[0:00] Hi, I'm Brooke Dunn. I'm the
[0:02] communications and marketing coordinator
[0:04] for the town of Breenidge. Last night we
[0:06] had a town council meeting. I'm joined
[0:08] by Jay Beckerman to talk about it. How
[0:10] are you today, Jay? Oh, wonderful,
[0:12] Brooke. Thank you so much. It was a
[0:14] fantastic meeting. We had a lot of uh
[0:17] new and old faces joining us last night.
[0:19] It was fantastic. Yeah, a lot of good
[0:22] things to talk about. So, let's just
[0:24] jump right in. Let's talk about the US
[0:26] Forest Service. What can you tell us
[0:27] about their presentation? Well, we had
[0:29] Seth from the US Forest Service come in
[0:32] and talk about the Camp Hail National
[0:34] Monument. And for those of you that
[0:36] don't know, in 2022,
[0:38] uh, President Biden had designated the
[0:41] southern portion of the 10mi range as a
[0:44] national monument. And what this did was
[0:46] it set off some things in motion in
[0:49] looking at management plans and usage
[0:52] plans for those areas. We're talking
[0:54] about Blue Lakes, uh, Spruce Creek, uh,
[0:57] Trail Head, Quandry, and Mcculla Gulch
[1:00] specifically. And so we got a
[1:02] presentation on, uh, items that were to
[1:06] ease our guest uh, interactions with the
[1:09] trail heads as well as our residents as
[1:11] well. And these uh, suggestions have
[1:14] been through uh, the Breck open space
[1:17] committee, uh, through the county's open
[1:19] space. They're going in front of the
[1:21] board of county commissioners. But last
[1:23] night they presented it to us over at
[1:25] town council. And I think that there was
[1:27] a lot of um it it's more of a master
[1:30] plan of what um future mitigation of the
[1:35] traffic and the congestion at those
[1:36] trail heads might look like if the usage
[1:40] keeps up uh in the same uh pace as it
[1:42] is. Uh this includes adding facilities
[1:45] such as restrooms, adding shuttles to uh
[1:49] very similar to the one at Quandry to
[1:51] the Spruce Creek trail head and then
[1:53] also some connector trails. And so uh I
[1:56] think all in all council was very
[1:59] receptive and we're interested to see it
[2:01] move up forward to a NEPA process which
[2:03] is through the federal uh uh forest
[2:05] service and to kind of see what those
[2:07] recommendations are. That's about a
[2:09] two-year process as they get feedback
[2:11] from uh stakeholders. Yeah, it is just
[2:15] the beginning of this I feel like at
[2:17] least for our end of things like the the
[2:20] conversation has started with them
[2:22] coming to this and giving us a
[2:23] presentation and giving us all the
[2:26] information. So, I can't wait to see
[2:28] where that one goes. I think it's great
[2:29] to have that um process in place and
[2:33] that plan in place in case we do need to
[2:35] deploy it. So, it'll be interesting. I
[2:37] agree. Um, next let's talk about our
[2:41] building energy code. What can you tell
[2:43] us about that? There are some changes.
[2:45] Rick Fouts was so great in uh our chief
[2:48] building uh inspector and chief building
[2:51] official was in to uh talk about the
[2:54] IEC, which is the new building code that
[2:57] will be uh implemented later this year.
[3:00] And this is not really something that we
[3:02] have a lot of um jurisdiction over.
[3:05] we're we're forced on on this every six
[3:07] years to take on the new building code,
[3:09] but he's done such a great job at
[3:11] outreach and we have seven meetings uh
[3:14] planned for architects, for builders,
[3:16] for engineers to come and learn about
[3:18] the new building code. And the best part
[3:20] from our standpoint is that it actually
[3:23] lessens the layers of codes, but this
[3:26] absorbs one of the other layers that
[3:28] used to be on the code. Um, and so it
[3:32] simplifies it to a certain extent. And
[3:33] so we're really looking forward to
[3:35] seeing that implemented and uh getting
[3:37] the information out. Rick's got the uh
[3:40] seven open houses uh set up for it and
[3:43] uh for those involved in the building
[3:44] industry. Yeah, it's a lot of
[3:47] information, but I think Rick and staff,
[3:50] they're doing a great job on getting it
[3:52] out there and I think that, you know,
[3:54] making it digestible is going to be
[3:56] great. Absolutely. Now, let's talk about
[3:59] something I'm really excited about,
[4:01] which is runway. What can you tell us
[4:03] about this? We had a great discussion on
[4:06] Runway um last night and for those of
[4:08] you that don't know, Runway is our last
[4:11] giant workforce housing project left in
[4:14] town. Uh there will be other projects
[4:17] available, but this is um of this scale.
