Summit County hometowns: cities built for permanent residents.

• Author: Titus, Stephen
• Position: Who Owns Colorado?

SKIING MAY BE THE FIRST THING THAT COMES TO MIND when you hear the names Dillon, Silverthorne and Frisco, but they are not ski areas. They are year-round towns, the heart of Summit County's full-time populace.

So while surrounding resorts like Breckenridge, Keystone and Copper Mountain attract skiers, Dillon, Silverthorne and Frisco are the biggest draws for an increasing number of permanent residents in Summit County.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Most of the county's new residential developments, like Main Street Lodge and Three Peaks, are high-end communities geared toward second-home owners or more affluent retired locals. Three Peaks, which for a decade has been developed by the omnipresent Intrawest Corp., takes aim at these affluent prospective residents with hundreds of high-dollar homes scattered in the hills above Silverthorne just west of Interstate 70.

Town planners say that even after 10 years, the Three Peaks project continues to roll forward with about 40 new homes built in the past four years. Elsewhere in the area, along with a few residential projects, the region has seen some important civic improvements installed over the past few years: a new elementary school on the north edge of Silverthorne, an improved marina facility in Frisco and plans for a new $50 million hospital that will serve the entire county.

According to research by Summit County officials, the county's permanent population has nearly doubled in 12 years, from 12,854 residents in 1990 to 25,552 residents in 2002--an annual growth rate of 6 percent.

The fastest growing age group, according to the study, is the 45-to-64 range, which increased from 1,635 in 1990 to 5,244 in 2002, a 10.2 percent annual growth rate. Not surprisingly, the largest--and wealthiest--of the bunch are second-home owners, who are expected to top 115,000 by 2010. It is this group that is driving sales at the Three Peaks project in Silverthorne.

"The demographics in general, the baby boomers who are coming of age, are the people who are buying this," said Jon Clark, director of sales at Three Peaks. "I think a large majority--60 percent--are from the Front Range and maybe 40 percent are from the Midwest and all the way to the East Coast."

Clark added that sales at Three Peaks were slow in 2001 and 2002, but that changed last year, and several new custom homes are being built in his project.

Based on the number of new projects coming across planners' desks in Summit County and its three...