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The Telluride Project

Part three of three

Move forward with a plan

Growth is coming either way. The choice is whether it happens to us or with us. This is how Telluride grows on purpose: more visitors, more homes, and the transit to connect them, each matched to the other.

The visitor economy

A busy Tuesday in October is what keeps a local business open in February.

The opportunity

Telluride's restaurants, shops, guides, and festivals live on visitors, and the Town's budget lives on sales and lodging taxes. That base is fragile right now. The share of residents rating the town's economic health positively fell from 59% to 46% in a year. Short-term rental tax ran 24% below 2025 through May 2026, after the strike and a poor snow year. Business owners are saying openly that relying on holidays and snowfall is not enough.

More hotel rooms are the most direct answer for local businesses:

  • Customers in the slow months. Hotels can book groups, conferences, and midweek guests in the weeks when Main Street is quietest. Those guests eat out, shop, and hire local guides.
  • Steadier jobs. Year-round visitors mean year-round hours, which is what lets workers stay.
  • Steadier Town revenue for housing, parks, and services, without raising taxes on residents.
  • Less pressure on homes. Visitors in hotel rooms are visitors not occupying houses that could hold residents.

The ski company counts 1,129 hotel beds in Telluride and Mountain Village combined, fewer than comparable ski towns, and says most of the group business it bids for goes elsewhere for lack of rooms. Those are the company's figures.

Sources: 2025 Community Survey, Town short-term rental report, Telluride Times on business resilience, Telluride Times on hotel beds

The problem

Residents have fair objections to how hotels have been built. The $1 billion Four Seasons in Mountain Village has 52 hotel rooms alongside 43 hotel residences and 26 private condominiums. It includes 10 employee apartments and a $2.5 million housing contribution, for roughly 250 permanent staff. Its construction workers are being housed in hotels as far away as Naturita and Ridgway.

Sources: Colorado Sun, October 2026, Colorado Sun, April 2026, project update

The plan

Say yes to hotel rooms, on three conditions:

  • House the workforce. Substantial employee housing on site or nearby, built before opening.
  • Rooms stay rooms. A binding restriction against converting hotel rooms into condominiums.
  • Cap the residential share, so a hotel is a hotel.

In return for zoning and approvals, the community receives written commitments on lift and mountain investment, employee housing, and a fair share of gondola costs.

Who can make these decisions

  • Hotel workforce housing, permanent room restrictions, residential-share caps, and written mountain/gondola contributions: the council and land-use approval body for the actual project location; Telluride P&Z/HARC for applicable Town approvals.
  • Hotel operators/developers and ski-company ownership must agree to their commitments. No single developer is named for all future hotel projects.

Public contacts checked November 10, 2026. A shared office contact is labeled when a direct work address is not confirmed. Public bodies decide collectively, not through one member acting alone.

Telluride Mayor and Town Council

Source: Official directory

Mountain Village Town Council

Whole council: council@mtnvillage.org.

Source: Official directory

Telluride Planning & Zoning Commission

Individual contact details are not listed in the member directory. Ask Town Hall to route correspondence to the commission. P&Z handles specified land-use approvals; it is not the body that appropriates Town money.

  • Angela Dye, Chair — contact through Town Hall: 970-728-5700.
  • Kathy Green, Vice Chair — contact through Town Hall: 970-728-5700.
  • Todd Brown — contact through Town Hall: 970-728-5700.
  • Lee Shea Betten — contact through Town Hall: 970-728-5700.
  • Peter Sante — contact through Town Hall: 970-728-5700.
  • Shayni Saftler, Alternate — contact through Town Hall: 970-728-5700.
  • Marcin Ostromecki, Alternate — contact through Town Hall: 970-728-5700.

Source: Official directory

Telluride Historic & Architectural Review Commission

Individual contact details are not listed in the member directory. Ask Town Hall to route correspondence to HARC for the applicable historic and design review.

  • Mark Shambaugh, Chair — contact through Town Hall: 970-728-5700.
  • Stacy Lake, Vice Chair — contact through Town Hall: 970-728-5700.
  • Matt Lee — contact through Town Hall: 970-728-5700.
  • Robert Mather — contact through Town Hall: 970-728-5700.
  • Andrew Williamson — contact through Town Hall: 970-728-5700.
  • Sherry Gourlay, Alternate — contact through Town Hall: 970-728-5700.
  • Troy Gulec, Alternate — contact through Town Hall: 970-728-5700.

