Sky-Hi News sent out a questionnaire to the candidates running for the town council seats so voters could better understand their opinions and positions on relevant topics. Here are their responses. The candidates appear in alphabetical order.

The Winter Park municipal election takes place April 2.

Art Ferrari

What do you think are the biggest challenges the town faces?

Workforce housing shortage, insufficient medical and mental health services, fast pace of development and how to manage it.

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What are your main goals if elected as council member?

Increase the stock of workforce housing and increase the environmental efficiency of all town assets.

What do you think are the biggest challenges for managing tourism in Winter Park?

Minimizing the environmental impact by encouraging public transport, efficient use of water, power and other resources. 

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How would you approach taxes, if elected?

Only increase taxes when there is strong support from the community.  Equitably balance the type of taxes between residents and visitors.

How will you ensure responsible development that balances the needs of residents and visitors?

Require development projects to include public amenities accessible to our residents. Also, thru fees, taxes or other means ensure that development pays for the short and long term impacts to the community.

Jeremy Henn

What do you think are the biggest challenges the town faces?

Capacity: Continue providing quality services to our residents as visitor and second homeowner populations increase. Growth: Responsibly balancing development while not compromising what makes Winter Park special. Equity: Ensuring Winter Park isn’t bearing the majority of the burden for services that benefit our region as a whole.

What are your main goals if elected as council member?

I will continue to put a focus on affordable housing to help residents and local businesses, ensuring Development is responsible, sustainable and equitable, and supporting existing and creating new infrastructure to serve our residents and guests. Please visit, HennJen.com for more details.

What do you think are the biggest challenges for managing tourism in Winter Park?

Winter Park has a tourism based economy and we are reliant on year round visitors. Balancing the needs of our residents and businesses with ever increasing visitor and second homeowner populations is our biggest challenge. Please visit, HennJen.com for more details.

How would you approach taxes, if elected?

Taxes are voted on and approved/denied by the voters of Winter Park – the voters direct council on how to approach taxes. We currently have the highest tax rate in Colorado and in my opinion, that puts a burden on local residents and businesses. 

How will you ensure responsible development that balances the needs of residents and visitors?

Over the past four years, council has consistently negotiated with developers to ensure the needs of residents and the town are met when approving new projects (affordable housing, fees, open space, connectivity, etc.) limiting the impact to residents as best as possible. I’m proud of that work and will continue that effort. 

Jennifer Hughes  

What do you think are the biggest challenges the town faces?

Lack of affordable housing, responsible growth management, ensuring we have the resources and infrastructure to accommodate our residence and second homeowner population. Visit HennJen.com for more information.

What are your main goals if elected as council member?

My focus will continue to be working as a town and collaboratively with our partners to continue to create more affordable housing. Working to ensure that growth is responsible and equitable. Supporting existing and creating new infrastructure to serve our residents and guests, focusing on working together with neighboring municipalities and the county (for example, the formation of a Regional Transportation Authority).  

What do you think are the biggest challenges for managing tourism in Winter Park?

The Town of Winter Park’s economy is based off of tourism. Balancing the needs of our residents and businesses with increasing visitor and our second home owner populations is our biggest challenge. Visit HennJen.com for more information. 

How would you approach taxes, if elected?

The voters give council direction on how to approach taxes, as they are voted on by the voters of Winter Park. 

How will you ensure responsible development that balances the needs of residents and visitors?

In the last four years, council has worked together in negotiating with developers with a focus on the needs of the residence and the town. Some of the things that we have been able to negotiate in developer agreements are affordable housing fees, open space and connectivity. All of this was done with the mindset of limiting the impact to residence as a result of these new developments. I believe that the continuity of the current council will be important to ensuring responsible development that balances the needs of residence and visitors.

William MacDonald

What do you think are the biggest challenges the town faces?

Other Colorado ski towns have created a superior ratio of residents to housing units when compared to Winter Park. Introducing a middle and high school to the Fraser Valley will rectify this disparity and guide us towards becoming a more permanent community in lieu of commuters and transients.

Our commercial property taxes pose a significant obstacle to the much needed development of commercial spaces.

Identifying an alternative and safer route to the Front Range through a tunnel presents a formidable challenge. Although advancements in technology have made tunnel construction safer and financially feasible, its implementation will intensify divisions within our local communities. While such a project could be 10-40 years away and has minimal conversations at present, proactive planning and community engagement are essential to navigate all significant changes effectively.

With Denver increasingly acquiring water rights from the headwaters, our region faces escalating fire risks. To mitigate this threat and ensure the availability of insurance coverage for our homes, substantial measures must be taken to lower our wildfire risk ratings.

What are your main goals if elected as council member?

Assist the acquisition and development of land for a middle and high school, and affordable housing in the Fraser valley.

Incentivize the the utilization of our existing houses to allow more tourism and more permanent residents by evolving our partnership with the resort and rec center and other key assets to offer passes to second homeowners to provide long term rentals or make Winter Park their home.

Create a second tier of vacation rentals to allow up to 30 nights of short-term rental a year to increase utilization and revenue and further enable locals to continue to be locals.

What do you think are the biggest challenges for managing tourism in Winter Park?

Let’s improve resident and tourist relations by incentivizing “rest” devices that automatically notify guests when they are being loud.

