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Friday, February 11, 2022
The Real Estate Market: January 2022
Thursday, February 10, 2022
Breckenridge Town Council discusses overcrowding as events bring in more visitors
Breckenridge town leaders want to open a conversation about overcrowding after the 2022 International Snow Sculpture Championships led to increased traffic and parking issues over the week of Jan. 24.
Breckenridge Tourism Office President Lucy Kay presented visitor statistics from the event at the Breckenridge Town Council meeting Tuesday, Feb. 8. Overall, fewer people attended the 2022 competition than in 2020, but that doesn’t mean the event didn’t bring in crowds.
Town officials counted 93,627 vehicles driving through Breckenridge throughout the week, which is down 2.7% from the 96,193 cars driving through during the event in 2020. In 2019, when the event caused gridlock traffic that prevented emergency vehicles from getting through town, officials counted 82,729 cars, Kay said. The event was canceled in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mayor Eric Mamula said discussions about events are often frustrating because there are always people who are left displeased.
“During the pandemic, we said we wanted to relook at events, and all we did was get yelled at by people that said we were anti-business,” Mamula said. “Now everybody comes out of the woodwork because it’s too busy.”
Monday, February 07, 2022
Survey: 51% ‘very unlikely’ to use parking reservation system at Quandary and McCullough trailheads
Last summer, Summit County government, the U.S. Forest Service, the Summit County Sheriff’s Office and the town of Breckenridge rushed to implement a couple of measures at the McCullough Gulch and Quandary Peak trailheads in an effort to curb public safety and parking issues.
The program ran from July 30 to Oct. 31, and during that time, hikers could choose to use a parking reservation system at the trailheads or a new shuttle system that picked them up at the Airport Road parking lot near Breckenridge. The team also added additional enforcement measures and more parking spots to accommodate the high demand for both trails, especially Quandary Peak, a 6-mile round trip trail that tops out at 14,247 feet.
Thursday, February 03, 2022
Old highway resurfaces when Dillon Reservoir levels are low
A map of Summit County from around 1955
#breckenridge #colorado #breckenridgerealtor
Under Dillon Reservoir, remnants of infrastructure that once ran the old town of Dillon remain, and once in a while the reservoir is low enough to spot some of these pieces of Summit County history, particularly former pieces of road.
Summit Cove resident Steve Johnson said that when he’s driving over Swan Mountain Road, he can sometimes see pieces of the old U.S. Highway 6 and Colorado Highway 9 routes starting to make an appearance, and in mid-December, he decided to get a closer look. He captured a photo of one of the old highways.
“When the lake gets really low, you see it,” Johnson said. “The striping is still visible, which amazes me.”
Historian Sandra Mather wrote her dissertation at the University of Oregon on the geographical history of Summit County and learned endlessly about the history of the reservoir and what was here before it. She said she was amazed to see striping on the roads when they’d show up from below the reservoir in the 1980s.
Mather said these pieces of road are still under the reservoir because nobody went out of their way to bulldoze or move dirt from these locations as the focus was on the old town of Dillon.
Wednesday, February 02, 2022
2022 is a special ski season for A-Basin, Aspen and Breckenridge. Here’s why.
Two ski areas pioneered by 10th Mountain Division combat veterans in the aftermath of World War II, and another co-founded by a Norwegian who lived under Nazi occupation in his homeland during the war, are observing landmark anniversaries this ski season in Colorado.
Aspen Mountain and Arapahoe Basin Ski Area are celebrating 75 years, while Breckenridge Ski Resort is marking 60. Loveland, Winter Park and Monarch are the only sizable Colorado areas that are older than Aspen and A-Basin. Howelsen Hill, a small skiing complex in Steamboat Springs that has launched dozens of Olympians, began operations in 1915 and is Colorado’s oldest continuously operated ski area.
The late Dick Durrance, a 1936 Olympic ski racer who was Aspen’s general manager from 1947 to 1952, helped start Arapahoe Basin with 10th Mountain veteran Larry Jump and another former ski racer, Sandy Schauffler. A-Basin opened in December 1946 with a single rope tow from midmountain to the summit.
