FRISCO – Frisco Town Council approved its 2011 budget allocations last week despite objections from a local business owner and one councilman.

The second reading of measures to levy property taxes and appropriating sums of money to the various funds and spending agencies, along with the resolution to adopt the budget, passed by a margin of 6-1, with Councilman Kent Willis the lone dissenter. Willis said his nay vote was a form of protest against the direction of the marketing budget. He said the focus of Frisco’s marketing dollars should be on retaining visitors rather than drawing them. Main street merchant Paul Connelly of Mountains USA said the town needed metrics to measure the benefit of its events before it could make educated decisions on how to spend its marketing money. Town manager Michael Penny said Connelly’s points would be taken under consideration, but the passage of the budget served to allocate money to the marketing department. The direction of the marketing plan could be altered in the future.

Council unofficially agreed to bring back its marketing committee with members from both the public and private sector providing input on how marketing dollars should be spent. Connelly agreed to join, but no official arrangements were made.

An ordinance to amend Frisco’s cabin housing regulations also brought comments from a local businessman. Developer Craig Dewars said the proposed changes would make it difficult to attract investors because council would have the power to deny projects under the conditional use provision. Planning costs comprise a larger portion of total project costs on relatively smaller developments, such as cabin housing, and Dewars said it wasn’t economically feasible to develop land that falls under cabin housing zoning. Despite Dewars’ objections, the measure passed unanimously with stipulations to change some wording for clarification and to disallow any projects with flat roofs.

Council unanimously approved a liquor license for the Frisco Adventure Park, pending a background check on Penny, the applicant. The park is scheduled for a Dec. 10 opening.

Finally, council unanimously approved an ordinance to defray the expenses to donate $40,000 to the Summit County Housing Authority’s revolving loan program. Building permits and plan review fees in excess of budgeted amounts will cover $18,700 of the donation, and the Summit County Housing Authority (5A) fund will be tapped for the remaining $21,300.

SDN reporter Drew Andersen can be contacted at (970) 668-4633 or drewa@summitdaily.com.