Source: Official directory

Telluride Ski & Golf

  • Chuck Horning, owner — public resort office: info@telski.com; 970-728-6900. Ask for ownership/management correspondence to be forwarded. An individual owner email is not confirmed.

Source: Official directory

Source: Ownership reporting, July 2026

Mountain Village Design Review Board

Design decisions and land-use recommendations are made through the applicable review process, not by Council alone. Individual member addresses are not published; the Town explicitly forwards board correspondence through planning@mtnvillage.org.

Source: Official design review board directory

San Miguel County Planning Commission

The commission reviews applicable development proposals and recommends zoning/subdivision/PUD actions to the County Commissioners. The official directory lists the following members; direct member addresses are not confirmed. Send commission correspondence through the county planning office: planning@sanmiguelcountyco.gov, 970-728-3083.

Sources: Official commission directory, county planning contact on its public application

Why it works

Everyone gets what they most need. Local businesses get customers in the slow months. Workers get housing. The ski company gets the rooms it says it needs. The Town gets steadier revenue and a better mountain. Each side gives something and gets something, on the record.

Fair questions

  • Don't more hotels mean more crowds? The aim is to fill the quiet weeks, not to pack the busy ones. Midweek and shoulder-season guests are exactly who hotels attract and houses do not.
  • These conditions have been promised before. Why believe them now? Because they would be written into the approval itself and enforceable, not offered as goodwill.
  • Are the bed numbers real? They come from the ski company. We want an independent count, and we say so.

Weigh in

More hotel rooms, on three conditions

Build with partners

The Town does not have to carry every project on its own credit.

The problem

The Town's largest planned project, Carhenge, would add about 220 to 240 affordable units, roughly 10,000 square feet of commercial space, and about 230 enclosed parking spaces. It would roughly double the 212 rental units the Town manages today. The Town is owner and applicant. No cost estimate or operating forecast has been published, and the Town's 2026 goals list the financing approach as work still to do.

Building here is hard. The town sits in a box canyon with almost no land left. The Town subsidized its Sunnyside project by just under $100,000 a unit, and Voodoo was projected at $170,000 a unit. When costs run that high, the choices are higher rents, deeper subsidy, or new partners.

Sources: Carhenge concept, March 2026, Town Council goals, Sunnyside costs, Voodoo costs

The plan

  • Publish the numbers before any approval: cost per unit, rents by income level, annual operating gap, and debt coverage.
  • Build in phases. Prove lease-up on the first buildings before starting the rest.
  • Use private partners to carry construction debt, as the Town is doing at Canyonlands, where a developer finances, builds, and operates 28 rentals, 8 deed-restricted condos, and 3 free-market townhomes on Town land. Cap the Town's financial backstop.
  • Mix the product. Homes for sale and a limited share of free-market units reduce the subsidy.
  • Ask major employers to lease or buy blocks of units. Those who create housing demand should help pay for it.
  • Appraise the Town's lift-base land, so residents can see what it is worth and weigh housing there against other uses.
  • Then ask voters, for named projects with budgets.

Sources: Town memo on the Canyonlands partnership, Colorado Sun

Who can make these decisions

  • Published project budgets, phased construction, capped Town backstop, private financing, mixed product, and public land appraisal: Town Council as owner/funder, Housing Authority for housing policy, and P&Z/HARC for applicable approvals.
  • Employer block leases/purchases: each participating employer and the project owner.
  • Named project financing votes: Council refers the applicable measure; Town voters decide.

Public contacts checked November 10, 2026. A shared office contact is labeled when a direct work address is not confirmed. Public bodies decide collectively, not through one member acting alone.

Telluride Housing Authority

The council members also serve as Housing Authority commissioners; rental-policy decisions belong to the Authority, with Town funding decisions made by Council.

Source: Official directory

Telluride Planning & Zoning Commission

Individual contact details are not listed in the member directory. Ask Town Hall to route correspondence to the commission. P&Z handles specified land-use approvals; it is not the body that appropriates Town money.

  • Angela Dye, Chair — contact through Town Hall: 970-728-5700.
  • Kathy Green, Vice Chair — contact through Town Hall: 970-728-5700.
  • Todd Brown — contact through Town Hall: 970-728-5700.
  • Lee Shea Betten — contact through Town Hall: 970-728-5700.
  • Peter Sante — contact through Town Hall: 970-728-5700.
  • Shayni Saftler, Alternate — contact through Town Hall: 970-728-5700.
  • Marcin Ostromecki, Alternate — contact through Town Hall: 970-728-5700.

