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DILLON — Vail Resorts’ plan to revamp Keystone’s Mountain House base area was mostly well-received at a public hearing Thursday evening, with just a few kinks surrounding skier parking, access and affordable housing still waiting to be worked out.
“I’m impressed,” said Snake River Planning Commissioner Craig Suwinski after hearing Vail Resorts Development Company’s (VRDC) plans to transform the sometimes forgotten base area into an upscale residential village at a three-hour public hearing in Dillon Thursday evening. Suwinski added that he wanted to see a focus on blending employee and affordable housing at the time of a formal application.
The Mountain House base area, which is secondary to Keystone’s bustling River Run village, is located off Keystone Road and contains the Mountain House Day Lodge, a ski rental shop, children’s ski school and the Snake River Medical Clinic. There’s also a maintenance building, three large parking lots and a 40-unit employee housing development.
VRDC is proposing a 10- to 12-year plan to redevelop the entire area, adding 588.5 residential units, 48,000 square feet of commercial uses and replacing the existing skier services in 10 new buildings ranging from 48 to 78 feet in height.
The medical clinic would stay, but most of the parking would be eliminated, as would the employee housing and maintenance buildings, but would be accounted for in other areas of the Keystone PUD (Planned Unit Development).
“There’s not a lot of opportunity in the ski industry to go into an existing ski area, especially the size of Keystone, and redevelop basically from scratch,” said Alex Iskenderian, vice president of VRDC.
VRDC does not need to ask for any new density for the residential or commercial plans because they are staying within the limits of the existing Mountain House PUD.
“We’re not making any drastic changes here ... we’re not asking for any new density, we’re not asking for any new uses,” Iskenderian said, adding that the proposed building heights are also within the PUD limits.
Most Keystone residents spoke in favor of the plans — even those in the Slopeside and Chateaux D Mont condos located directly behind the proposed new village — lauding VRDC for giving the Mountain House the shot in the arm it needs.
“Quite frankly, we feel this project is extremely important to the future of Keystone,” said Amir Pambechy, president of the Keystone Citizens League, while expressing that group’s support for the plans.
Others said more work needs to be done.
Dan Wolf, an attorney representing the only private residence in the Mountain House area, criticized VRDC’s plan to allow the 588 future homeowners gated access to their condos on a private road that he said would cut through his clients’ front yard. He characterized the road now as a parking lot that’s used only for emergency services and Keystone buses.
“This is not a through-access. What is being proposed today is a dramatic change from the current situation,” Wolf said.
The Chateaux D Mont HOA owns a significant portion of the access and still needs to work out an agreement with Vail Resorts for its use, although the HOA has agreed to the placement of the road, Iskenderian said.
Planning commissioners credited VRDC for doing its homework and getting buy-in from the community, but urged developers to consider building some sort of affordable housing component when fulfilling its requirements for employee housing.
“It needs to be done and it probably needs to be put on the front burner as opposed to the side burner or the back burner,” Commissioner Wendy Myers said.
VRDC estimates it will need 368 units of employee housing to meet its requirements (including the 40 units removed from Mountain House), which could be built at the Wintergreen parcel across Highway 6 near Antler’s Gulch townhomes, or a parcel at the Lakeside Village west of Mountain House.
Commissioner Terry Craig also expressed some concern over the proposed parking situation, particularly where employees might park in the future.
Right now, there are 1,250 parking spaces at Mountain House, split between three lots. VRDC is proposing to get rid of all but 300 of those, but make up the difference in the Tenderfoot Lot, which can accommodate 960, and isn’t currently fully used. Other spaces would be available in the 650-spot Powerline Line proposed off Montezuma Road. That lot will also make up for the spaces lost in the Hunki Dori, Gold Bug and Brown’s Cabin with future development.
Developers say there’s also room for expansion the Montezuma and Tenderfoot lots if more spaces are needed.
The work session with the Snake River Planning Commission was a preliminary stage in the Keystone Major PUD amendment process necessary for the changes at Mountain House. VRDC has also requested a work session in front of the Board of County Commissioners, which will happen after the first of the year. After that, the company will file a formal application with the Summit County Planning Department.
