Sawyer D’Argonne / sdargonne@summitdaily.com
FRISCO — Frisco officials are considering a potential development partnership with a private landowner that could bring new housing options to town.
The town hosted a community open house on the idea Monday at the First and Main Building, hoping to gather public feedback on whether a public-private housing partnership would be in the community’s best interest.
“This was a parcel that was identified by the workforce housing task force as a place that would be ideal for housing,” Frisco Marketing and Communications Director Vanessa Agee said. “So we decided to put it out to the public and see if they like the idea and what they would like to see there. That’s really what that meeting was about — just to find out if people are feeling positive about it, do they want housing there and what kind of housing would they want to see there? It was really about gathering ideas.”
In November, Nathan Glassman of Glassman Companies contacted the Frisco Town Council with a potential opportunity to address one of the town’s highest priority needs in housing. Glassman is the owner of 207 Granite Street in Frisco, a lot adjacent to a town-owned parcel frequently referred to as the “Sabatini lot” between Second and Third avenues on Granite Street.
Glassman pitched a public-private partnership to potentially develop his and the town-owned lot together — a concept that’s worked for the town before with the Peak One Neighborhood. He noted the “unique opportunity” could potentially help to tick off boxes in the 2019-20 Town of Frisco Strategic Plan, including strengthening the town’s affordable housing options, among others.
Agee emphasized that there are no concepts, designs or formal proposals for a project in place and that any ideas are still very much in their infancy.
“It’s not even a seedling yet,” Agee said.
Still, she noted that community response to the idea was largely supportive. About 45 community members attended the open house to provide input and ideas.
“They were positive about the idea of there being housing there,” Agee said. “Nobody said, ‘Wow that gravel lot is really lovely, and we’d like to hang onto it just the way that is it.’ … Council was very clear that not only is workforce housing a priority, but making sure that the public weighs in and is engaged is a priority, as well. They’re not going to move forward unless they feel that this is something that Frisco residents really would embrace.”
Agee said the town would continue to dissect the community comments and ideas they received at the meeting and incorporate that into a more formal proposal before taking it back to the public.
“They are going to look for a proposal now based on the feedback from the public,” Agee said. “That doesn’t mean we’re going to move forward with a housing project; it just means we’re going to get into a phase where we have a more definitive proposal and more for people to react to during the next public meeting.”