Source: Official directory

Telluride Historic & Architectural Review Commission

Individual contact details are not listed in the member directory. Ask Town Hall to route correspondence to HARC for the applicable historic and design review.

  • Mark Shambaugh, Chair — contact through Town Hall: 970-728-5700.
  • Stacy Lake, Vice Chair — contact through Town Hall: 970-728-5700.
  • Matt Lee — contact through Town Hall: 970-728-5700.
  • Robert Mather — contact through Town Hall: 970-728-5700.
  • Andrew Williamson — contact through Town Hall: 970-728-5700.
  • Sherry Gourlay, Alternate — contact through Town Hall: 970-728-5700.
  • Troy Gulec, Alternate — contact through Town Hall: 970-728-5700.

Source: Official directory

Why it works

Phasing and private partners limit what taxpayers risk if costs rise. Publishing the numbers turns an argument about trust into a discussion about facts. And voters who have seen empty units filled and budgets published are voters who will say yes.

Fair questions

  • Is this a way to stop affordable housing? No. It is a way to build it without a deficit that lands on residents later. We support housing at Carhenge and want it to succeed.
  • Do private partners take the profit and leave the risk? They can, if the deal is written badly. That is why the terms and the Town's backstop should be public and capped.

Weigh in

Build in phases, with partners

Homes for families

A town without children is a resort. Every family that stays is a desk filled, a kid on the ice, a future neighbor.

The problem

Telluride schools had 910 students in 2018 and have 752 today. The district projects about 620 by 2032. Enrollment is falling across Colorado, so housing alone will not turn this around. But it can slow it, because the pattern here is familiar: couples arrive, fall in love with the place, and leave when they need a third bedroom.

Families stay when they can own a home with room to grow. Apartments in town cannot give them that. Land down-valley can.

Source: Telluride School District figures

The good news: it has already started

Four efforts are underway within a few miles of each other.

  • The school district is building for its own staff. The county approved the district’s purchase of vacant lots at Lawson Hill, where it takes on an obligation to build deed-restricted housing, with construction deadlines. [SOURCE LINK NEEDED]
  • New homes are for sale at Lawson Hill. New factory-built, deed-restricted homes there have been listed at $649,000. Source
  • Mountain Village has a partner. In May 2026 it announced a partnership with Rural Homes for up to 49 deed-restricted homes at two sites in Ilium, a mix of for-sale and rental. Source
  • Society Turn includes housing land. The county’s approval committed land and infrastructure for employee housing, right next to Lawson Hill. Source

What is missing is the Town of Telluride at the table, and a shared plan that ties the four together.

A model that works: Rural Homes

Rural Homes grew out of the Telluride Foundation. Its approach is simple: donated land, homes built in a factory, and low-cost financing.

  • It has built and sold 59 homes in Norwood, Ridgway, and Ouray.
  • In Norwood, homes were priced from $225,000 to about $385,000 for three bedrooms with a garage.
  • At its Ouray project, deed restrictions cap resale appreciation at 3% a year and serve households earning 60% to 120% of the area’s median income.

Because the homes are sold, there is no yearly operating deficit for any town to cover.

That last point matters. The hardest question about the Town’s rental projects is who pays when rents fall short of costs. Homes for sale never raise it.

Sources: Telluride Foundation, Norwood prices, Ouray deed terms

Two things to get right

Where the room is. Lawson Hill was planned decades ago for up to 275 deed-restricted homes, and few vacant lots remain. The real capacity is at Ilium and Society Turn. Source

Deed-restricted is not the same as affordable. A four-bedroom deed-restricted home at Lawson Hill was recently listed at $1,195,000. Without a cap on price or appreciation, family homes drift out of reach of the teachers and nurses they were built for. Source

The plan

  • Join the effort already underway. Telluride should partner with Mountain Village and Rural Homes, not start a separate program. Telluride brings housing-fund revenue. Mountain Village brings land.
  • Use the Town’s seat at the table. Telluride supplies Lawson Hill’s water and sewer, so growth there already runs through the Town. That is a reason to plan it together.
  • Build for families. Three bedrooms and up, with caps on resale appreciation so the home stays affordable for the next family.
  • Put families and essential workers first in line: households with school-age children, and school, medical, and emergency staff.
  • Ask for homes to own at Society Turn, not rentals alone.