[4:20] 148 units are planned and these are a
[4:23] mix of town homes, two-bedroom town
[4:25] homes, three-bedroom town homes,
[4:27] duplexes, single families, and single
[4:30] families with ADUs added to them. So,
[4:33] there's a really big product mix. Um,
[4:36] and we're really excited to kind of see
[4:38] it launch. The discussion last night was
[4:40] how much the town should be subsidizing
[4:42] this project. And um the the the desire
[4:46] of of town and the council and staff is
[4:50] to make the two-bedroom and
[4:52] three-bedroom town of homes as
[4:54] affordable as possible for first
[4:56] firsttime home buyers. And this is, you
[4:59] know, we're looking at
[5:00] $350,000 to start off, which is, you
[5:03] know, 25% of what market cost is right
[5:06] now. And so that is a subsidy of
[5:10] approximately $50 million from the town
[5:12] that we'll be looking at investing over
[5:14] a course of about six years. And um so
[5:17] yeah, a lot of lot of really great
[5:19] conversation. Uh interesting to see
[5:22] where um we are as a town and how much
[5:27] more this valley um in density can
[5:31] really hold. And uh we're really excited
[5:34] to look at how we can bring in these
[5:36] workforce housing units at a uh
[5:39] attainable price that doesn't put uh
[5:42] overdue burden onto the homeowner in uh
[5:46] mortgage costs, interest costs, HOA
[5:48] dues, and all the other things that add
[5:50] up. And um I think one of the things
[5:53] that we heard uh last night was that
[5:56] there was a desire to continue our
[5:58] housing helps and our buy down programs
[6:01] along simultaneously with making this
[6:03] giant investment in the work workforce
[6:06] housing um project of runway. And so the
[6:10] housing helps is a program that the town
[6:13] has that provides uh money a percentage
[6:16] of uh the value of the house in order in
[6:19] exchange for a deed restriction, a
[6:20] voluntary deed restriction that lives
[6:22] with the home. And then the buy downs
[6:24] are when the town and the housing
[6:27] department does see opportunities in the
[6:29] market, they will purchase a house at
[6:32] market uh market rate, put a deed
[6:34] restriction on it, and then resell it to
[6:37] uh residents and workforce in the
[6:39] county. And so we're really excited to
[6:41] see that program still continuing even
[6:44] with that massive investment from the
[6:45] town. Mhm. I know. I know staff has
[6:48] thought about this immensely and I know
[6:50] that council is very diligent in what
[6:53] they're kind of recommending that staff
[6:55] does. So, I think you guys are working
[6:56] really great. But I'm very excited about
[6:59] the mixture of houses that are going to
[7:01] be available with Runway. That's so
[7:03] true. And with the the different
[7:05] demographic, there's actually going to
[7:07] be up to 12 homes that will be have a
[7:10] light deed restriction, meaning that
[7:12] there won't be an appreciation cap. and
[7:14] those are going to help subsidize some
[7:16] of the other more heavily uh subsidized
[7:19] um town homes and duplexes. Uh and and
[7:23] so we're really looking at a product mix
[7:25] to make this a true neighborhood and to
[7:28] have that neighborhood feeling. And so
[7:31] it it'll be great. I think it will be
[7:33] and I can't wait to learn more about it
[7:35] in May when they come back to talk about
[7:37] it. Absolutely, Brooke. And it is
[7:40] imperative that we take our time and
[7:42] make sure this is right. Um, we're
[7:44] definitely going to be launching the
[7:46] infrastructure for phase one this summer
[7:49] and so getting some of the lines in the
[7:51] ground and the sewer and the water and
[7:54] uh and then we'll be proceeding slowly
[7:56] to make sure that we are doing the best
[7:59] we can for our community and our
[8:00] workforce.
[8:02] Awesome. Now, let's talk a little bit
[8:05] about the pavilion. What can you tell us
[8:08] about the pavilion at Kingdom Park?
[8:10] As you know, we uh took the two dirt uh
[8:13] ball fields that are on the southern
[8:16] part of Kingdom Park and we did uh uh
[8:20] put artificial astroturf on those which
[8:23] uh was a rational decision at the time
[8:26] because those fields needed a ton of
[8:28] work and this was a more sustainable way
[8:31] of moving forward and it allows for our
[8:34] athletics to have access to the field
[8:37] for about almost year round to uh from
[8:40] we're looking from April until even
[8:43] November. And um the middle part the
[8:46] part in between those two fields is
[8:49] called the pavilion. And we've looked at
[8:51] a couple different options of maximizing
[8:53] that area making sure that it's ADA
[8:56] accessible and then trying to figure out
[8:59] what facilities and what uh amenities
[9:01] are needed there. So, we'll be putting
[9:03] in new bathrooms, a shade structure,
[9:06] even some batting cages, which is going
[9:08] to provide the uh Summit High School
[9:10] baseball team a home field for the first
[9:13] time uh in Summit County uh history. So,
[9:16] we're really excited about that. Yeah,
[9:18] it's a great project. It's a great space
[9:20] and I think it'll be used a lot better
[9:23] with the improvements that we're
[9:24] planning on doing without a doubt. And
[9:27] we were fortunate enough um John Door
[9:29] from recreation put on an open house
[9:32] where we had great participation. We had
[9:34] high country soccer there, the our
[9:36] softball league, um the Summit High
[9:39] School baseball team and a lot of staff
[9:42] to really make sure that we're doing it
[9:44] right where it allows for the most
[9:47] amenities for the most people and the
[9:49] highest amount of usage. The one thing
[9:51] that uh our some of our locals may have
[9:54] to get used to is for currently the
[9:57] playground that is at Kingdom Park will
[9:59] need to be removed as it has aged out
[10:02] and uh with plans in the future to do
[10:04] something new there. Yeah. And I know
[10:07] there's more conversations around that.
[10:09] So, everyone just needs to stay tuned to
[10:11] see what council comes up with. Well, I
[10:13] guess staff comes up with and council
[10:15] approves. That's right, Brooke.
[10:16] Absolutely. Well, all of that was really
[10:19] great. So, thank you so much for your
[10:22] time yesterday and thank you guys for
[10:24] watching.