After a long and often acrimonious public meeting, the Telluride Town Council voted 4 to 3 to approve developer Jordan Thorne's controversial Clifftop Hotel project Wednesday night.
Thorne himself was absent due to the death of his mother, Dolores Thorne, earlier that day. The Clifftop Project was represented by Thorne's partner Vanowen Wong and attorney Edi Hillson.
Council members Ethan Rice, Blondel Gummings and Rob Stretton voted against giving the project the go ahead, while Bud Platt, Carl Turk and Annemarie Grosmand voted in favor. With Council member Mike Byrd absent on a climbing expedition in the Himalayas, that left the Council deadlocked at 3 to 3. Rice argued that Byrd be allowed to vote in absentia against approving the Clifftop project, citing Byrd's strong and well-known public opposition to the planned hotel. Rice produced as evidence a telegram, sent by Byrd, from Kathmandu Nepal, urging the Council to vote down "Thorne's gaudy pile of yak- (expletive deleted)".
After consulting with the Mayor, Town Attorney Baines Beaverman rejected the telegram as "hearsay and not legally binding." Mayor Hoover then cast the deciding fourth vote, allowing Thorne to immediately begin breaking ground on his 150,000 square foot hotel complex.