Silverthorne Town Council will soon vote on a proposed district for town-owned units thanks to a transfer of workforce housing funds. 

The council showed favor for a proposal to put “light” deed-restriction model with no income caps for the town’s 11 workforce housing units at an Oct. 8 meeting.

Interim Mark Leidal said the decision had to come before them now because of the transfer of voter-approved workforce housing funds, or the 5A Fund, to reimburse the town’s general fund for the purchases. All units have been bought by the town in the last three years. He said what Silverthorne has done in the past three years mimics the county’s Buy Down program. The town purchased market-rate units and flipped them to workforce housing units. 

The town’s new housing manager, Vicente Kemp Lobo, presented council with the proposed deed-restrictions including requirements like an owner or renter working a minimum 30 hours per week for a Summit County employer, but lacking requirements like an appreciation cap. 

“I love the fact that there’s no (income caps) because now if there’s a police officer or a doctor (they) can actually find a place without being restricted due to making too much money,” council member Tim Applegate said. 

Council members wondered what a retirement provision could look like. 

Lobo said the requirement is a person must have owned the home for a minimum of seven years in order to keep it after retiring. Leidal said the town of Breckenridge was among the first in the county to have such a clause with its Wellington Neighborhood, and seven years has been proven to work well. Community development director Danelle Cook said this is a protection measure to ensure someone doesn’t “buy a unit and then three months later retire.” 

Another protection provision is a mandate that the units need to be rented for a minimum of 90 days to avoid them being used as short-term rental. 

It was not discussed which future meeting council would be voting on the matter.