The town of Frisco is currently developing a new covenant for the 155 deed-restricted units in its jurisdiction that would completely undermine this purpose. While there is no final draft to be voted on yet, the current discussions might eliminate income limits or local employment requirements once someone purchased a unit. 

Affordable workforce housing is one of the most pressing issues in Summit County. There has long been debate on the exact policy details regarding resource allocation, home value appreciation, qualification requirements, and more when it comes to the deed-restricted housing programs. Rational arguments can be made on many sides of these points.

One thing we can all agree on, however, is that the purpose of affordable workforce housing in general is “to help establish and preserve a supply of moderately priced housing to help meet the needs of the locally employed residents of Summit County” as it is explicitly written in many of the restricted housing covenants that govern these programs.

There is nothing to prevent someone from gaming the system to get into one of these units, then working in the Front Range, or even remote for a hedge fund in New York or tech company in California, and earning much more money. They even discussed a carve out to allow for owners of local deed-restricted properties to also own property in other jurisdictions outside of Summit County, aka a second vacation home for them in the mountains.

We have an incredibly in-demand and limited amount of affordable workforce housing in Frisco, and countless locals struggling to survive and secure a stable home, yet this new proposal might allow wealthy out-of-towners who are not contributing directly to the vitality of our community to scoop up limited housing that was designed to be, and should always be, allocated to needy locals working locally.