Frisco's CMC conundrum

The Frisco Town Council's bid to put retail development on the publicly owned 9.4-acre parcel puts an interesting twist on the town's bid to be home to a consolidated Colorado Mountain College campus.

CMC chose Frisco to combine its Breckenridge and Dillon buildings into one campus. CMC also said the land has to be donated.

The town's one piece of "free" land is the 9.4-acre parcel behind the Summit Stage's Frisco Transfer Center. The peninsula has been suggested as a CMC location, but voters would have to approve. One would think they wouldn't.

We have to presume, for the moment, that the town council gets its way on the 9.4-acre parcel, and it keeps the land under a long-term lease. There goes the free land.

The five-vote majority has to be aware of that. But wait, what if the town sells the property, appraised at $4.9 million - notwithstanding Councilmember Bill Pelham's vow the land never should be sold on his watch? But Bill was on the wrong end of a 5-2 vote to pursue retail development.

Anyway, is that the money to buy out the St. Anthony Medical Center property and make a home for CMC?

More than that, if the land is sold, wouldn't that $4.9 million be better spent to help build the dream Nordic Village at the peninsula and send CMC packing back to Breckenridge or somewhere else with free land?

So many questions, so few answers. But that's what makes Frisco politics so passionate and interesting.