Financial weariness has painted some of the plans for one of Breckenridge’s largest investments in workforce housing with a bit of doubt as officials now have to consider potential ways to shrink the project’s scope. 

Breckenridge officials were meant to vote on a development agreement for its Runway Neighborhood slated for Airport Road at an April 8 meeting, but the vote was postponed at the start of the meeting. 

Housing manager Laurie Best said the change stemmed from officials’ desire for staff to further evaluate the project’s budget. It is currently projected to be $150 million and the town plans to subsidize $50 million. Back in November, during preliminary discussions, staff members told officials the subsidy would be around $36 million, itself an increase from the original $24.7 million estimate.

While no meeting was originally planned for the last week of April, the town may host a special meeting on April 30 now to pick the development agreement conversation back up among other topics. 

Talking to community members and local business owners at an April 11 meeting centered on summer tourism, town manager Shannon Haynes provided some clarification on where the project stands. 

“If we do the full development of that project, it will be for sale, it’ll be 148 units. We’re really excited about it, but it has a high price tag,” she said. “Building subsidized workforce housing is not inexpensive, and so if the council moves forward with the first phase of that project, it would be 81 units.” 

The town plans to subsidize this first phase with $31 million, with price points ranging from $350,000 to $620,000 for townhomes, duplexes and single-family homes. 

“We know that we tend to fare better in downturns, but we still have to be really thoughtful about how we’re spending our taxpayer dollars, and understanding that we may have some limitations in the things that we can do based on either a flattening or a declining market,” Haynes said. 

She said preliminary tax data shows February and January sales tax is down around 5%. At a March 25 meeting, Breckenridge finance staff members said there was a $108,000 drop in sales tax revenue for January. February likely looked similar based on initial data, they said.

Silverthorne and Dillon also saw hits to sales tax in the first couple months of 2025, causing Silverthorne to amend its budget and Dillon to consider pausing capital projects. 

While sales tax is down in Breckenridge, other revenue streams such as collections from the real estate transfer tax were up for January and likely February by around $700,000 each. 

Haynes said Breckenridge officials will continue to consider “how (to) get to that subsidy number based on what (they’re) looking at for the economy.”

Town staff members have said the town’s subsidy includes civil and infrastructure work in addition to gap funding of $150,000 per unit under the current plan. 

Best said a decision on the scope of phase 1 will happen in May and a decision on phase 1 doesn’t need to be made yet. 

Instead of nailing down and signing off on aspects of the development agreement, like how much to pay the developer and whether a few units in the neighborhood should be reserved for the developer’s employees, officials honed in on the affordability aspects of the project at the April 8 meeting. 

On the table for discussion was income testing for these workforce housing units and income caps. Staff members have voiced concerns over income testing, noting it narrows the market of buyers, complicates the buying process and leads to open units which don’t fit the needs of local workers. 

Breckenridge Town Council members wanted to see income testing for the townhome units only. This means there will likely only be income caps on the townhomes and none of the other unit types will have an income restriction. 

“I think with ebbs and flows to the economy, with the nature of uncertainty moving forward, that income testing could potentially burden that homeowner on finding a buyer,” council member Jay Beckerman said, showing some support for only income testing the townhomes, but not outright.

He added he would be reluctant to income test duplexes, noting “that gives me a lot of heartburn, because we are putting an additional $4 million of town subsidy to those duplexes that are no longer to be income tested because of perhaps the burden that would go on the owner.”

Best said an update to the area median income scale is currently being worked on, so the town does not yet know which income range it will require for the townhomes yet.

Council members also agreed with staff’s recommendation of prohibiting owners of other properties in Summit County from owning triplexes and duplexes in the new development.

Officials also gave their take on what roles accessory dwelling units should have in the development. Previously, they showed support for accessory dwelling units for around 22 of the single-family units, which would have to be rentals with rents tied to income. Best said the town would probably have to couple the units with accessory dwelling units with some sort of incentive, since building them out to be livable would cost owners money. She said staff members discussed a grant offering somewhere between $30,000-$50,000, given the cost to fully build out an accessory dwelling unit could be around $100,000.

Some council members noted how rent revenue could help the owners chip away at paying off the cost. 

Council member Dick Carleton worried about a potential accessory dwelling requirement boosting costs and eliminating locals who might have been able to afford the unit otherwise from the pool of potential applicants. He wanted to see more flexibility with what people could do with the accessory units. 

“Not everyone is a good landlord — some are very, very bad landlords — so forcing people to be landlords I’m uncomfortable with,” he said.

He suggested building every accessory dwelling unit’s shell and connecting it to utilities during construction so it opens the door for future rental usage.

In terms of the lottery process used to decide who gets to live in the units, council was a bit all over the map with who should have priority. Some wanted to see priority given in the form of more tickets or other ways to those who work in Breckenridge and Blue River. Others worried about the logistics of that since the town and the Summit School District are working on an agreement where 35 units will be reserved for district staff, as well as the developer’s request for two units for her own employees.

No decisions regarding the lottery process were made at the April 11 meeting.