Town, Vail Local Housing Authority seeking community input on Housing Strategic Plan

The Town of Vail and members of the Vail Local Housing Authority are inviting community members to join in a brainstorming session from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 15 to help guide an update to the town’s Housing Strategic Plan.

The gathering will be held in the Council Chambers at the Vail Municipal Building, 75 S. Frontage Road. Light refreshments will be provided.

Employees, business owners, renters, prospective homebuyers and other community members interested in making an impact on expanding Vail’s housing opportunities, including the Chamonix development in West Vail, are encouraged to attend the session. During the meeting, participants will be asked to give their input on objectives drafted by the Housing Authority and to add their own thoughts in writing or verbally to staff.

The policy objectives to date include preserving and acquiring existing housing stock; consideration of all density options for development and redevelopment opportunities due to limitations of available land; developing a dedicated funding source for housing, such as a sales tax or increasing the property tax on units above a certain size; and actively seeking public-private partnerships. Once the input is documented, staff will present the results to Town Council for inclusion in the plan.

Vail’s Housing Strategic Plan was initially adopted in 2008 and contains strategies to help achieve a goal to provide deed restricted housing for at least 30 percent of the workforce through policies, regulations and publicly-initiated development. Since then, there have been 212 deed restricted employee housing units established in town, bringing the total number to approximately 700 units, but well under the estimated 1,400 units required to meet the 30 percent goal.

The need to update Vail’s housing plan has been triggered, in part, due to the increasing cost of housing and lack of availability of both affordable rental and for-sale homes. Recommended updates to the plan will be drafted and presented during a community meeting on June 29 in preparation for review and adoption by the Town Council in July.

The updated plan will be used by the Housing Authority and the Vail Town Council as a guiding document to make critical decisions about next steps, funding sources and resource allocation during implementation over the next three to five years.

Background information on the proposed policy objectives can be found here.