The town council in Crested Butte is still getting plenty of kick from people who don't like the proposed zoning that would restrict new real-estate and other such offices from the ground- floor along the town's main tourist-oriented business strip, called Elk Avenue.
Existing uses would be grandfathered, explains the Crested Butte News.
Crested Butte officials are worried about a sluggish retail environment, which results in fewer sales and hence fewer sales tax revenues, the primary sources for municipal operations in Colorado.
"To tell people you can't rent to a real-estate office -- I think that's so terribly unrealistic and unfair to dictate to the people that have invested in this community," said Judy McGill, a property owner on the strip, called Elk Avenue.
A business owner on the strip, Steven Ein, said restricting the use might decrease the value of property by 10 to 30 percent.
Another speaker, Gordon Bray, wondered at the logic that assumes a real estate office is bad and a medical office is good.
Mayor Alan Bernholtz said the issue is one of balance. Real estate offices currently represent an imbalance on the street.
Bray said the ordinances treat a symptom rather than the ailment. "We don't have a viable tourism industry. If you want to cure what's going on downtown, bring more people here," he said.
Similar zoning is nothing new in ski towns. Vail adopted the zoning 34 years ago and has never looked back.