WINTER PARK RESORTS TO CREATIVITY.

• Author: BRONIKOWSKI, LYNN
• Position: Housing development projects - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

IN 2020, the five-county area that hosts many of the ski areas along the Interstate 70 corridor will see nearly 66,000 jobs go unfilled -- partly because of a lack of affordable housing, according to a study of the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments.

In ski towns like Winter Park, the predictions are already coming true.

But townspeople in Winter Park, and in nearby Fraser, as well as county officials and operators of the Winter Park Resort, aren't waiting for someone else to solve their housing problem.

Instead, they are thinking creatively, and taking steps toward solving it sooner rather than later. Here are some examples:

* Tucked away in the Sunspot Lodge at the 10,700-foot summit of Winter Park is an apartment for employees. The same goes for the Snoasis Mid-Mountain Restaurant. Tenants of the units run snowmobiles up and down the mountain to carry groceries home or to commute to work.

* The resort also owns 10 houses with living space for workers. It has converted its hotel in Tabernash into housing units, and it also has turned its VIP House at the base of the mountain over to employees.

* In Fraser, the ski resort pays residents $100 a month to "House a Hire" during the ski season.

"When you have a problem like this, there's a tendency to say, They'll find a solution," said Gary DeFrange, president and chief executive of Winter Park Resort. "But in this community people are saying, we are the They, and we can't sit around and expect the problem to get solved."

Jeff Rozean, general manager of the Iron Horse Resort, said it's no longer enough to offer someone just a job in a resort community:

"The people in today's labor market don't tolerate anything less than a job in which they feel valued," said Rozean. "Housing is very definitely a component of that. If it isn't a good place to work, they move on.

And Winter Park can't afford to let its people go.

"As a community, we're going to be 10 percent to 20 percent short of filling the jobs we'd like to fill in order for our businesses to be fully staffed this season," said Winter Park Mayor Nick Teverbaugh, who operates the 125-unit Beaver Village condominiums.

Taverbaugh is so alarmed by predictions of employee shortages and their impact on Winter Park's economy that he's agreed to chair a 17-member Colorado Municipal League committee on affordable housing. It begins meeting this month.

"We'll even look at potential legislation to deal with the problem," he said. "We certainly...