Following a special Housing Committee meeting April 27, the town of Breckenridge is looking to move forward with preliminary plans for a new rental housing property just south of Alta Verde.

According to a memo from the Breckenridge Town Council meeting Tuesday, May 11, the intention is to use about 9 acres for housing and about 3.5 to 4 acres for what could be a nonprofit and community services campus on the 128-acre McCain property on the north end of town. The Town Council spoke briefly about the project at its Tuesday work session and expressed support for taking the next steps.

The complex would include 150 to 200 units of mostly lower area median income rentals, but it would also include some flexibility for higher area median income rentals, business leases and seasonal housing, according to the memo.

Breckenridge housing manager Laurie Best said the project is being proposed now so the town could save time and money by integrating and planning for the new project to roll out as construction finishes on the Alta Verde housing project.

“It would make sense. Then we could take advantage of redundancies and stuff,” Best said. “I think everybody is recognizing how difficult it is to find rental units now.”

The memo from the Town Council meeting said it could be beneficial to coordinate some utilities, infrastructure, roads, fill, grading and floodplain already underway for Alta Verde should the town see this project through.

At the April 27 committee meeting, Kimball Crangle, Colorado market president for real estate development company Gorman & Co., discussed the options to save time and money on the project if it was considered in conjunction with Alta Verde. Gorman & Co. is developing Alta Verde alongside the town of Breckenridge.

Breckenridge Director of Community Development Mark Truckey said the next step for the town would be to propose an amendment to the McCain Master Plan since the area is currently designated for snow storage.

Truckey said the project is still in its preliminary planning phases but that council has been on board since it knows Summit County’s housing shortage needs to be addressed.

Best said the town recently hired a consultant to create schematic layouts for the property, which the council would need to approve. She added that the project would have the goal to be net zero to align with the town’s sustainability goals.

Once the town has a conceptual layout, it can move on to planning finances and permits with “a target of potentially going vertical in a year,” Best said.