A Longer Gondola Season and a Full Afternoon in the Village

The gondola: same gap this fall, longer season next year

Last week we called October 26 to November 20 the commute problem. It still is. But on October 9 the Town of Mountain Village and the Telluride Mountain Village Owners Association (TMVOA) announced a longer schedule, with TMVOA paying for the extra weeks.

As posted: last day of fall service Sunday, October 25, 2026. Winter service November 20 through April 4, 2027. Summer 2027 May 20 through October 24, a week earlier than the usual Thursday-before-Memorial-Day opening and a week later than the usual close.

Mayor Scott Pearson called the earlier opening “a real boost for our local businesses.” Also for crews who would rather ride than drive the switchbacks in May.

Town Council: a long Thursday

Mountain Village Town Council met Thursday, October 15, at 2 p.m., with an agenda posted to run until 6:25. Outcomes were not posted when we wrote this. Four items to know about:

• A town manager. An employment agreement with Michael Bouchard, chosen after a national search. He runs Denver’s Office of the National Western Center and its $1.6 billion redevelopment, and starts January 1, 2027.
• The gondola replacement. A fourth supplement to the cost-sharing agreement for the planning budget, this time for 2027. The dollar figure is in the packet, which we could not open this week. We’ll check.
• The Ridge view plane. A memorandum of understanding with San Miguel County and the Ridge at Telluride Homeowners’ Association on how the Ridge view plane is interpreted. If you own on the Ridge, this decides what your roofline can do.
• Housing Authority fees. Second reading of the ordinance moving fee amounts out of the municipal code, and the 2027 fee schedules, including Village Court Apartments rents.

The Design Review Board (DRB) still meets next on Thursday, November 5, at 10 a.m. No agenda yet, and no October 1 minutes, so the fifteen employee apartments at 306 Adams Ranch Road remain unconfirmed.

The county starts on its housing code

On Thursday, October 8, the San Miguel County Planning Commission and the Board of County Commissioners held a joint work session on housing code updates: zoning, cottage housing, cohousing and code definitions, as the Daily Planet reported. The work grew out of the East End Master Plan, and its stated purpose is to make housing easier to build, not to study the need again.

If you have a county lot outside the two towns, watch this one. “Cottage housing” and “cohousing” are the definitions that decide whether a second small house fits on a parcel. No next date was reported; we’ll check.

Telluride: dockets unchanged, a vacancy number, the Comp Plan

We could not reread the town’s public-notice pages this week, so the dockets are as of our October 8 reading: the same four items before the Historic and Architectural Review Commission (HARC) on October 21, among them 214 S. Fir, 448 Tomboy, 785 Primrose and Shandoka, and the same three before Planning & Zoning (P&Z) on October 22, including the Shandoka preliminary PUD (planned unit development). Check the town’s pages before you drive down.

Two things did move. On October 6, Town Council heard housing updates, and Town Manager Zoe Dohnal put the vacancy rate for town-owned rentals at 19 percent. The town holds information sessions on October 21 to help with housing applications.

And the Comprehensive Plan update is in Phase 2. Four focus groups met September 30 and October 1, with a pop-up at the Oak Street gondola plaza. Phase 3 brings public hearings; the town expects to finish in winter 2027.

Eight miles of trail

On October 2 the Telluride Mountain Club announced Forest Service approval for roughly 8 miles of new trail and 5.5 miles of rehabilitation, a $2 million program over three to five years. First is the Mountain Village to Valley Floor Connector, 1.8 miles from the Village down to the Valley Floor, aiming to open by late summer 2027. The Alpine Club, TMVOA and San Miguel Power Association have put in more than $180,000.

The Horror Show runs this weekend, October 16 to 18. Then the quiet.

What this means on a job site

• The fall gondola gap is unchanged. October 26 to November 19, crews split between the two towns are driving. Next spring, a May 20 gondola is a May 20 commute.
• Mid-October is the concrete line. Footings not in and protected by month’s end usually wait for May.
• Know your view plane. On the Ridge, read the MOU before you sketch a roof. In the county, watch the cottage and cohousing definitions before you assume a second structure fits.

If any of this touches a lot or a house of yours, the office number is on every page of this site, and Ricky and Nick have sat through more of these meetings than they will admit.