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September 28, 2004
‘The Most Unique Place You’ll Ever Call Home’
Traditionally, luxury homes in the Telluride region lack for little, with choice finishes and fixtures, spectacular layouts that drink in Telluride’s legendary sun and scenery, and plenty of square footage. The Ridge, a single-family home development currently under construction atop Coonskin Ridge, is no exception. The only thing that’s missing is the parking.
Perched high above Telluride and Mountain Village, The Ridge will eventually boast 24 homes located directly adjacent to the Telluride Ski Area’s Lower See Forever ski run near the gondola’s St. Sophia station. To access The Ridge, homeowners will simply hop on the gondola for a four-minute ride from the Mountain Village or a six-minute ride from Telluride. At the top they will load themselves into a golf cart for the quick trip to their residence.
“There is nothing else like this anywhere in North America,” says John Horn of St. Sophia Partners LLP (the project’s developer).
While the individual homes at The Ridge will deliver similar amenities as other regional luxury homes, explains Horn, the overall experience of living at The Ridge will be as unique as it gets.
Development of the 17-acre parcel has been in the works for more than 20 years. Original design regulations for the project were approved in 1998 and construction companies broke ground this spring. Partial completion of the project is tentatively scheduled for next year.
“We knew we were going to have to create our own unique format here, considering certain physical constraints of the land,” says Horn. “We spent a long time determining how a development like this could work, and how we could build it so that it made the most sense.”
St. Sophia Partners recognized that building the 168 condominiums originally zoned for the project did not make the most sense. They instead decided to limit development to 24 single-family homes. By choosing not to build out the entire 17-acre parcel, the developers could avoid clear cutting a substantial portion of the property, says Horn.
“We felt it was important to be sensitive to the [tree cutting] situation, and though we have needed to cut trees, our final design allowed for many more to be saved” than the original plan, he says.
And with an eye toward reducing impact on the land, the San Sophia Partners decided to keep cars out of the development and require homeowners to use golf carts and the gondola to access their homes.
“Our primary reason for choosing golf carts as transportation was that by using them instead of regular cars, we would be able to use a much smaller road and therefore impact the hillside to a lesser degree,” Horn says.
The golf cart path currently under construction crosses Lower See Forever and will eventually wind under the gondola line (on the Mountain Village side) to the homesites near Coonskin Ridge. The path requires a 14-foot-wide right-of-way, including shoulders, in contrast to the 26-28 feet required for a typical road. In the winter months, a snowmelt system will be used to keep the paths free of snow and ice.
Each homeowner will be required to purchase at least one golf cart for their residence, which will be stored full-time at The Ridge. For maintenance purposes, all homeowners will have the same type of cart, which members of St. Sophia Partners will choose based on downhill braking ability, among other factors. Horn says The Ridge golf carts will be similar to the Telluride Golf Resort’s new fleet of high tech golf carts.
During shoulder seasons, when the gondola shuts down for maintenance purposes, Ridge homeowners will still have access to their homes via Ridge-owned vehicles, which will have access to the maintenance road from the Telski maintenance facility on Prospect Creek Drive in Mountain Village to the top of the gondola. And when the maintenance road is impassable (generally for only about two-three weeks in early April and two-three weeks in late November), The Ridge will offer a snowcat to haul people and supplies.
Horn anticipates that off-season transportation will not prove overwhelming, estimating that most Ridge homes will be owned by second homeowners, who don’t frequently visit Telluride during its shoulder seasons.
During construction, access to The Ridge did require some additional planning. St. Sophia Partners put several thousand dollars into road improvements this year, and plans to further upgrade the road in the future.
“Basically, we just have to make sure that we get everything we need up there before the snow falls, and once it is all staged up there, we can continue to build throughout the winter,” Horn says.
Skiers and snowboarders riding the gondola will be able to watch the construction progress throughout the winter. They will also soon enjoy a newly constructed Ridge ski trail that will take skiers from the top of the gondola to the Ridge development, next to Lower See Forever.
“It’s the ultimate ski-in, ski-out location,” says Horn. Homeowners will be able to access Chair 4 and Chair 7 runs just steps from their door.
Horn explains that the design and planning for such a one-of-a-kind development has required many hours, but he’s confident the end result will be well worth the effort.
“It has been my good fortune to work on development of the Mountain Village and Aldasoro Ranch, and now [The Ridge],” says Horn. “There is no question in my mind that this will be the crown jewel of Telluride. It is totally out of the mold, and I’m sure that plenty of people will think it’s crazy to buy a house somewhere you can’t drive your car to. But there is a unique group of people out there that will see it for what it is – a home in a community where, from the moment you get here until the time you leave, you never have to drive a car, find a parking space, or even get into a car if you don’t want to. It’s a safe haven, the most unique place you’ll ever call home.”
Posted by Adam at September 28, 2004 12:12 PM