golf course. At the time, the golf course’s owner wanted to change the Town of Carbondale’s development code in a way that would make it easier to pursue development of the golf course. Ninety-eight percent of RVR homeowners were strongly opposed to that idea, and made their thoughts known to the Town. In the face of this overwhelming opposition, the golf course’s owner withdrew its application. Your voice made a difference.
In its letter of withdrawal last August, the owner said it would not bring anything further to the Town regarding development of the golf course property – without working with both the Town and the RVR community. We have waited patiently for those conversations to take place.
Since then, the attorneys representing the owner threatened the Town with litigation if the Town refuses to change its development code. You may have read about this in the March 23 issue of the Sopris Sun.
That sounded like a bad outcome for all involved, so in late March, two members of the RVR Board took the initiative and reached out to a representative of the golf course ownership group, in hopes of clarifying what the owner is planning to do. The discussion was cordial, and we agreed to keep the lines of communication open. We will keep you posted on any golf course news, as we learn more.
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If you have questions about these topics or any other matters concerning our community, please contact us at: boardofdirectors@rvrma.org.
The next monthly RVRMA Board meeting is set for Wednesday, April 27, at 5:30 pm. It will be held in the Ranch House upstairs Board Room, and virtually by Zoom. Hope to “see” you there.
On behalf of your volunteer RVRMA Board,
Gary Lesser
Board President
