Dillon town staff presented to the Dillon Town Council at a Dec. 2 work session about an environmental consulting firm’s study of wetlands on town-owned land staff recommends using for a workforce housing project.

The town bought the two lots, which sit north of Walgreens on Little Beaver Drive near Interstate 70, in 2004. Town engineer Dan Burroughs said the town intended to put water wells on the land, but after digging one, found the flows were not as strong as expected. The water department sealed the well and has owned the property since. 

Town staff now recommends using the land for workforce housing, according to a staff memo. Burroughs said selling the land from the water fund to the housing fund would help relieve stress on the water fund, which has major capital projects planned in future years. Knowing the site included wetlands, staff hired Pinyon Environmental this year to perform a delineation on the site, which identifies where the wetlands are. 

With that information, staff created concepts that would create an acre of developable area on the land while removing a half acre or less of wetlands. Burroughs said national permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers allow for development to remove a half acre of wetland “without a lot of hassle.”

“When you get over a half acre of wetlands removals, you get into replacement and you get into advertising,” Burroughs said. “A nationwide permit is a little simpler.”

Pinyon representatives gave a presentation on the delineation and said they sent their study results to the corps to begin the permit application process. Amanda Cruz, Pinyon’s biological resources technical group manager, said the corps will decide whether the wetlands are Waters of the United States, meaning the corps would regulate them. If not, the town would go through a similar process at the state level, she said.

Burroughs said the town will need to do other analyses on the land, like threatened species and archaeological assessments. He said Pinyon could complete them and that the 2026 housing budget has funds for the assessments.

Council members voiced support for staff looking into using the land as workforce housing, with council member Oliver Luck saying he liked the location. Council member Kyle Hendricks disagreed, saying the wetlands process seemed like “a whole lot of hoops” to jump through and that he did not think the location would be good for housing.

“I don’t think it would be attractive to live right next to (I-70),” Hendricks said.

Mayor Carolyn Skowyra said the town owning the land presented “a cool opportunity,” but expressed concerns about the area’s walkability. Burroughs said staff has started working on plans to add a sidewalk to the area. 

“There’s a lot of steps to get from here to a workforce housing project,” Burroughs said.