Who can make these decisions

  • Telluride/Mountain Village partnership, public land and funding, family-sized ownership, and resale rules: both councils, County Commissioners, and Rural Homes for its developments.
  • Lawson Hill utility agreements: Telluride Council; County handles applicable down-valley approvals.
  • Family/essential-worker priority: the body adopting each project’s deed restrictions and allocation policy, with legal review before adoption.
  • Ownership housing at Society Turn: County approval body and the project’s landowner/developer. School staff housing commitments: School Board.

Public contacts checked November 10, 2026. A shared office contact is labeled when a direct work address is not confirmed. Public bodies decide collectively, not through one member acting alone.

Telluride Mayor and Town Council

Source: Official directory

Mountain Village Town Council

Whole council: council@mtnvillage.org.

Source: Official directory

San Miguel County Commissioners

Whole board: bocc@sanmiguelcountyco.gov; office: 970-728-3844.

Source: Official directory

Rural Homes partnership

These are development partners, not elected officials or the public land-use approval body. Individual work email addresses are not confirmed.

Source: Official directory

Telluride School District Board of Education

These are the five voting board members. Student ex officio representatives provide input rather than the governing votes on budgets and 5A reporting.

Source: Official directory

Mountain Village Design Review Board

Design decisions and land-use recommendations are made through the applicable review process, not by Council alone. Individual member addresses are not published; the Town explicitly forwards board correspondence through planning@mtnvillage.org.

Source: Official design review board directory

San Miguel County Planning Commission

The commission reviews applicable development proposals and recommends zoning/subdivision/PUD actions to the County Commissioners. The official directory lists the following members; direct member addresses are not confirmed. Send commission correspondence through the county planning office: planning@sanmiguelcountyco.gov, 970-728-3083.

Sources: Official commission directory, county planning contact on its public application

Why it works

Ownership turns a job in Telluride into a life in Telluride. A family that owns a home stays for the school years, joins the boards, coaches the teams, and opens the businesses.

It is also the most careful way to spend public money on housing. The land is cheaper, the partner is proven, and once a home is sold it costs taxpayers nothing more.

Fair questions

Does this push workers out of town? No. Rentals in town serve younger workers who want to walk to work. Homes down-valley serve families who want a yard. A healthy town needs both.

Won’t this add traffic? It will, unless buses come with it. That is why this plan pairs every new neighborhood with frequent transit. See “Getting around.”

Is $649,000 affordable? Not for most local families, and we say so. Norwood shows that lower prices are possible when land is donated and appreciation is capped. Those are the terms to insist on.

Why not let each town do its own thing? Because they share one valley, one road, and one school district. Separate programs compete for the same land and the same builders.

Weigh in

Family homes for sale down-valley

Getting around

Nobody moved here to sit in traffic at the valley entrance.

The problem

There is one road into Telluride. Every home built down-valley adds trips on it, and residents already worry about traffic and evacuation at the valley entrance.

The pieces of a solution exist. Regional buses are free on most routes and carry more than 50,000 riders a year, and voters approved about $1 million a year for bus improvements in 2024. But the Lawson Hill bus runs only about every 45 minutes at peak. That is not often enough for a family to leave the car at home.

Sources: SMART, CPR, Town transit page

The plan

  • No new neighborhood without a transit plan. Housing approvals come with committed bus service, not a promise to study it.
  • Buses every 15 to 20 minutes at peak between down-valley neighborhoods, town, and Mountain Village, timed for school and work.
  • Park once at the valley entrance, with frequent service in.
  • A safe year-round route for bikes and e-bikes between down-valley homes and town.
  • Developers and large employers contribute to the service their projects require.
  • Plan evacuation alongside growth, and publish the plan.

Who can make these decisions

  • Neighborhood transit conditions and developer/employer contributions: the approving town/county body, SMART, and the developer/employer agreeing to pay.
  • Frequent bus service and peak schedules: SMART board funds it; SMART staff implement it.
  • Valley-entrance parking, year-round bike route, and evacuation plan: town/county authorities and relevant landowners, coordinating with SMART, fire, and state highway authorities where required.

Public contacts checked November 10, 2026. A shared office contact is labeled when a direct work address is not confirmed. Public bodies decide collectively, not through one member acting alone.

SMART Board of Directors

Source: Official directory

SMART implementation and project contacts

Source: Official directory

Telluride Mayor and Town Council

Source: Official directory

Mountain Village Town Council

Whole council: council@mtnvillage.org.

