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Hey, Spike! reveals Frisco’s new development director

On Wednesday, Oct. 7, Joyce Allgaier will begin her role as the town of Frisco community development director, replacing Jocelyn Mills, who recently took a similar position in Littleton after nearly 20 years in Town Hall.
Special to the Daily |

By all appearances, Frisco is a swell fit for Joyce Allgaier — for living and working.

On Wednesday, Oct. 7, Joyce will begin her role as the town of Frisco community development director, replacing Jocelyn Mills, who recently took a similar position in Littleton after nearly 20 years in Town Hall.

For Joyce, she’ll have an even shorter commute from her Peak One Neighborhood house and a Sno Engineering position on Main Street’s Mountain View Center complex, home to Ollie’s and Peppino’s.



Joyce has been with SE Group for a year, working as a senior consulting planner in community planning and design.

Sno Engineering has had an office in Frisco since 1993 and is managed by Kent Sharp.



“Sno Engineering specializes in mountain town or small natural resource-oriented communities characterized by a strong sense of community character (like Frisco), a focus on recreation and unique and precious natural environmental qualities (like Frisco), usually driven by a strong tourism economy (like Frisco), have federal lands in their midst (like Frisco), and where the SE staff would like to live themselves. We thrive on these kinds of places and communities, find what is important to the citizens, and work to preserve its unique qualities. We do this from an environmental, economic and community-focused approach.”

“I have been fortunate to have worked in some of the most special communities,” says the veteran land use planner with a bachelor’s in environmental studies-natural resources planning from the University of Vermont. She also attended University of Oregon for graduate studies in urban and regional planning.

She’s worked as the community development director in Snowmass Village, Gunnison and Ketchum, Idaho (home of Sun Valley), and was for nine years the deputy director of community development in Aspen.

In addition to those “special communities,” Joyce explains other public/private career highlights like this:

“Early on in my career I was the town planner for Williston and Shelburne, Vermont. I also worked for the national planning consulting firm of Clarion Associates out of their Aspen office. I was Clarion’s sustainability coordinator and senior planner and worked around the country in the communities of Salt Lake City, Miami-Dade County, Daytona Beach, Washington, D.C., and some smaller places, too, upgrading their zoning codes to encourage sustainable community development.”

While with Clarion, Joyce was on the faculty of the American Institute of Certified Planners for three years, teaching workshops around the country and she “had an exciting sustainable planning assignment in Abu Dhabi, UAE.”

As for her new hometown, Joyce says, “I moved to Frisco just a year ago and immediately felt a strong connection to the place — its scale, the people, and character. There are enough locals here that their presence is evident and dominant. I like when a community has a lot of locals and one can get to know people and feel connected. So personally, Frisco is a great fit for me and when this position became open I saw an opportunity to be part of the community’s evolution on a professional level.

“Frisco town manager Bill Efting (who was Aspen’s assistant city manager and rec director some years ago) and I seem to have a similar perspective on how to provide excellent customer service, treat people fairly, involve the public, and get things done,” says Joyce. “I am excited to work with him and the other staff.”

She’ll head a community development staff consisting of Colette Smith, Rick Weinman, Bill Gibson, Emily Wood and Sarah Hoffman.

Joyce has been involved with two projects with the town of Frisco: An informational design standards guidebook for citizens and some conceptual planning for the Peninsula Recreation Area.

That local work is in addition to other projects in Colorado.

“In a short time I have brought in several exciting projects in the state,” she notes. “I am presently managing a regional trails plan in the Estes Valley, comprehensive plans for Manitou Springs and Clear Creek County, and a parks, trails and recreation plan for the town of Snowmass Village.”

Like most of us, Joyce is an active outdoors type, and admits, “I am the happiest when I am up high in the mountains, so I get out as much as I can. Last weekend I climbed Quandary, but my big accomplishment this year was summiting Mt. Rainier in Washington state.

“My passion in sports is XC skiing, road biking and tennis. I love XC skiing at the Frisco Peninsula. It’s a great place, close in, and with good terrain. I have raced a lot of XC in my life and hope to partake in the active Nordic community scene here in Summit County. I play tennis on a women’s and mixed doubles team out of the Breck Rec Center. I’ve met lots of fun people through the sizable tennis community here,” she explains.

Joyce’s active professional career and recreational pursuits are evidenced in the lives of her two children.

Hannah Ohlson, 26, is a graduate of the University of Vermont, and a firefighter on the Bitterroot Hotshot Crew out of Darby, Montana. She fought big fires in Alaska, California, Montana and Glacier National Park this summer.

Hannah will work for Trapp Family Ski Touring Center in Vermont this winter.

Son Gunnar Ohlson is 21 and a junior at St. Lawrence University in Upstate New York. He was also a firefighter this summer in northern Idaho. He lives here in Frisco when not at school.

“Both of my kids are big XC skiers, bikers and outdoorsy people having grown up in Snowmass Village,” says Joyce.

Miles F. Porter IV, nicknamed “Spike,” a Coloradan since 1949, is an Army veteran, former hardrock miner, graduate of Adams State College, and a local since 1982. An award-winning investigative reporter, he and wife Mary E. Staby owned newspapers here for 20 years. Email your social info to milesfporteriv@aol.com


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