BIG SKY, Mont. — For years, the people who run Big Sky's schools, clinics, restaurants and ski lifts have mostly lived somewhere else. Cold Smoke is the community's biggest attempt yet to change that.
The Big Sky Community Housing Trust invited residents to celebrate the project's groundbreaking on Oct. 7, 2026, during Big Sky Community Week. Crews have been on site since April, building roads, laying utilities and setting fire hydrants. When the neighborhood is finished, it will hold 264 apartments and 125 for-sale homes, all deed-restricted for local workers. The trust estimates about 1,000 people will call it home.
The first apartments are expected in 2028. The first homes should go on sale in 2029.
A town that outgrew its housing
Big Sky's job market has grown far faster than the places to live. Between 2017 and 2023, local employment more than doubled, while the number of resident households barely moved. The result, according to a 2026 demand analysis commissioned by the trust, is about 3.8 jobs for every household that lives in Big Sky. Roughly three out of four workers commute in.
Prices have run away from paychecks, too. From 2019 to 2026, median condo prices in Big Sky rose 104% and single-family prices rose 171%. Over the same stretch, the area median income for a family of four in Gallatin County climbed only about 50%. The trust puts the 2026 median home price at $2.6 million and the median condo at $875,000.
The gap shows up in daily life. On the project page, teachers describe moving again and again between short-term rentals. One first-grade teacher recalls moving seven times in a single year. Kelly Halmes, administrator of Big Sky Medical Center, put the problem plainly: "I lose physicians because they can't buy homes here." The Gallatin County sheriff's office has noted that deputies living farther out means slower response times.
How Cold Smoke got here
Cold Smoke has been more than two years in the making, and it needed approval at nearly every level of local government.
The housing trust and developer Lone Mountain Land Company first laid out the plan publicly on July 16, 2024. On Sept. 12, 2024, the Gallatin County Commission voted unanimously to rezone the land, raising how many homes it could hold.
The next hurdle was money. On Jan. 2, 2025, the Big Sky Resort Area District board, known locally as Resort Tax, agreed to ask voters to borrow against future resort tax collections. That meant up to $45 million for the land and up to $15 million for infrastructure. On April 17, 2025, the trust announced it had agreed to buy the land for $39.75 million. That was 14.3% below the average of three independent appraisals, which came in at $49.5 million, $45 million and $44.7 million.
Voters settled it on May 6, 2025, approving the Cold Smoke bond 735 to 455. On the same ballot, they extended Big Sky's 3% resort tax through 2065. Because the bond is repaid from resort tax, a tax on visitors' luxury purchases, it does not raise local property taxes. The project page lists the approved funding at $54.75 million.
The county approved the neighborhood's preliminary plats on Nov. 18, 2025. On Jan. 7, 2026, the trust closed on the 99 acres. Lone Mountain Land Company started infrastructure work in April 2026, with SIME Construction as general contractor. WGM Group oversees that work on behalf of the community. By July, crews were clearing trees and installing utilities. They are now building the south bridge and the roads for the for-sale homes.
Who can live there
Cold Smoke is not for second-home buyers or investors. Every home is reserved for people who work in Big Sky full time, no matter who their employer is.
The 264 apartments will be one- and two-bedroom units in eight buildings. Lone Mountain Land Company is developing them for the trust. They will rent to households earning 100% to 140% of the area median income (AMI). In Gallatin County, 100% AMI for a two-person household is $104,200. The trust says the apartments are not dorms; they will have standard amenities such as laundry.
The 125 for-sale homes will have two, three or four bedrooms. Some will be attached because of fire department access rules. The trust is targeting buyers earning 120% to 200% of AMI. Buyers must live in Montana, work full time in Big Sky, live in the home year-round and qualify for a conventional mortgage. They also cannot own any other residential property. That means current owners at the trust's MeadowView condos would have to sell before moving up.
The trust's research found that two-person households are the largest group in need. It estimates demand at about 185 ownership homes a year. Those findings are shaping the early home designs, but the trust says the final mix may change.
How the land trust keeps it affordable
Cold Smoke uses a community land trust model, the same one the trust used at MeadowView. The trust keeps permanent ownership of the land. Buyers own their house but not the ground under it.
When an owner sells, an appreciation cap limits how much the price can rise. Owners still build some equity, but the home stays within reach of the next local buyer. The public money spent on the land keeps working for every future owner instead of turning into one family's windfall.
The road from vote to move-in
The approvals took about two years. Building starts in earnest at the end of 2026, with apartments first and for-sale homes a year behind.
What's still unknown, and how to get in line
The biggest open question for most families is cost. The trust says it will not have rent or purchase price estimates until planning moves forward in 2027. It also has not yet picked a builder for the 125 for-sale homes. By the end of 2026, it plans to decide whether to hire a developer or manage that phase itself with a general contractor. It is also choosing an architect for the preliminary home designs.
All of the dates above are targets. The trust notes that timelines may change as design and financing move forward.
Applications are not open yet. Workers who want updates can join the trust's separate interest lists for rentals and for ownership homes on its website. Joining a list does not count as an application and does not give anyone priority. Questions can go to the Big Sky Community Housing Trust at (406) 995-3696.
For a resort town where most of the workforce drives in every day, Cold Smoke won't close the gap alone. The trust's earlier needs assessment called for roughly 1,300 additional homes by 2028, and Cold Smoke covers nearly 400 of them. But it is the largest workforce housing investment in Big Sky's history. If the schedule holds, the first local families will be unpacking boxes in 2028.