The Fremont County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously this morning to approve the Temporary Use Permit for Christo and Jeanne-Claude‘s Over The River. This is a significant step in the permitting process, and Christo is very pleased to have successfully reached this important milestone.

“The Fremont County permit is essential to realizing this temporary work of art that Jeanne-Claude and I first envisioned nearly 20 years ago,” said Christo. “I am very pleased that the Commissioners have voted to approve this public work of art for Fremont County, and I want to thank them for their hard work and efforts in evaluating our application. I am glad to be moving forward with our plans to complete Over The River.”

The Board of Commissioners and County staff solicited extensive public comment when reviewing Christo’s permit application. They also considered the Bureau of Land Management’s extensive analysis of the project, as well as the nearly 200 mitigation measures addressing community and environmental concerns, as described in the Final Environmental Impact Statement. Christo is very pleased that, after carefully evaluating all aspects of the project, the Commissioners reached the same conclusion as other regulatory agencies in supporting the realization of Over The River.

Over The River will have significant benefits for Fremont County and all of Colorado, both culturally and economically. This once-in-a-lifetime experience will not only boost tourism and provide worldwide exposure for the area, but it is also expected to generate $583,000 in additional sales tax revenues within Fremont and Chaffee Counties alone.

As part of Fremont County’s Temporary Use Permit, Christo has agreed to more than 30 specific conditions. For example, Christo has committed to fund a wide variety of costs that the County may incur as a result of Over The River, including reimbursements for staff time and funds to mitigate project-related road impacts. Through the sale of his original works of art, Christo and Jeanne-Claude always funded their projects without any public subsidies, grants, commercial advertising or taxpayer support.

Christo’s next step is to submit an application to Chaffee County for a Temporary Special Events Permit, which is expected to happen within the next few weeks. Assuming the remaining permits are successfully secured, Over The River installation will begin in early 2013 with exhibition planned for August 2015.

Over The River is a two-week temporary work of art by the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. For more information, visit our website at www.OverTheRiverInfo.com.

www.montserrat.edu

Christo and Jeane-Claude during their work of art "The Gates," New York City, 2005. Photo by Wolfgang Volz.

The artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude visited Montserrat College of Art in the fall of 2002 to discuss their planned project in New York City, The Gates. Following their visit, students, trustees, alumni and guests of Montserrat visited The Gates project in New York City in 2005.

Since then, Jeanne-Claude has passed away, but Christo continues to work on his next project, Over the River, an installation to be installed over sections of the Arkansas River in Colorado.

An update on this project follows:

In the months since BLM issued its Record of Decision (ROD), Christo and the Over The River team have been focused on the next phases of the project. This includes development of the Event Management Plans (EMP’s) for the initial phases of the project (staging, anchor and Anchor Transition Frame installation), applying for the county permits and finalizing the installation schedule. As we have been working on these tasks, a couple of things have become increasingly apparent.

First, the public continues to express a strong desire to see the specifics of the EMP’s that are being developed. These plans will include operational details that address the many traffic, safety and other issues that have been raised. Typically, this level of detail is not included in an EIS but is usually in an EMP that is developed after a ROD has been issued. That is the process we are following, but the EMP’s for the initial installation phases won’t be fully developed for some months. This leaves little time between completion of each phase of the EMP and the onset of each phase of installation. Christo believes that the public may not have sufficient time to understand this detailed information before installation begins.

Second, the thoroughness of the BLM’s environmental review process resulted in the ROD being issued several months later than originally planned. As a result, the BLM’s Final EIS authorized 28 months for installation, but only 24 months remained. This timeframe also included many months where work was prohibited in certain areas or otherwise restricted because of mitigation measures designed to avoid sensitive wildlife and recreation seasons. The planning activities since the issuance of the ROD made it increasingly apparent that the remaining installation schedule of 24 months did not allow room for unpredictable events such as severe weather.

For these reasons, Christo has decided to shift the Over The River exhibition date from early August 2014 to early August 2015. This adjustment will allow the EMP’s for the initial project phases to be developed before installation begins so that the public will have time to better understand how traffic, safety and other issues will be addressed. It will also reinstate the full 28 month installation schedule, as included in the Final EIS.

All other aspects of Over The River remain unchanged. The number of installation days remains the same and the comprehensive set of more than 100 mitigation measures will remain in place. The Fremont County, Chaffee County, Colorado Department of Transportation and Colorado State Patrol permitting processes will continue as planned.

Christo understands that this news may be disappointing to thousands of local residents and many thousands of art enthusiasts around the world who are looking forward to experiencing Over The River. Nonetheless, this change will result in a better informed public and an improved installation schedule.

An overview of the permitting, installation, exhibition and removal schedule is available on the Over The River website.

www.montserrat.edu