Comprehensive Plan for Silverthorne

Client: Town of Silverthorne

Site: Silverthorne, Colorado

The town of Silverthorne, Colorado is a small mountain community, which was formed with very little initial planning. The town was established to provide housing for workers constructing a dam in nearby Dillon, and then continued to grow providing more homes for those working on the Eisenhower Tunnel as well as, miners at the Henderson and Climax Mines. The Town of Silverthorne felt they needed a plan to provide balanced growth in the future for all economic sectors, and wanted to re-develop a downtown commercial area. Using a citizen participation process, the task force utilized survey questionnaires and town meetings to identify the need for various planning documents. For the area of influence around the town, the overlay technique developed by Ian McHarg, was utilized to define suitability for development. As a result, the Collaborative completed a Transportation Master Plan and Land Use Plan for downtown Silverthorne. The firm also completed a preliminary design for Rainbow Park and the Blue River Trail System, which were funded by the State of Colorado as a result of grant requests prepared by the Collaborative.