As it brushes up against its residential buildout limit, Breckenridge is beginning to plan what officials are referring to as the “last” neighborhood in town. 

While it could be the last neighborhood to be built from scratch in Breckenridge, it could be one of the first town-owned workforce housing projects in Colorado that relies on geothermal energy for heating, cooling and hot water for every unit, according to town staff members. 

Concepts for what’s being called the “Runway” development grew since the last time officials saw them in June. Now the 100-unit development featuring a mix of single-family homes and townhomes will expand by either 39 or 48 units, depending on the concept officials pick.  

Runway will be in a busy area outside the core of town referred to as “Block 11” near Airport Road, which also houses Upper Blue Elementary, the free skier parking lot and other neighborhoods near Airport Road. It will be constructed on top of the free Airport Parking Lot, forcing the town to relocate it. Construction is slated to wrap between 2026 and 2028.

Housing manager Laurie Best said at a Nov. 13 Breckenridge Town Council meeting that officials need to determine who in the workforce they want this to benefit and what that benefit looks like in order to know the exact price of the project. These factors will inform aspects linked to costs such as unit number and type.

No matter what they land on, the price tag will likely grow in comparison to the $24.7 million subsidy the town originally budgeted for. A staff memo stated the increase in units could boost the price tag to somewhere between $33 million and $36 million and suggested a five-year phasing plan to spread out costs. 

Currently, town staff members are proposing targeting the local workforce making between 80 to 160% of the area median income with this development and plan to have no market-rate units. 

Council contemplated which style unit was most needed in the community and whether accessory dwelling units could play a helpful role in the development. In the two concepts presented to council, around one-third of the units are single-family homes, another third are duplexes and the last third are a mix of four-, five- and six-unit multifamily buildings that are two-stories tall. The first concept had more single-family and duplex units while the second had more multifamily homes. 

To gauge what types of units were in highest demand, officials reflected on takeaways from a project it just completed geared at the “missing middle” class, the Stables Village Neighborhood. 

“I really feel like we had so much feedback from Stables that people could not believe that we couldn’t make housing more affordable than $800,000,” Mayor Kelly Owens said, referring to the price of single-family homes in Stables Village. 

Projects manager Rick Holman said while some community members shared those complaints, staff members saw a trend of people pulling out of the Stables Village housing lottery entirely if they didn’t win one of the single-family homes. 

Best added the townhomes were also popular in Stables Village. 

“I don’t know if we’re in a position to get any data to help us inform this decision because I think we’re starting to guess what people want,” council member Dick Carleton said. 

He said he wouldn’t be opposed to adding a few market-rate homes in the mix so the town can better subsidize the below-market-rate units. 

Council member Carol Saade said she would like to see more duplexes as opposed to single-family homes, noting county and town programs that aid the workforce in affording single-family homes already exist and efforts with this development should be focused on other housing types. 

Council member Todd Rankin said he preferred the split staff members presented where there is one-third of each housing type. Citing concerns related to multifamily dwellings and waste and material management, council member Jay Beckerman said he would rather see just duplexes and single-family homes and no townhomes. 

“Because this is a big plot of land and our last opportunity to really have single family homes and duplexes, that’s what I always imagined having here,” Owens said. 

Officials were split when it came to accessory dwelling units being attached to some of the single-family homes in the development and on regulations that could be tied to them. Both concepts presented by staff members included 22 three-bedroom homes with accessory dwelling units. 

Holman said he understands many council members wanted to explore the option of having accessory dwelling units, but they are “problematic” from a planning perspective for this project. 

“It actually creates a piece of property for us that is harder to recoup costs on than the flexibility that we would have with (a regular single-family home),” he said. 

Officials previously discussed mandating accessory dwelling units be rented to a member of the workforce.

Elena Scott, who was a part of the team presenting the proposal on behalf of Frisco-based Norris Design, said with officials’ intent to have the units be rented out, the costs of making them livable by adding bathrooms in kitchens is much more expensive. 

Holman said the concept also in a way forces the owners of homes with accessory dwelling units to become landlords, which might not be something everyone wants. 

Rankin said while he’s not married to including accessory dwelling units, he’d like to see if there was a feasible way to subsidize them because he feels they make the home more affordable for the owner and also can provide even more housing for the workforce.

Saade said officials have done a lot of work to introduce more affordable rental units into the community, while noting she isn’t married to the idea either. She pushed back on the notion of subsidizing them.

“Who are we subsidizing?,” she asked. “Do we want to subsidize an ADU for the rental income for that person who (has a more expensive single-family unit because of the unit) or do we want to add another two-bedroom townhome?”

Beckerman said he is against mandating owners rent out their accessory dwelling units and said enforcing and monitoring the deed-restrictions on them that require they be rented to someone who works in the Upper Blue Basin for at least 30 hours a week would be costly in staff’s time.

Owens said she found value in including accessory dwelling units and would support the mandate to rent them, but she was not overly attached to the idea. 

Best said staff members would come back to council with modified versions of the concepts proposed at the meeting to demonstrate what some of their ideas would look like and how it could impact price.