Arapahoe Basin is located at the foot of Loveland Pass on the Summit County side. During its first two decades of operation, the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnels didn’t exist, meaning the quickest way to Summit County was over the pass. Arapahoe Basin grew, but when the first two-lane tunnel bore under the Continental Divide opened in 1973, eliminating the need for westbound skiers to brave the two-lane road over the 11,991-foot pass, Jump sold the area.
A-Basin was Summit County’s only ski area until December 1961, when Breckenridge opened under the name Peak 8. Construction had begun that year on a dam that would create Dillon Reservoir, meaning Summit County was about to become a recreation destination.
Tuesday, February 01, 2022
Storm expected to bring 3-6 inches, below zero temps to Summit County ski areas
Summit County is under a winter weather advisory through midnight Wednesday, Feb. 2.
The heaviest snow is expected in the foothills west of Denver, but Summit County ski areas should pick up 3-6 inches by Thursday morning, according to forecasting site Open Snow.
“Wednesday will likely feature the best turns through at least the first 10 days of February, and the snow quality should be relatively fluffy thanks to the cooling temps during the storm. But do plan to bundle up. Midmountain temps will only top out in the single digits on Wednesday.
In the towns, about 1-3 inches of snow are forecast with high temperatures in the teens Wednesday and Thursday, and overnight lows dipping to below zero those nights, according to the National Weather Service.
A light wind of 8-10 mph will make temperatures feel even colder with a wind chill value of minus 5 Wednesday and minus 9 Wednesday night, according to the Weather Service.
Temperatures will start to warm up Friday with a high of 29 and Saturday with a high of 34.
Without much recent snow, avalanche danger in the Summit County zone was rated as low (1 out of 5) Tuesday and is expected to increase to moderate (2 out of 5) Wednesday, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.
The center cautioned that low avalanche danger does not mean no avalanche danger. Though slides are unlikely, a skier triggered a large slide Sunday, Jan. 30, in the Gore Range.
“Think about the consequences of triggering a large avalanche before riding in steep northerly and east-facing terrain,” the report stated.
Courtesy of the Summit Daily News.
Monday, January 31, 2022
Summit County’s adoptable pets for the week of Jan. 30
Alfie
Call the shelter at 970-668-3230 with questions. The most recent list of animals available for adoption can be found on the shelter’s website
Sunday, January 30, 2022
Wisconsin teams nab multiple podium spots at 31st International Snow Sculpture Championships
The winning sculpture
Winners were announced Friday, Jan. 28, at the awards ceremony held at the Riverwalk Center.
The first-place Wisconsin team was captained by Brett Tomczak and included Jeff Shawhan, Jim Malkowski and Gregory Brulla. Their sculpture, The Digital Divide, depicts two hands — one human and one robotic — coming out of the ground interacting with a wall of binary code in the middle.
“It’s amazing because over the last 12 years, we’ve been here eight times, and of all those times, we got third place once, artist’s choice once — which was really nice — but never first,” Malkowski said. “So we’re really happy about it.”
In second came Team Germany with its sculpture Float. On the team was Franziska Agrawal, Katja Kulenkampff, Gabriela Kulenkampff and Dan Miller-Lionberg.
The abstract piece is made up of five rectangular blocks stacked on top of one another and facing different directions. The work also won the Lothar Luboschik Artists’ Choice Award, meaning it received the most votes from fellow competitors.
The second Wisconsin team won third. Members Mark Hurst, Glen Vogt, Mike Nehs and team captain Neal Vogt constructed a scene of a bee visiting a flower for a sculpture titled Bee Sustainability.
Friday, January 28, 2022
A quick guide to real estate in 2022
The Musical Chairs of Real Estate
BUYER'S MARKET:
In a buyers market, you have 8 chairs and only 5 people playing.
SELLER'S MARKET:
In a seller's market, you have 5 chairs and 8 people playing.
TODAY'S MARKET:
In todays market, you have 2 chairs, 123 players, and 1 chair just got sold.
That sums it up in a nutshell!
