KINGS BEACH, Calif. – On Friday’s Lunch and Learn hosted by the Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation (TTCF), mountain town representatives from Colorado, Idaho and Wyoming spoke about their successes and lessons in housing.

The three speakers were Jason Dietz, director of housing for the town of Vail, Colorado; April Norton, director of Jackson and Teton County’s affordable housing department in Wyoming; and Carissa Connelly, housing director for city of Ketchum and Blain County Housing Authority in Idaho. Each of the speakers acknowledged how mountain town living and housing differs from most places, and the unique challenges faced by tourism impacts, weather and construction.

Dietz spoke first to the success of deed restriction in Vail through the Vail InDEED program, which was established in 2017. To date, the program has produced 175 units that average about 20% below market rate. He highlighted Timber Ridge Village and West Middle Creek, two properties that utilize public and private partnerships, including partnership with Habitat for Humanity. West Middle Creek, which broke ground about a month ago, will have a longer build time, as much of the buildable property is on a slope—a real consideration for mountain towns. The two properties provide over 600 units of housing to the community.

Dietz concluded by talking about policy innovations of creating community housing zone districts, which fast-track entitlements and make it easier to facilitate housing development throughout the town.

The next speaker was April Norton, a self-described data nerd who spoke about the changes made over time to the housing plan for Jackson and Teton County. The two counties had a goal of 65% workforce housing, and 2024 was a record year for them, providing 288 people with housing through three different properties. Like Tahoe, Norton spoke about the higher population of commuters and an increase in vacant houses, which was also indicated through increases in industries like construction and real estate that support vacancies.

Norton went on to speak about the need for not only a housing supply, but a type of supply—deed-restricted housing. Currently, about 1,700 properties there are deed-restricted and in 2024, 63% of the new units they created were deed-restricted. The county also created housing incentives, helping to streamline building permits, allowing accessory dwelling units (ADUs), and creating density bonus tools.

Norton also highlighted their focus on aging in place and retirees, which tied in with their work in increasing accessibility. She acknowledged how hard it is to age in a mountain town, and their work to provide microloans for accessible, affordable housing was part of their effort to help both disabled populations of all ages and seniors. “It’s a shift for us, because we’ve been so focused on workforce housing, but how do we ensure that these people who have lived in our community for a long time can stay here as long as they want?” asked Norton.

Lastly, Connelly spoke to housing in Ketchum and Blaine County in Idaho, which also had a Lease to Locals program. Through the Housing Authority’s efforts to create affordable housing, they’ve done land use analysis, created programs like the ownership and preservation program and also implemented Lease to Locals programs—though in their case, the counties are winding them down because they’ve saturated the market. Instead, they’re pivoting to a rental preservation program, similar to programs in the Tahoe Basin.

Unlike in other areas, these counties cannot do inclusionary zoning or create impact fees, instead choosing to implement density bonus incentives in their community cores. Connelly highlighted the importance of having entities or groups that could help manage deed covenants, facilitate sales and compliance, as well as help people apply for deed-restricted housing. She cited TTCF’s programs as an inspiration for how they did countywide engagement, including their education and speaker programs.

Connelly also spoke about the need for exploring how to serve protected classes and marginalized populations in housing, giving examples of disabled people, families, and Hispanic people, who often did not choose to live in the area for various reasons, including the high prices.

These different solutions offered another perspective on what the Tahoe-Truckee region could focus on in housing solutions in the future.

The next Lunch and Learn is about preparing for wildfire and will take place on July 11.

Eli Ramos is a reporter for Tahoe Daily Tribune. They are part of the 2024–26 cohort of California Local News Fellows through UC Berkeley.