Vail Town Council condemns affordable workforce housing project in favor of bighorn sheep

An army of Vail employees were present at the meeting on Tuesday to support the development. Photo: Town of Vail

VAIL, Colo. — In a 4-3 vote on Tuesday night, the Vail Town Council moved to condemn a parcel where Vail Resorts plans to build 165 affordable workforce housing units for $17 million, according to the Colorado Sun.

The resolution gives the town the ability to seize the 23-acres and prevent any development, primarily because of bighorn sheep.

“Please make the decision to protect the bighorn sheep herd and move forward to find other options for affordable housing in the Vail Valley. The sheep have to have this. They can’t go anywhere else,” Terry Meyers, the executive director of the Rocky Mountain Bighorn Society, told the council on Tuesday.

The parcel was approved for the project in 2019, but construction was later paused due to the pandemic.

In a statement released after the meeting, Bill Rock, the chief operating officer for Vail Resorts’ Rocky Mountain Region, said the company “will vigorously defend our right to go forward with this project.”

He called the council’s move “a complete reversal of their actions of just two years ago.”

Former Vail council member Jenn Bruno, who voted to approve the project several years ago, questioned the elected officials’ intentions. “What public is being referenced? It’s not the workers,” Bruno told the council Tuesday. “We are in a housing crisis that is affecting not only our guest experiences but the very make-up of our community.”

“The Town of Vail has not attempted to block any of the new home construction, or condemn any of the more than 100 luxury homes, in the same sheep habitat,” Rock said. “It is unprecedented for a municipality to use the power of eminent domain to block affordable housing.”