As the Dillon Town Council continues reviewing priorities pulled from its series of community forums, it discussed building design standards and town communications at a June 2 work session.

The discussions largely focused on the town’s design guidelines and websites, respectively. Community members expressed a desire at the forums for design standards to maintain Dillon’s small town and mountain community feel, and they also showed concern for the town’s websites being too difficult to navigate, among other complaints about town communications.

Senior town planner Ned West gave the council some background on the town’s design guidelines, saying the town started working on them in 2016 and implemented them the next year. In 2024, it started working on amendments to add guidelines. West said the town paused that effort but is looking to continue it now.

West said people in the community forums talked about the design standards, which are really the “zoning provisions of the code” — things like building height and setbacks. The design guidelines, he said, are more about the architectural design of buildings.

“They do speak to some of those elements that our zoning makes, but these are really architectural,” West said. “It’s the look, the feel, the aesthetics of the town that these design guidelines are trying to go after.”

Some buildings in Dillon built since 2017 used the design guidelines, West said, including the Homewood Suites, the Dillon Medical Office Building, Peaks Medical and Urgent Care and Christy Sports. The guidelines direct designers to analyze the “character and environment” of the building’s location and consider its form, articulation, materials and color.

“It all forms this kind of cohesive look,” West said. “The idea with the design guidelines is, ultimately, we go away from, kind of, the hodgepodge of different architectural styles based on one individual’s whim and start to get a more unified appearance as the town redevelops.”

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Council member Barbara Richard said she thinks the design guidelines mostly “meet what the community is after,” although it may not address building height to the extent community members may want. West pointed out that the guidelines discuss building height in how it relates to the “mass” of adjacent properties.

“That’s what the whole guidelines are really trying to focus on, is, ‘Look at the environment and build to it, and build appropriately,'” West said.

Trace Faust, a consultant who helped facilitate the community meetings and subsequent Town Council discussions, asked the council if it wanted to look to make changes to the guidelines or if addressing the community’s concerns might only require increased communication about the already existing guidelines. 

Richard said she does not think community members know about the guidelines, but she thought they may want to comment on them once they are made aware. Faust suggested the town put together digestible communications about guidelines relevant to the concerns the community has already expressed before it goes looking for more input. Council members expressed support for the idea.

West asked the council if it would like town staff to move forward with the proposed design guideline amendments, which include things like landscaping guidelines and guidelines for the marina, among other topics. The members expressed support for staff continuing work on the amendments.

Communications discussion

Marketing and communications manager Suzanne Phillipson and events and recreation director Jessie Klehfoth presented to the council about the town’s communications. Phillipson gave an overview of what her one-person department does, including branding consistency, advertising, social media management and more.

Community members had expressed concern specifically about the town’s websites being hard to navigate, and to address those complaints, Phillipson said she has already made changes. 

Phillipson showed the council the town’s websites — the visitor-focused TownOfDillon.com, the government site DillonCo.gov and the amphitheater website DillonAmp.com. She said the pages are not separate despite having different URLs, as they are all hosted on the same platform and “all talk to each other.”

Faust expanded on that point, calling attention to how the main town of Dillon site has prominent links to the government and amphitheater sites at the top of its homepage.

“It’s all in one spot now,” Faust said. “People don’t need to know that all the different URLs exist now.”

Council members thanked Phillipson for her work on the website, and member Shannon White specifically praised the “How Do I …” page on the government website, which has guides for how to do things like pay bills or apply for permits. Phillipson pointed out another informational page called “Town Code and Key Documents,” which has links to things like the town charter, town code, master plans, design guidelines and more.