#WOrldclasseverything
The Grand Valley is home to Colorado National Monument, McInnis Canyons and Dominguez escalante National conservation areas, the confluence of the Gunnison and Colorado (formerly the Grand) rivers, the Bookcliff Mountains, three state parks, Palisade vineyards and orchards, incredible recreation opportunities on public lands, a ski mountain, the emerging mountain biking mecca of Fruita... and more. And yet, this region with so much to offer is often bypassed by would-be visitors heading across the Colorado Plateau toward Moab or Aspen, and the valley as a whole lags economically behind many other parts of the state.
The Grand Valley Momentum Initiative kicked off with a workshop in January, 2017. It aims to take a holistic view on positioning communities in the Grand Valley to work together to welcome visitors, new businesses and residents, while preserving community character, and to steward the valley's natural and cultural resource offerings. More than 80 participants representing state and federal land management agencies, tourism, public health, recreation, and economic development interests took part. (Special thanks to Luis Benitez and the Colorado Office of Outdoor Recreation for joining the kick-off!)
Key workstream themes included:
A follow-on meeting in June, 2017 solidified three immediate next steps:
Read the full report-out below, and contact Vanessa Mazal if you'd like to get involved with any of these on-going workstreams.
The Grand Valley Momentum Initiative kicked off with a workshop in January, 2017. It aims to take a holistic view on positioning communities in the Grand Valley to work together to welcome visitors, new businesses and residents, while preserving community character, and to steward the valley's natural and cultural resource offerings. More than 80 participants representing state and federal land management agencies, tourism, public health, recreation, and economic development interests took part. (Special thanks to Luis Benitez and the Colorado Office of Outdoor Recreation for joining the kick-off!)
Key workstream themes included:
- Planning now for future valley-wide recreation, visitation and residential growth
- Improving cross-promotion of tourism and recreation destinations
- Best practices to preempt and address potential conflicts over uses on public lands
- Engaging under-served local communities in stewardship of local natural and recreational resources
- Making the Grand Valley as a whole better known as a world-class travel destination (#WorldClassEverything!)
- Getting involved with efforts to improve infrastructure and core public services (especially public health and education) to improve community vitality and position the GV to attract new residents and businesses
A follow-on meeting in June, 2017 solidified three immediate next steps:
- Helping to educate the community about an upcoming K-12 school funding initiative (See GV News, below)
- Creating a regional coordination body to help plan for better visitation distribution
- Creating a committee to help the county's regional transportation organization involve the public in an upcoming transportation planning process to improve connectivity within and between Grand Valley towns and cities
Read the full report-out below, and contact Vanessa Mazal if you'd like to get involved with any of these on-going workstreams.
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GV Momentum News and Updates
- Quality education is important to gateway community vitality! Grand Valley Momentum Initiative participants who want to learn more about the D51 ballot measure can go to: https://www.citizensforsd51.com/ or get in touch with Cilia Kohn at GJEP.
