A 2019 report from the Telluride Town Clerk’s office to the town council shows the number of STRs increasing from 382 in 2010 to 643 in 2019. This year, the Town Clerk’s office reports more than 700 licenses.
The problem with STRs is something a few women of Telluride have taken on themselves. They created an initiative that would put a cap on the number of STR licenses within town limits at 400. They are proposing an annual lottery system as a way to distribute the licenses with some exceptions, including if someone’s primary residence is in Telluride. Because of that, the creators of the initiative believe the real number of STRS will be something close to 550 or 600.
For Emily Scott Robinson and Lollie Lavercombe, this measure targeting STRs is an action that must be taken to save the town.
“Building takes time and money and people who want to back it. We can’t just build our way out of this and that takes time,” said Lavercombe. “Ultimately an unregulated Short-Term Rental market is impacting our community.”
Lavercombe has experienced the affordable housing crisis and its implications first hand. She works in a restaurant in town and said they’re incredibly short-staffed.
“We have 122 shifts available throughout the entire summer,” explained Lavercombe. “We are relying on such a small network of locals to uphold a demand that has far exceeded its capacity to support the quality of service “
Lavercombe and Scott Robinson say the impact is reaching other critical services too, like schools, health care and the fire department. They remember at least one story recently of a nurse who was offered a job at the medical center but had to turn it down because she couldn’t find housing.
“We’ve passed the breaking point,” Scott Robinson said with conviction. “What we think will happen if there’s no control over this is that Telluride will feel more and more like a ghost town because businesses will have to close their doors because they can’t staff.”
They both understand there is some worry in the real estate community, but they believe this is a compromise and isn’t completely shutting down the STR market.
“We cannot ask the fox to guard the hen house. We cannot necessarily ask people with direct profit from an unfettered short-term rental market to regulate themselves because the truth is they have not,” said Scott Robinson.
Their initiative has garnered enough signatures for it to begin the process of being included on the November ballot. The next step is a public comment hearing on August 24.
Scott Robinson and Lavercombe are confident it will move forward and hope people realize some immediate action needs to be taken to address the problem.
“Yes, this is happening and we are going to do something that protects community and investment profits,” said Lavercombe. “We have to move with actionable solutions, and a lot of other communities are stepping up and we are too.”
As far as more long-term solutions, the town of Telluride does have an advantage over other mountain towns since it has been a ski town for years.
“Like all ski towns, housing was always hard to find,” said Lance McDonald, the program director for the town. “Even back in the late 80s. I remember looking at an old housing study that indicated the average rent for a one bedroom unit in Telluride in the early 90s was approximately $1,000 a month, which at that time was unaffordable to a lot of folks.”
McDonald is the program director for the town and has been involved with the town’s planning since the late 80s, when he moved to Telluride. He reflects back on the housing situation over the years compared to now.
“The housing in Telluride is as tight as it [has] been. Certainly we’ve seen past periods where housing has become acute, but this situation we’re in now is definitely at the high end of that scale,” said McDonald.
He explains the town has invested $65 million in construction of new housing since 2000 and plans to keep going on that track. In July, Telluride Town Council adopted a plan which guides future development on town property. It identified housing sites for approximately 450 to 600 housing units that could be pursued during the next 10 to 20 years.
Currently, the town has two—soon to be three—housing projects in the design phase, but officials have yet to decide if those will be deed-restricted or not.
There are also other issues at play and will present problems in the future, like the cost of land and building in the area. Similar to other mountain towns Rocky Mountain PBS has covered recently, the motivation for a developer to build affordable housing in Telluride is low. The cost is too high and the reward isn’t worth it for many private companies.
So Levek, like others, believe the federal and state governments need to provide more support. But in the end, she thinks the only way out of this crisis is if everyone starts paying attention and acting.
“I think there’s a role for philanthropy, there’s a role for private developers as well as the government,” Levek said. “I think we need to figure out how we can all work together on it.”
Amanda Horvath is a multimedia producer with Rocky Mountain PBS. You can reach her at amandahorvath@rmpbs.org.