Ahead of a vote on whether a major waterfront development that has sparked controversy can move forward in Dillon, the developer behind the project has been asking residents to withdraw the petition that set up the referendum.

Dillon resident Louis Skowyra, one of the proponents behind the referendum petition, said that Developer Jake Porritt has been asking him for months to withdraw the petition to clear the way for the project. 

Under state law, the petitioners would have until the end of August to withdraw the petition. But Louis Skowyra said that they’re not going to do that. The vote on the waterfront project is scheduled for Oct. 1.

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“Yes, the developer has asked us to rescind the petition,” Louis Skowyra said. “We don’t feel like we can do that. We gathered 200-some-odd signatures and in that process said this is not a ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ on this project at this point. All this is is getting the project on the ballot.”

Despite opposition from Mayor Carolyn Skowyra, who is married to Louis Skowyra, and a vocal group of residents, the Dillon Town Council voted 4-2 in March to approve a planned unit development for a five-story structure at 626 Lake Dillon Drive. 

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Located where the Best Western Ptarmigan Lodge and defunct Arapahoe Cafe now stand, the structure would have 200 condominium units, three restaurants and retail spaces. The condo units included in the project would be “branded residences,” or units owned by individuals but short-term rented through a management company. There would also be a 70-foot setback from Lake Dillon Drive for a public park and a public observation tower.

But after the Town Council approved the project, local residents organized a petition that gathered the signatures of more than 200 Dillon residents, enough to trigger state laws for referendums. 

Under Colorado state law, the petition first sent the project back to the Dillon Town Council for reconsideration. But when the Town Council voted 6-1 to approve it for a second time, state law sent the question of the project’s approval to a vote of the town residents.

With the referendum vote looming, the Porritt Group has laid out “binary” options for what will be constructed at the property. Either voters affirm the Town Council’s approval of the planned unit development project, which allows for flexibility from the underlying zoning, or Porritt has said he will build a private condominium building at the site as allowed under the existing zoning for the site.

Porritt Group representative Jesse Grewal said in an email that “We have made every effort to demonstrate to Dillon voters the benefits of the Branded Residence PUD,” referring to the waterfront project the Town Council approved.

The Porritt Group has mailed informational flyers to voters, held two public town halls to discuss the project and set up a website, DillonVote.com, where residents can learn more about the project and the benefits it offers, Grewal said.

“When we first evaluated the Best Western site, we and the town staff all agreed that a by-right 240-unit private condominium project would not be a development that best served the town and its residents,” Grewal said. “The town staff negotiated significant concessions for the benefit of Dillon residents, including larger setbacks that protected sight lines to the lake, a public park, and commercial space for restaurants/coffee shop/etc.”

Grewal said that those concessions are “all things that we would have otherwise had no obligation to incorporate into our project.” Ultimately, the planned unit development approved by the Town Council, “amounted to a project that generates significantly higher tax revenue for the town that can be used for projects that are needed in town,” he said.

“If the vote on Oct. 1 were to revoke the town-approved Branded Residence PUD, all of those public benefits would be lost and the town would be left with a private condominium project that covers more of the site and obstructs more of the view,” Grewal said.

While Louis Skowyra said that he appreciates Porritt’s willingness to host two public forums in recent months to discuss the project, he said the tone from the developer has gotten “increasingly hostile,” and the binary options for voters hasn’t helped.

“It seems like it’s a little late to be garnering public support for a project,” Louis Skowyra said. “Especially when you threaten this binary approach of ‘Hey, you let me do what’s approved or I’m going to build something that you don’t like.'”

But Grewal said that the “binary” the developer has laid out isn’t a threat. Any developer that purchases a property with the intent of constructing a building that does not conform to the underlying zoning always has to have a “Plan B,” he said.

“This is standard practice in real estate development,” Grewal said. “It would have been incredibly risky for us to commit to purchasing the Best Western site and not be able to build a project. Because of this, we had already completed an analysis to determine that we could construct a building that conforms to the underlying zoning that would make financial sense for us.”

In his most recent request to have the petition withdrawn, Porritt has noted that he recently submitted a planned unit development application to build workforce housing, something many of the petitioners had asked for.

According to information from the Dillon town government, the application the Porritt Group has submitted to build workforce housing where Pug Ryan’s Brewery is currently located is in the pre-application phase. 

