Planners, Breckenridge Town Council and representatives from Breckenridge Grand Vacations continue to move through and solidify concepts for a six-parcel development slated to come to Breckenridge with a handful of planning meetings remaining.

The development will feature a hotel site, homesites, workforce housing, and parking and has already gone through a myriad of changes.

The group discussed the workforce housing portion of what is being referred to as the Peak 8/Gold Rush Lot development at a meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 28. 

Town council generally supported the proposed concept of workforce housing but raised some concerns over the plan’s layout and location. 

The proposed concept for workforce housing calls for 92 units with a total of 143 beds. 

Breckenridge has an employee mitigation housing requirement, which requires all new developments to provide housing for local workers.

For this project, Breckenridge Grand Vacations is mandated to provide workforce housing for 42 people under the employee mitigation requirement.  

Breckenridge Grand Vacations is looking to utilize a public-private partnership with the town of Breckenridge in order to build more than 42 units of workforce housing, something the Council has showed support for.

Town council showed support for this type of partnership, which involves the town approving a density transfer in order for Breckenridge Grand Vacations to be allowed to build the additional 52 units. 

All of these 92 units are being proposed to be built on Park Avenue, and certain members of council showed hesitancy towards having this many units in that one spot.

Given the location’s proximity to the downtown core, developers believe the Park Avenue location would help Breckenridge meet its transportation goals of having more members of its workforce walk to work. 

While a majority of Council members approved of this aspect, they raised concerns over having more residents crossing a busy road to walk downtown. 

A few Council members pointed to another property in the hands of Breckenridge Grand Vacations, the “Entrada parcel” across the street from 7-Eleven on the north side of town, as a potential site where some of the 92 units could go. Breckenridge planning manager Chris Kulick said the Park Avenue site was the more preferable of the two locations for a larger housing project.

“This is objectively, looking at the two sites, the better of the two sites … we really look at it as a missed opportunity if we did not pursue a decent amount of housing on this site,” said Kulick, while advocating for the units to remain on Park Avenue.  

No decisions were solidified at the meeting, and it will continue to be a topic of conversation in future meetings.

Parcel 3: The South Gold Rush Lot

Council members showed support for the conceptual plan for 16 duplex units on this parcel in previous meetings. These will be for sale and not be eligible for short-term rental licenses.

This development would impact wetlands that are in the boundary for a service area controlled by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. A report was done by a wetland and ecology consulting firm and the project was redesigned so approximately 0.1 acres of wetlands would be impacted.

To offset this disturbance, staff and Breckenridge Grand Vacations agreed upon a credit purchase from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for wetland mitigation.

Parcel 4: A hotel site on East Peak 8

Parcel 4 is slated to house 78 condominium units, 69 additional lock-off keys, 36 hotel rooms, a restaurant, spa and space for the Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center to operate out of.

The concept requires 162 parking spaces. An additional 35 spaces to be used exclusively by Vail Resorts employees and six oversized spaces for exclusive use by the Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center was also supported by the Council.

Parcel 5: Two single-family homes on Four O’Clock Road

Two homesites will be on parcel 5.

Breckenridge Grand Vacations will be the owners of the two proposed homesites. Given their proximity to the hotel on parcel 4, and the access they will have to the amenities at the resort, town staff believe these will both qualify as resort properties, which would allow them to be used as short-term rentals. 

In an email, Breckenridge community development director Mark Truckey wrote “staff believes that the two homesites proposed at the end of Four O’Clock Run Road will qualify as a Resort Property and thus be allowed licenses for short term rentals.”

Parcel 6: Single-family homesites near Timber Trail

The lots on parcel 6 have been reduced from 20 to 14 total lots, with increased lot sizes ranging from approximately 0.6 to approximately 1.2 acres. These will be single-family homes and located in the area southwest of Timber Trail. 

A staff memo noted these conceptual lot sizes are notably larger than the 22 lots in the neighboring Timber Trail home lots, which range in size from 0.34 to 1.06 acres.

With the decreased number of lots and corresponding increase in lot sizes, a maximum home size of 7,500 square feet would be realistic for the parcel. 

The 14 homesites will not be eligible for short-term rental licenses, according to Truckey.  

The lots are intended to be sold for single-family residences and Breckenridge Grand Vacations will go through the development process to get the property subdivided.

“They then may decide to either sell individual vacant lots or develop some or all of the lots and then sell them,” Truckey wrote.