Thursday, January 27, 2022
Frisco short-term excise tax approved on 2nd reading
Frisco Town Council approved the ordinance for an excise tax on short-term rentals on second reading Tuesday, Jan. 25. The question on the tax will be on the ballot for the April 5 election.
The ballot language is as follows:
“Whether, commencing June 1, 2022, the Town of Frisco should impose an excise tax of five percent (5%) on the short-term rental of accommodation units as a new tax pursuant to Article X, Section 20 of the Colorado Constitution?”
If passed, the current 10.725% in taxes applied to short-term rentals would increase to 15.725%
Tuesday, January 25, 2022
International Snow Sculpture Championships makes triumphant return this week
The International Snow Sculpture Championships, one of Breckenridge’s most beloved annual events, is making its comeback after the pandemic put it on hold, as was the case with many other traditions.
This week, competitors from around the world can be found in the Tiger Dredge parking lot, next to the Riverwalk Center in Breckenridge, carving their own unique works of art out of massive blocks of Breckenridge snow — each block is 12 feet tall and weighs about 25 tons. Nine teams are competing this year, with three from Wisconsin and one each from Germany, Ecuador, Mexico and New York. There are also two Colorado teams, one of which is from Breckenridge.
Sculpting started Monday, Jan. 24, and will continue all week through 9 a.m. Friday, Jan. 28. The awards ceremony kicks off at 6 p.m. that day at the Riverwalk Center in Breckenridge. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., and proof of vaccination is required for indoor events at the center.
The grand illumination of the sculptures is set for 6:30-10 p.m. Friday, and illuminations will continue nightly from 4:30-10 p.m. until the festival wraps up at 7 p.m. Feb. 2.
Reservations can be made at GoBreck.com
Courtesy of the Summit Daily News.
Monday, January 24, 2022
52-year-old Breckenridge skier ranked on the Freeride World Qualifier circuit hopes to help grow the sport
Breckenridge resident John Spencer may be the oldest guy on the Freeride World Qualifier circuit, but that doesn’t pose a challenge for him.
Instead, the 52-year-old has steadily worked himself up the ranks, landing at 45th overall after the competition season last year.
The Freeride World Qualifiers feed into the 18-rider Freeride World Tour, where the world’s best freeride skiers and snowboarders compete on some of the biggest, most jagged mountains in the world.
Spencer got into the sport close to 11 years ago and has lived in the area for the past 30 years. Spencer has skied since he was a kid back in Michigan, but it was when he moved to Colorado that he started to stack 100-day seasons.
Along the way, Spencer has grown as a skier, learned how to compete at his highest level and even worked his way out of alcoholism.
Sunday, January 23, 2022
Summit County government leaders review latest data after implementing new short-term rental regulations in December
It’s been over a month since Summit County government overhauled its short-term rental program, which left many community members feeling disgruntled about some of the new regulations.
When the Summit Board of County Commissioners voted to install the new regulations they promised community members that they’d continue to gather data and make tweaks as needed once the program takes full effect. They started making good on that promise during a work session meeting on Tuesday, where Summit County Senior Planner Jessica Potter presented the board with the latest data and insights about the new program.
According to a memo produced by Potter, the county has received 63 short-term rental applications since the new program took effect as of Jan. 10. Of that total, 48 applications are based in a neighborhood overlay zone, and 15 are located in a resort zone.
Potter also broke down how her team would be collecting various data points moving forward. This includes tracking the number of active licenses by both week and by month, how many applications for licenses are received per week, a percentage breakout of how many licenses are in resort zones and neighborhood zones, complaints, and breaking out data by neighborhood. Potter also said her team would be tracking home sales and how the use of these properties changes over time.
Potter then gave insight on how enforcement of short-term rental rules and regulations was being handled. This was a point of contention for many community members, especially those living in neighborhood zones. Since the adoption of the new program in December, Potter’s report said there’s been 44 substantiated complaints reported to the short-term rental hotline, 42 of which have been located in neighborhood zones.
