After over eight months of planning, the Breckenridge Grand Vacations Peak 8/Gold Rush Lot development is nearing the finishing line as officials plan to solidify a final development agreement soon.

Breckenridge Grand Vacations presented a near-final draft of the development agreement at a Tuesday, Feb. 13, Breckenridge Town Council meeting, and town staff said a first reading to approve the agreement could happen in March. 

Council members were overall in support of the draft and applauded the hard work done by the Breckenridge director of community development Mark Truckey and planning manager Chris Kulick for collaborating with the developer to move the process along. 

Mayor Pro Tem Kelly Owens also expressed appreciation for Breckenridge Grand Vacations noting “I really admire how you showed up here every time with a very open mind and really wanting to play ball with us.”

After being presented the entire draft, council member Dick Carelton said, “We’re getting close to a win-win here.”

Despite having a majority of the project nailed down, there’s one parcel whose fate remains up in the air, Parcel 7, or the “Entrada Parcel.” Since the parcel of land is outside of Breckenridge town limits, it needs to be annexed into the town to be a part of the development. It annexation is one of the only hurdles to overcome to get the development agreement finalized.

Per a town development code, Breckenridge Grand Vacations is mandated to provide deed-restricted workforce housing for around 40 people to meet an employee mitigation requirement. The developer originally looked to fulfill that requirement by putting 92 workforce housing units on Park Avenue, which is considered Parcel 2 in the development.

In December, council was able to sway Breckenridge Grand Vacations’ chief executive officer Mike Dudick away from this idea as they were concerned about having that much housing in a busy area of town. Instead, council suggested the developer move some of these units to a parcel of land at the corner of Colorado Highway 9 and County Road 450 at the Entrada Parcel. 

The developer agreed and came back with a proposal to put approximately 60 workforce, deed-restricted units on that site, which was added to the development as “Parcel 7,” while keeping 48 units on Park Avenue.

Town staff and the developer presented a back-up plan if annexation fails for the Entrada Parcel at the Feb. 12 meeting.

The developer has proposed to move the density required for the employee mitigation requirement to Breckenridge Terrace Apartments, which was developed by Vail Resorts to primarily serve its employees. This would be done through a deal with Vail Resorts where a certain amount of the buildings’ units would go toward the development.

Council members expressed concern about that plan. 

“If we’re cannibalizing something that’s already workforce housing, that doesn’t further our goals,” council member Todd Rankin said. 

Other council members felt existing development should not be allowed to be used to satisfy the requirements.

“I feel very, very strongly we need new construction,” Carelton said regarding how the developer should have to meet the requirement.

Truckey, the director of community development, explained council was largely in favor of allowing the developer to add deed restrictions to other units in town if annexation fails, preferably taking market-rate units and deed restricting them. This way the town would be increasing its deed-restricted housing inventory as opposed to utilizing what it already has. 

Truckey said there will likely be a work session on Feb. 27 to discuss this issue and annexation.