Like many mountain communities, the Town of Silverton is facing pressures stemming from tourism and development.
Silverton is known for its remote location, rugged winters, and tight community of just 700 residents. The mountain town of Silverton, Colorado is known for its remote location, rugged winters, tight community of 700 or so, and short but vital summer tourism season. For a time in 2021, it was also on Fox News as an example of how polarized the nation had become.
That story was documented in a November, 2023 New York Times article, and it happened that Community Builders played a significant role in bringing the town back together. Through the Colorado Brownfields Partnership, Community Builders (CB) initially came to Silverton to assist with the Animas River toxic waste disaster. Many of our rural and mountain communities that share a mining history also share the current pressures of tourism and development. This was the case in Silverton, and CB’s robust civic engagement was a catalyst for dealing with these issues.
The team was well-positioned to continue this work when Silverton became a national headline. Over the next 18 months, CB led over 75 community engagement activities to create the Silverton Compass Master Plan. Through this process, community-led action teams developed specific strategies and actions to strengthen the local economy, address affordable housing, and rebuild the social fabric. By the end of 2022, the plan was adopted by the town trustees and the San Juan Regional Planning Commission, setting a new course for Silverton.
So, how has the Compass Master Plan fared?
The people of Silverton identified a number of goals to focus on over the next 10 years. The town trustees use the goals, strategies, and actions in the Master Plan to guide their work, and continue to hold community-wide events to ensure that all voices are heard. As one member of the community said, “When we don’t give voice to some of our community members, it gives them that perception of, “Maybe I don’t have a say.’”
Implementing an affordable housing program was one of the principal goals of the Master Plan. In 2024, a nascent Silverton Housing Authority with its part-time director came to our Building Better Places training in Glenwood Springs to further develop strategies and resources to fulfill that goal. That group developed an action timeline that included grant applications, creating a board, and community outreach to ensure that available housing options were advertised in town.
The Silverton Housing Authority now has a full-time director overseeing the sale and rental of affordable units. As a result of the original Brownfields program, housing developments such as the Anvil Mountain Subdivision are going up in restored mining sites across town. Just this month, the Town of Silverton put 10 new affordable homes up for sale as part of the Proposition 123 program. [Under Prop 123, passed in Colorado in 2022, communities that opt in must increase their affordable housing supply by three percent annually for three years. Silverton rounded up its commitment to 10% after calculating it needed 10 new affordable homes by the end of 2026.] In doing so, Silverton became the first jurisdiction in the state to fulfill its commitment, and families will begin moving in this spring.
Silverton recently became the first jurisdiction in the State to fulfill its Prop 123 commitment, thanks to the Town’s construction of 10 new affordable housing units.
There are other wins in Silverton as well. Funding is in place for a nature trail system, land and development policies are under review to better reflect long-term goals as outlined in the Compass plan, and additional affordable housing options are coming on line.
Yet perhaps the most important legacy of the Compass Master Plan is that the town came through a period of deep polarization and emerged with a shared vision for the future. As Silverton continues to face growth pressures and economic challenges, it now has a stronger foundation of trust and a clearer path forward.
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