Saturday, January 22, 2022
Dillon officials prepare to open up winter recreation activities at Dillon Marina
With the water in Dillon Marina frozen over, it’s time for Dillon officials to get the ice ready for winter recreation activities.
“Based on the success of the lake loop last season, we are really excited that Denver Water and the Dillon Reservoir Recreation Committee approved the town of Dillon to expand our winter offerings out on the reservoir this year,” Dillon marketing and events director Kerstin Anderson said.
Anderson said the loop will look similar to last winter, when the multiuse recreation track was built about 20 feet out onto the lake and marked with bamboo poles every 80 yards or so.
The longer 2-mile route loops individuals around the reservoir and runs along the shoreline from Dillon Marina to the Dillon Nature Preserve, down to Roberts Tunnel and all the way across the lake to Lodgepole Street.
The reservoir trails will accommodate the usual winter staples like snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, fat biking, hiking, ice kiteboarding, ice fishing and ice sailing.
New this year will be a community ice rink, which will be maintained as the weather allows throughout the winter.
Friday, January 21, 2022
Lake Hill Q&A: Summit County residents ask questions about the development going in near Frisco
The Lake Hill workforce housing development project that will be located on the outskirts of Frisco is still years away.
Nevertheless, Summit County and Frisco are continuing to engage the community about its impact as the two entities move forward on next steps.
Currently, the county is working on rezoning the nearly 45-acre property to accommodate what could be a mix of 436 deed-restricted affordable housing unit types. The property was previously zoned as natural resources, and in order to be developed, it has to be rezoned as a planned unit development.
The process began in November, and the county has contracted Norris Design as a planning consultant to prepare the application and facilitate the rezoning process. The goal is to wrap up this stage of the project by February.
Wednesday, January 19, 2022
Breckenridge Town Council not on board with potential e-bike share program
A majority of Breckenridge Town Council members were skeptical of an e-bike share program that was presented at the Tuesday, Jan. 11, meeting, expressing concerns about how the bikes would be used.
Town Sustainability Administrator Teddy Wilkinson said town staff thinks the program is aligned with several town goals, including environmental stewardship and sustainable practices as well as its goal to have more boots and bikes in town than cars.
Wilkinson said the town was awarded a grant from the Colorado Department of Transportation’s multimodal options fund for $420,000 for a feasibility study and subsequent implementation of an e-bike share system. He said the town has about $370,000 left from the grant for implementation and that the start-up could cost around $575,000, with annual operating costs of between $187,000 and $262,000 a year.
Representatives from Alta, the firm that conducted the feasibility study, presented their findings and suggestions to council. The system would allow folks to take an e-bike from a designated bike hub and ride it to a destination around town. The bike then would be left for someone else to potentially use at a different hub or spot around town. The first 30 minutes would be free, and then folks would be charged $5 a minute to keep the bike after that, unless they’re in the local workforce, a student or low income, in which case they’d be charged $1 a minute.
Alta representative Libby Nachman said the purpose of the fee is to encourage the bikes to be used only for transportation purposes — like getting to and from work or running errands — as opposed to recreational use. For that purpose, folks would be encouraged to go to a local bike shop. Nachman said the system works best for one-way trips and added that she sees it complementing other transit services in town like Breck Free Ride.
Sunday, January 16, 2022
Frisco Town Council approves short-term rental excise tax ordinance on 1st reading
An excise tax on short-term rentals moves one step closer to appearing on the April ballot. Frisco Town Council approved the ordinance for the tax on first reading Tuesday, Jan. 11.
After discussing the excise tax — which is a tax imposed on goods, services or activities — in November, the originally proposed 7.5% tax has been lowered to a 5% tax. It is estimated to generate between $1.2 million and $1.5 million in additional revenue each year that would be used for workforce housing programs, supplementing 5A revenue.
“I want to ensure you that we are not looking purely to short-term rentals to fund workforce housing,” council member Melissa Sherburne said. “What we’re looking to do is to help offset the problem short-term rentals have created in our local housing landscape. … Workforce housing is an age-old problem in mountain towns — has been for decades.”
