911 calls are never ignored, but sorting out which alerts from Apple iPhone 14s and watches are real is “a tremendous drain” on resort town resources.
Summit County
Posted inOpinion Columns
Opinion: Housing wins elections and Latinos need better housing
That’s a politically potent combination, but it requires broadening access to people who don’t fit the traditional molds.
Posted inHousing
Western Slope voters overwhelmingly passed taxes on short-term rentals to fund affordable housing
Colorado’s Western Slope communities could generate about $40 million in new tax revenue from vacation rentals to support affordable housing
Posted inElection 2022
Voters across Colorado’s high country will weigh in on new taxes on short-term rentals, affordable housing proposals
As many as 14 Colorado municipalities and counties will ask voters next month to increase or repurpose taxes on short-term rental properties — offered on sites by Airbnb and Vrbo — to help fund affordable housing
Posted inClimate, News
Summit Stage gets $35 million federal grant for electric bus operations center that will serve ski country
Summit Stage, the transit lifeline linking ski areas, workers and mountain towns in three counties, will get nearly $35 million from the federal infrastructure law to build an electric bus operations center and edge toward Summit County climate change goals. It’s the largest federal grant Summit County has ever seen, and funds most of the […]
Posted inClimate, News
Can Copper Mountain do something about climate change using its own slopes?
Ski area officials in the West know they will lose up to 25% more of their snowpack between now and 2050, after suffering through 20% losses already in a decadeslong drought. Through snowmaking from local river water and isolated geographic luck, Colorado ski areas have managed so far to avoid devastating impacts from climate change […]
Posted inBusiness, Housing, News
Buying frenzy slows but home prices remain sky-high in Colorado mountain towns
The blistering pace of home sales in Colorado’s mountain communities is slowing. Finally. After sales volume and prices more than doubled in Colorado’s high country valleys between 2019 and 2021, the number of home sales in six Colorado mountain counties declined through May compared with the same period in 2021. And while prices remain sky-high, […]
Posted inBusiness, Housing, News
Colorado high country commissioners blast Airbnb report that disconnects short-term rentals from housing crisis
A group of 15 commissioners from seven mountain counties is blasting a recent study commissioned by short-term rental giant Airbnb that dismissed the idea that short-term rentals are eroding worker housing in Colorado’s high country. “Airbnb narrowly focused on positive impacts, and facts appear selected to craft a story that is not entirely true, especially […]
Posted inNews
PHOTOS: Summit County torches 400 acres of beetle-kill ahead of wildfire season
SUMMIT COUNTY — The men stomp through the snow, snaking torches into stacks of timber and sparking flames. Soon, thin wisps of smoke turn dense and dark as orange flames lick the 10-foot tall piles of dead trees. Dozens of bonfires begin melting growing rings of snow, sending smoke high above Summit County last week. […]
Posted inNews, Outdoors, Outsider
Record high calls for help are stressing Colorado’s mountain firefighters, emergency responders
There are more people living in their vacation homes in Colorado’s resort communities. There are more people visiting and staying in short-term rental homes. “But it’s a challenge to quantify any of this,” said Jake Andersen, deputy chief of operations for the Aspen Fire Protection District. Fire chiefs like Andersen can gauge one impact of […]