Lodging availability and affordability is by far the biggest variable in attracting tourism and should receive the most help in policy improvements to make it easy and safe for second homes to transition into short-term rentals (STRs).The more we enable second homes to transition the more tourism we will receive, while bringing the profitability of STRs in line with revenue of long-term rentals and the more we’ll see organic long-term rental supply increases.

By implementing a clear accessory dwelling unit (ADU) policy and facilitating connections between homeowners, lenders and builders, we can boost housing utilization and supply organically.

We need to work with the state as they roll out its state insurance policy to be able to offer commercial insurance premiums for STRs or we risk our ability to offer many STRs that enable tourism.  

Foster community interaction from the start of major site developments and policy changes to get our community invested in improvements from the beginning instead of creating division at the end of the process.

Incentivize developments to create HOA bylaws that rewards improved utilization of housing units.

How would you approach taxes, if elected?

Some of our taxes have inadvertently hampered our community’s growth. The increased taxation has directly correlated with a slowdown in housing demand. Particularly, our local sales tax, which is notably high, serves as a deterrent to long-term residents. Additionally, the recent hike in lodging taxes has discouraged the utilization of second homes as vacation rentals, ultimately impacting tourism revenue. Furthermore, development fees have deterred much needed development and resulted in lost revenue opportunities in the long term.

In contrast, our transfer tax has proven to be a valuable source of income for affordable housing initiatives, with minimal unintended consequences. To maximize its effectiveness, we could leverage this revenue stream to acquire land in Fraser for the establishment of a middle school and high school.

Additionally, we can use these funds to design, approve and partner with developers to build out parcels with permitted plans, ensuring fair profit margins. This approach mirrors the successful model employed in the acquisition and construction of the bus depot in Fraser and the creation of Victoria Village. We can facilitate the fulfillment of both our housing and community needs with little to no long-term cost to Winter Park.

How will you ensure responsible development that balances the needs of residents and visitors?

Many acclaimed master plans, including our own, advocate for higher density development in and around town centers while minimizing growth in rural areas. This strategy promotes overall happiness, strengthens community connections, enhances infrastructure efficiency, and reduces crime and traffic congestion. I firmly support development that fosters socioeconomic diversity. Encouraging the construction of smaller housing units and increasing unit counts in our downtown area will provide affordability for residents.

Clearly defined inclusionary zoning benefits for developers are essential to stimulate necessary growth across all income brackets. I advocate for an alternative tier of affordable housing that offers the benefits of affordability without compromising developers’ profits. This can be achieved by implementing requirements within homeowner associations (HOAs) to ensure a limited percentage of properties are designated as vacation rentals, while also mandating that the remaining housing units be owner-occupied or long-term rented for most of the year to qualify as affordable housing.

This approach, successfully employed in several cities, involves increasing the monthly HOA dues of short-term rentals and utilizing the additional income to further reduce

Michael Periolat

What do you think are the biggest challenges the town faces?

Resort towns all over the world face the biggest challenge of affordable/attainable housing. Working to keep the local community thriving in a resort town is vital to a town’s character and success. The Town of Winter Park and Winter Park Resort have made great progress over the last 20 years to address this issue. It should remain one of the town’s (and county’s) top priorities.

Traffic and pedestrian movement are also a big challenge. Fortunately the Town of Winter Park is surrounded by national forests and open space, which is also a major factor in polarizing our traffic and congestion. Transit systems and parking should always be in or top priorities. Improving what we have and creating new.

What are your main goals if elected as council member?

While I’d like to blurt out “community housing,” the truth is managing the town budget and resources through changing times is most important. Housing has clearly been a passion and priority of mine over my 20 years on the council, but many times I’ve had to step back as a council person and remember – the safety and stability of the town is the number one priority. The nuts and bolts of keeping a town running must be the main goal, and then we can move onto our wish list of goals like housing, new parks, etcetera.

What do you think are the biggest challenges for managing tourism in Winter Park?

In my opinion, the main challenge with managing tourism is managing visitors expectations. I’ve been very impressed by Breckenridge’s recent marketing push – simply encouraging visitors to act more “local.”  Getting our visitors to understand our busy times, challenges with weather and traffic, etcetera.

Small resort towns simply cannot handle the massive influx of visitors some days, and on those days we’d ask the visitors to work with us, be patient and understanding. Encourage visitors to visit more often during the weekdays or slower times…and be a “local.”

The above suggestion, and improved transportation (transit, parking, trails, etc.) go a long way in small resort towns.

How would you approach taxes, if elected?

Our taxes (and specifically sales tax) are at the maximum they should be, in my opinion. The town needs to work within our current tax structure and budget, period. The more recent tax increases for transit/trails and housing were critical income sources to support the town’s future goals and success in these areas. This has proven to be a great benefit for both the locals and visitors. Being named a top town in sales tax rate is no bueno for many reasons.

How will you ensure responsible development that balances the needs of residents and visitors?

Being involved and listening to the citizens and business owners is the best strategy. Investing in excellent town staff should always be a key priority of the council, and this is in many ways more important than the people sitting as council members.

Town council members may set the tone and direction, but the daily hard work and long term vision and planning has to be driven by the town manager and staff, year over year. The town council should always know (and believe) their town manager and staff are more important to the town’s future than those of us sitting in the bigger chairs at the meetings.