Adding a new 5% excise tax to the current 10.725% in taxes applied to short-term rentals brings the total tax to 15.725%. To compare, Crested Butte has the highest short-term rental tax among mountain towns at 20.9%. Avon has a 14.4% tax, Vail is 10.3%, Breckenridge is 12.275%, Dillon is 10.875%, and Silverthorne is 10.375%. Breckenridge’s figure does not include the bedroom license fee, and Silverthorne is proposing a 4% incremental increase to the lodging tax.
Wednesday, January 12, 2022
Breckenridge opens Imperial Express, highest lift in North America
After picking up a surprise 6 inches over the weekend, Breckenridge Ski Resort announced Sunday, Jan. 9, that Imperial Express SuperChair is open for the season with access to Imperial Bowl and Imperial Ridge.
Serving in-bounds terrain above 12,800 feet, the Imperial Express is the highest chairlift in North America. The move means the resort now has 65% of its terrain open.
The lift opened once the resort had tallied 136 inches on the season. Last season, the lift opened Feb. 19 when the resort had 173 inches of snow. In the 2019-20 season, it opened Dec. 20, when there was 131 inches of total season snowfall at Breckenridge.
Tuesday, January 11, 2022
Be Careful Out There
Two snowshoers who were killed in an avalanche Saturday, Jan. 8, on Hoosier Pass have been identified as Hannah Nash, 25, and Drake Oversen, 35, of Colorado Springs, according to the Summit County coroner.
The pair died along with their dog, Valerie, after they were caught and buried in an avalanche they triggered while snowshoeing near North Star Mountain. The cause of death was listed as blunt force trauma and asphyxiation, according to the coroner.
The slide broke about 10 feet deep, 400 feet wide and ran about 250 vertical feet.
Ethan Greene said the avalanche danger was rated considerable (3 out of 5) in the Summit County area on the day the snowshoers died, and the location where the avalanche occurred near North Star Mountain was exposed terrain where avalanches are more common. He said the area was a wind-loaded, near-treeline slope that also happened to be facing northeast, making it particularly high risk for an avalanche.
Friday, January 07, 2022
The magic and science of snowflakes
Snow is, of course, also essential to our rivers and water supply. The 40 million people in the Colorado River basin, and the vast agricultural network that we take for granted when we shop for groceries, depend on winter snowpack. Summit snow fills reservoirs with essential spring and summer water.
We hear a lot about how many inches of powder we can expect, and we plan our days around those predictions. But how many snowflakes actually fall in these storms? Many billions of these spectacular crystals create a snowfall. One pound of snow has an average of 22,400 snowflakes. And each snow crystal is an incredible work of science and art.
How do these spectacular snow crystals form? Snow crystals generally are hexagonal (six-sided) due to the way they form. And they’re not frozen raindrops (those are sleet). Snow crystals appear when water vapor converts directly into ice without going through a liquid state. Water molecules in ice crystals join together in a hexagonal structure because it is the most efficient way. After the crystals form a small hexagonal plate, branches sprout from the six corners as the crystal grows larger and more complex.
Courtesy of the Summit Daily News
Thursday, January 06, 2022
Front-line workers struggle to enforce mask mandate as some people refuse to comply
Front-line workers in restaurants, retail stores and public transit are finding themselves once again tasked with enforcing a mask mandate and taking the brunt of criticism from those who don’t comply.
Summit County Commissioner Elisabeth Lawrence said she’s heard from many who are concerned about seeing a lack of compliance at big-box stores and was shocked herself to see more than half of people in one such store without a mask.
“We are not trying to put front-line workers in a confrontational situation,” Lawrence said. “I think a lot of them have a lot of trauma from the last year and a half of that sort of thing, and that was not our intention. We’re hoping to gain compliance through education.”
Tim Jones is a bus driver with Breck Free Ride, and while public transit has required masking throughout the pandemic, he said he ended up in an altercation with a rider who refused to put on a mask after being asked multiple times.
Jones said the rider threatened him after he repeatedly asked the rider to put on a mask. Jones said that while he was reporting the incident over his radio, the rider came up and shoved him, and the police were called.