Like many resort towns in the Mountain West, Vail, Colorado, is facing an acute
affordable housing crisis
.
The problem is that the very rich liberals who live in resort towns need servants to cook their meals, clean their homes, and operate the lifts on the ski slopes. These servants all need to live somewhere, but part of the allure of resort towns is the pristine wilderness that surrounds them.
SOARING MORTGAGE RATES ADD TO BIDEN MIDTERM HEADACHES
We can’t have apartment buildings for the poor spoiling the rustic mountain aesthetic.
To preserve Vail’s natural beauty, the town adopted an “Open Lands Plan” in 1994 to “identify and develop strategies for acquiring or protecting key remaining open lands in Vail that would be valuable for recreation, protecting sensitive environmental resources.”
The plan requires annual updates that include cataloging every parcel of land in the town and the surrounding areas and identifying who owns it. In 2016, just such a review revealed that 24 acres of land near Interstate 70 that everyone thought belonged to the Colorado Department of Transportation actually belonged to Vail Resorts, the private company that operates the town’s ski resort.
Vail Resorts was desperate to provide housing for its workforce, so it developed a plan to turn 5.4 acres of that 24 acres into dorms for employees. Initially, the town of Vail was supportive of the plan until it came under pressure from Vail’s residents.
“First, our wildlife is important to the character and attractiveness of this valley, not the least of which are the sheep,” one public comment submitted to the town read. “Second, the first view of Vail that visitors and residents coming down from Vail pass should see is the current one, not a massive and out of place apartment complex.”
The sheep that the commenter referred to is a herd of bighorn sheep that are known to graze on the existing 24 acres of undeveloped land. Colorado Parks and Wildlife conducted a study finding the herd would not be significantly harmed by the new housing, but that isn’t good enough for the residents of Vail, who only have the sheep’s best interests in mind.
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Vail Mayor Kim Langmaid has accused Vail Resorts of contradicting its corporate goal of having “zero net impact” on the environment. And she has instituted procedures to use the power of eminent domain to seize the property from Vail Resorts.
The residents of Vail are going to have to make a choice: Either they can have affordable housing for their workforce and the sheep will have to find a new hill to graze on, or housing will only get more expensive.
Unfortunately, if the past is any indication, higher home prices will win.
