Brief by Allen Best
Real Estate – December 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
Land prices have been skyrocketing at Crested Butte. Now, the town council wants to jack up prices for the hereafter.
It’s a grave matter, this business of slicing-and-dicing the wildflower-strewn cemetery. And at its current rate of sales, the cemetery will be out of space in 16 years.
Faced with that pickle, the town is considering that old development trick of subdivide, subdivide, subdivide. Currently, the town sells only family-sized plots, 22 feet by 11 feet. They only cost $250. A new plan being considered by the council would jack up the cost for that big plot, large enough for six caskets, to $1,250, while creating a new single-casket site for $250.
While the mathematics of all this seem to make sense, several council members report that the town’s old-timers are crosswise with the idea, as they figured the cemetery would be the one thing that they could count on to never change.