<I> Nicole Formosa can be reached at (970) 668-4629, or at nformosa@summitdaily.com. </I>
DILLON — Vail Resorts’ plan to revamp Keystone’s Mountain House base area was mostly well-received at a public hearing Thursday evening, with just a few kinks surrounding skier parking, access and affordable housing still waiting to be worked out.
“I’m impressed,” said Snake River Planning Commissioner Craig Suwinski after hearing Vail Resorts Development Company’s (VRDC) plans to transform the sometimes forgotten base area into an upscale residential village at a three-hour public hearing in Dillon Thursday evening. Suwinski added that he wanted to see a focus on blending employee and affordable housing at the time of a formal application.
The Mountain House base area, which is secondary to Keystone’s bustling River Run village, is located off Keystone Road and contains the Mountain House Day Lodge, a ski rental shop, children’s ski school and the Snake River Medical Clinic. There’s also a maintenance building, three large parking lots and a 40-unit employee housing development.
VRDC is proposing a 10- to 12-year plan to redevelop the entire area, adding 588.5 residential units, 48,000 square feet of commercial uses and replacing the existing skier services in 10 new buildings ranging from 48 to 78 feet in height.
The medical clinic would stay, but most of the parking would be eliminated, as would the employee housing and maintenance buildings, but would be accounted for in other areas of the Keystone PUD (Planned Unit Development).
“There’s not a lot of opportunity in the ski industry to go into an existing ski area, especially the size of Keystone, and redevelop basically from scratch,” said Alex Iskenderian, vice president of VRDC.
VRDC does not need to ask for any new density for the residential or commercial plans because they are staying within the limits of the existing Mountain House PUD.
“We’re not making any drastic changes here ... we’re not asking for any new density, we’re not asking for any new uses,” Iskenderian said, adding that the proposed building heights are also within the PUD limits.
Most Keystone residents spoke in favor of the plans — even those in the Slopeside and Chateaux D Mont condos located directly behind the proposed new village — lauding VRDC for giving the Mountain House the shot in the arm it needs.
“Quite frankly, we feel this project is extremely important to the future of Keystone,” said Amir Pambechy, president of the Keystone Citizens League, while expressing that group’s support for the plans.
Others said more work needs to be done.
Dan Wolf, an attorney representing the only private residence in the Mountain House area, criticized VRDC’s plan to allow the 588 future homeowners gated access to their condos on a private road that he said would cut through his clients’ front yard. He characterized the road now as a parking lot that’s used only for emergency services and Keystone buses.
“This is not a through-access. What is being proposed today is a dramatic change from the current situation,” Wolf said.
The Chateaux D Mont HOA owns a significant portion of the access and still needs to work out an agreement with Vail Resorts for its use, although the HOA has agreed to the placement of the road, Iskenderian said.
Planning commissioners credited VRDC for doing its homework and getting buy-in from the community, but urged developers to consider building some sort of affordable housing component when fulfilling its requirements for employee housing.
“It needs to be done and it probably needs to be put on the front burner as opposed to the side burner or the back burner,” Commissioner Wendy Myers said.
VRDC estimates it will need 368 units of employee housing to meet its requirements (including the 40 units removed from Mountain House), which could be built at the Wintergreen parcel across Highway 6 near Antler’s Gulch townhomes, or a parcel at the Lakeside Village west of Mountain House.
Commissioner Terry Craig also expressed some concern over the proposed parking situation, particularly where employees might park in the future.
Right now, there are 1,250 parking spaces at Mountain House, split between three lots. VRDC is proposing to get rid of all but 300 of those, but make up the difference in the Tenderfoot Lot, which can accommodate 960, and isn’t currently fully used. Other spaces would be available in the 650-spot Powerline Line proposed off Montezuma Road. That lot will also make up for the spaces lost in the Hunki Dori, Gold Bug and Brown’s Cabin with future development.
Developers say there’s also room for expansion the Montezuma and Tenderfoot lots if more spaces are needed.
The work session with the Snake River Planning Commission was a preliminary stage in the Keystone Major PUD amendment process necessary for the changes at Mountain House. VRDC has also requested a work session in front of the Board of County Commissioners, which will happen after the first of the year. After that, the company will file a formal application with the Summit County Planning Department.
<I> Nicole Formosa can be reached at (970) 668-4629, or at nformosa@summitdaily.com. </I>