The application cannot move forward until the newly hired town attorney reviews it, Dillon senior town planner Ned West said in an email, adding that the conceptual plans are not currently publicly available.

But Louis Skowyra said that while the developer’s plans to build workforce housing address some of the concerns of petitioners, it doesn’t address all of them. Because more than 200 people signed the petition, Louis Skowyra said that he feels that it is not his place to withdraw the petition. 

“To speak frankly, I think the majority of our Town Council really failed the town and neglected to negotiate through this process,” Louis Skowyra said. “Since this petition has been filed, all of a sudden, the developer is taking action on workforce housing. I think that is a step in the right direction. Certainly that ticks some boxes for many of us in town. However, there are other concerns.”

Residents have raised a whole host of concerns about the project, including the need for workforce housing, but also the height of the structure, traffic, the location on the waterfront and whether the project fits with the town’s character. Louis Skowyra said there is also a “general distrust of the developer and their process.”

Many residents have also raised concerns related to the metro district funding mechanism for the project. But Porritt has said the metro districts only raise money that can be spent on public infrastructure, like water and sewer lines, a parking garage and workforce housing. He has said that a significant portion of the funds for this public infrastructure would be lost if residents vote down his plans for the site.

In an email to Louis Skowyra earlier this month, Porritt wrote that “flyers circulated by the petitioners also contain potentially false and libelous information about my team and about metro districts.”

Grewal said that the developer was referencing what he said were false comments from petitioners that homeowners have no control over a metro district, that Porritt could appoint himself head of the metro district, that a metro district can take property away Dillon property owners, that there is no method of accountability for metro districts, and that the metro district financially benefits the developer.

Louis Skowyra said he has not been involved in spreading that kind of information about the metro district or project. Some residents who have raised concern about metro districts have pointed to articles published in the Denver Post, including an investigation that found the districts “give developers enormous power.”

Still, other residents have called on Porritt to prove himself to the town by starting work on a condominium development known as Uptown 240, a project that had been stalled for years before Porritt bought it earlier this year.

“We have spent a significant amount of time and money purchase Uptown 240, paid millions of dollars to subcontractors who had not been paid for work they had completed at the site, and also paid for the architectural drawings of the proposed parking garage/workforce housing/grocery store project in town,” Grewal said. “It would make absolutely no sense for us to spend all this money and effort if we were not able to follow through on these projects. It would be a massive sunk cost for us.”

The Porritt Group is prepared to resume construction on Uptown 240, Grewal said. But like the plans for the workforce housing, the Uptown 240 project was held up this summer because Dillon did not have a town attorney to review documents related to it. After its previous attorney resigned in July, the Dillon Town Council hired a new attorney Tuesday, Aug. 27.

A little more than a month out from the referendum vote, Louis Skowyra and Dillon residents who support the petition say they aren’t exactly sure how the developer will respond if voters overturn the approval for mixed-use development on the waterfront.

“We have to wonder ourselves whether or not without the PUD if the project still makes sense for the developer to pursue a project that, in his words, is ‘unfortunate for the town,” Louis Skowyra said.

“There is a gamble here with this petition,” Louis Skowyra said. “This is our last opportunity to slow this down, to send it back to the drawing board or to outright stop the effort. I personally feel that that’s worth the risk.”

Louis Skowyra said there has been a “failure of the process,” as the development proposal has moved forward, with the majority of the Dillon Town Council advancing the project despite concerns from town residents. The referendum petition is “one of the democratic levers we have to pull, and it’s getting messy.”

For his part, Porritt wrote in an email to Louis Skowyra earlier this month that he has made it “crystal clear” that he will not go back through the planned unit development process to negotiate a new project. 

“There is no third option and to continue to repeat that is harmful to the town and residents,” Porritt wrote in the email, adding that the Porritt Group already has drawings for the by-right project it would build if voters overturned the planned unit development.

“The legacy left by the petitioners, if successful, will be a building exclusively dedicated to the wealthy that can afford it, a dramatic reduction in taxes badly needed by the town, and zero new workforce housing or public parking,” Porritt said. “In addition there will be no public park, art installations or other preservation. For longer than either of us will be alive, people will walk past the site and wonder how did this happen with the best real estate in Dillon.”