MONTROSE – Sometimes public outcries have happy endings. That is apparently what’s happening with the Friends of the River Uncompahgre, or FORU, a group formed following public outrage at the clearing of more than 300 willow and cottonwood trees for a shopping center on the south end of Montrose a couple of years ago.

At the time, there were no regulations to keep developer Matt Miles from cutting down the trees to make way for River Landing, the shopping complex now home to several big box stores including J.C. Penney, Target and Sports Authority.

Since then, Miles has become a supporter of the organization, said FORU member Jim Haugsness, and is part of the process to help develop an ordinance to prevent such future decimation.

“We’ve been working with Matt and he has been a great help, a very community-minded individual,” Haugsness said. “He doesn’t want to see things done improperly, but by the same token, he needs to have rules to follow.”

The city charged FORU with coming up with an overlay of the river to show proposed buffer zones, Haugsness said. That “future buffer ordinance” was on display at an open house last night (Jan. 21) at the Montrose Pavilion at 1800 Pavilion Drive, where city staff were on hand to gather public input and discuss the specific elements of the proposed ordinance.

According to a city news release, preserving the river corridor was the most highly ranked public objective of the 2008 Comprehensive Plan. The plan recommends a 100-foot buffer between the river and any pavement or structures and is the basis for the new ordinance.

Haugsness said members of FORU, since its formation two years ago, have worked hard on projects like river cleanup and getting information out to the public about the importance of the river.

Members of FORU are not concerned about growth, Haugsness said, but with maintaining water quality.

“Citizens have said the river is really important, I think partly because of information supplied by FORU,” Haugsness said. “Now we are getting community input, and we want to hear from everyone, from developers and realtors, people who want to see trails, to put together a plan just for Montrose.

“We’re not trying to be threatening,” Haugsness added. “We want to lay things out, a mission given to us by the community, and also assigned tasks by the city. We’re just fulfilling that and seeing where it is.”

As they go through the process of getting the buffer zone ordinance adopted, a big challenge will to get everyone in on the discussion, Haugsness said.

The board of FORU is comprised of a cross section of interests, Haugsness said, from conservative Republicans to Forest Service biologists.

“We are comfortable in talking with business people and developers, and the ones I’ve talked to want to get in a development where they can and realize a profit,” he said. “They also realize the need to be sensitive to the river and the community’s expectations.”

River protection ordinances are needed elsewhere, because rivers don’t recognize county lines, Haugsness said.

“This is a Montrose County ordinance, and the San Miguel River flows through Montrose County,” he said. FORU plans to work with the San Miguel River Coalition and people in the Nucla and Naturita areas, he added.

“There is definite political slant there from folks that live in Telluride, but we will all have to work together,” he said. “It’s the same river.”

Haugsness said he hopes the ordinance is adopted sooner rather than later, and the more people who get into the public discussion, the better.

“We have people on both ends of the spectrum, but if we can get the silent majority out and explain the issues, it will bring everybody to the center,” he said.

For more information on the buffer ordinance, call Garry Baker, senior city planner at 240-1475.