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Letter: East Vail saga lands in court

“Saga” indeed! I’ve watched with interest, the twists and turns this developer has attempted to navigate over the past several years and am amazed that the citizens of Vail and the government officials have not accepted responsibility for creating this spectacle.

It’s unfortunate that the Town Council hasn’t acknowledged responsibility for de-prioritizing the importance of creating affordable housing over the relentless protests of the project’s neighbors. I’ve previously served on the Montgomery County, Maryland, Planning Board (with a population of over 1 million); the county’s “Housing Opportunity Commission” and was co-chair of the Annual Affordable Housing Conference. I can attest categorically that the responsibility for this mess lies squarely at the feet of the governmental officials who talk a good game about the importance of affordable and workforce housing but lack the courage to buck special interest citizens and organizations when they should act in the broader public interest.

I’ve heard every conceivable excuse as to why a particular affordable housing project is inappropriate for a particular location, but protecting grazing land for bighorn sheep, neighboring a major interstate highway, is a new one that I can add to my list. My wife’s a pilot and does frequent dog rescue flights out of the Eagle County airport, and when I fly with her I’m amazed at the hundreds of thousands of acres of undeveloped land outside of the Vail Valley where many lakes, rivers, and grazing land exists undisturbed by civilization and major highways.



There certainly must be safer places for bighorn sheep to graze. I’ll admit that I’m not directly affected by what Vail does with its taxpayer money, but perhaps they shouldn’t play up the importance of affordable housing when they lack the gumption to stand up to NIMBY opposition. It’s disingenuous for Vail leaders to preach for compromise when their solution is to just say “no” to the best housing solutions. Affordable housing benefits everyone in the Vail Valley after all.

Norman Dreyfuss
Edwards


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