Source: Official directory

San Miguel County Commissioners

Whole board: bocc@sanmiguelcountyco.gov; office: 970-728-3844.

Source: Official directory

Telluride Fire Protection District Board

For board correspondence use the shared district office or public contact form. Individual board email addresses are not confirmed.

Source: Official directory

State-highway changes also need Colorado Department of Transportation approval; a local council cannot authorize changes to a state road on its own.

San Miguel County Planning Commission

The commission reviews applicable development proposals and recommends zoning/subdivision/PUD actions to the County Commissioners. The official directory lists the following members; direct member addresses are not confirmed. Send commission correspondence through the county planning office: planning@sanmiguelcountyco.gov, 970-728-3083.

Sources: Official commission directory, county planning contact on its public application

Colorado Department of Transportation

  • Julie Constan, Region 5 Transportation Director — regional office: 970-385-1449, 3803 North Main Avenue, Suite 306, Durango, CO 81301. State-highway approvals must go through the appropriate CDOT process.

Source: Official transportation regions and directors

Why it works

Every new home should come with a way to get to town without a car. Frequent, free buses cost far less than road and parking capacity, they make down-valley family homes practical, and they keep the box canyon from filling with traffic.

Fair questions

  • Who pays for more buses? Voters already approved transit funding in 2024. New development should add to it, so growth pays for the service it needs.

Weigh in

Transit with every new neighborhood

Everyday affordability

The people who pour the drinks should be able to afford one.

The problem

Housing is the biggest cost of living here, but it is not the only one. In the Town's 2025 survey, 1% of residents rated the cost of living positively and 14% said the same of affordable food.

Source: 2025 Community Survey

The plan

  • Locals' deals, by choice. Restaurants opt in to locals' pricing at the times and seats that would otherwise sit empty: bar seating, early evenings, midweek, and off-season.
  • The Town rewards those who take part with things it controls: lower patio and license fees, promotion, and priority in the Town's employee housing master-lease lottery.
  • Affordable space for local-serving businesses. The Town owns commercial space and plans more. Lease some below market to a diner, grocer, or similar business that commits to local pricing.
  • Pay owners to rent to locals. Ketchum, Idaho paid about $3,700 per bedroom to turn vacation rentals into worker housing, with tenants placed within a month or two.
  • Lower food costs through a buying club, co-op, or regular low-cost market day.
  • Make childcare dollars count. The county already collects a dedicated early childhood levy. Report how much reaches families as tuition help.
  • Locals' ski pass pricing as part of the public agreement with the ski company.

Sources: Marketplace on Ketchum, county budget brochure

Who can make these decisions

  • Voluntary local restaurant pricing and food buying clubs/co-ops/market days: participating private owners or organizers; Council decides any public support. No specific participating businesses have been selected.
  • Patio/license incentives, local-serving commercial leases, master-lease priority, and worker-rental incentives: Town Council/Housing Authority as applicable.
  • Dedicated childcare proceeds and tuition-help reporting: County Commissioners direct the county program.
  • Locals’ ski-pass pricing: ski-company ownership must agree; the public body negotiating the related agreement adopts its terms.

Public contacts checked November 10, 2026. A shared office contact is labeled when a direct work address is not confirmed. Public bodies decide collectively, not through one member acting alone.

Telluride Housing Authority

The council members also serve as Housing Authority commissioners; rental-policy decisions belong to the Authority, with Town funding decisions made by Council.

Source: Official directory

San Miguel County Commissioners

Whole board: bocc@sanmiguelcountyco.gov; office: 970-728-3844.

Source: Official directory

Telluride Ski & Golf

  • Chuck Horning, owner — public resort office: info@telski.com; 970-728-6900. Ask for ownership/management correspondence to be forwarded. An individual owner email is not confirmed.

Source: Official directory

Source: Ownership reporting, July 2026

Why it works

These ideas cost little and nobody is forced to join. Restaurants fill empty seats and gain help housing their staff. The Town spends fees and attention, not large sums. And residents get something housing policy alone cannot give them: the feeling that the town they work in is still theirs to enjoy.

Fair questions

  • Is the Town picking favorite restaurants? No. Any business can opt in, and the perks are the same for all who do.

Weigh in

Locals' deals and everyday affordability

Growth with a plan is how a town changes and still recognizes itself.

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