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Photo by Nicole Miller

Craig — A little time, a little patience, a little money.

With these three things, Don Steele, 69, said developing a new major subdivision in Maybell - coined "Maybell Meadows" - hasn't been all that bad.

Maybell Meadows is a 90-acre project on the northwest side of the town, close to the U.S. Highway 40 and Colorado Highway 318 split.

"It'll start in the spring if I can get government approval on all this," Steele said.

He expected to present his plans to the Moffat County Planning Commission for preliminary approval at its meeting Wednesday.

Maybell Meadows will be broken into three tiers.

The first tier, referred to as Block 1 in the adjoining map, will be five, 10-acre lots. Block 2 is projected for six, 5-acre lots.

These lots are located outside of Maybell's sewer district, so they will run on their own well systems and have independent septic systems.

Block 3, the lots closest to the Maybell township, is planned for 16 lots encompassing 8,000 square feet each.

Block 3 lots will be tied to the Maybell sewer system.

Electric power lines were installed across the 90 acres when a previous owner started developing a subdivision on the same property, Steele said.

Aside from utilities, Steele will build roads, and then leave the rest to prospective homeowners.

"They're lots for sale," Steele said. "It's just a place (people) could live if they decide to come here."

Steele, a Maybell resident since 1948, said he was tired of irrigating the land for hay and thought this would put it to good use.

The area could benefit from more people, if only to keep its schools, he said.

"I'm tired of the (Moffat County) School District coming down here and telling us they're going to close our schools," Steele said. "It's been the same story for the last three years. They say there's not enough money and not enough kids here."

Steele already presented sketches to the Planning Commission and the Board of County Commissioners in December.

Moffat County planner Jerry Hoberg did not expect any resistance from the Planning Commission, he said.

"We pretty much covered (our concerns) in the sketch phase, and he made all the changes we wanted," Hoberg said.

The only change was in renaming a street that starts out running north and south, then turns to run east and west. Officials thought the east and west arm might be extended out of the subdivision in the future and didn't want the roads to get confusing.

Hoberg expected the Wednesday hearing to primarily address a rezoning proposition, changing 16 lots within the Maybell sewer district from agriculture to rural community.

"I don't foresee any problem with that because the rest of Maybell is already zoned" rural community, Hoberg said.

After preliminary approval and the inclusion of any changes the county recommends, Steele plans to present final plans to the Planning Commission on Feb. 5 and then the County Commissioners on Feb. 12.