Local governments join together to build affordable housing

In a unique partnership, Mountain Village, Telluride and San Miguel County have joined together to develop and construct an affordable housing project.

Called the Sunnyside Affordable Housing project, it is planned for immediately west of Eider Creek, and will include some 48 units. The parcel is owned and will be spearheaded by the county, but Mountain Village and Telluride are chipping in on access, water and sewer.

Telluride Mayor John Pryor said the fact that all three governments have joined together to work to mend this urgent regional issue is remarkable.

“The Town of Telluride is very excited to be at the table and working hard at providing more affordable housing with this Sunnyside project with our two other local governments,” Pryor said.

Although the governments have signed on and much groundwork has been laid by the sketch plan, the project is still in its early stages and many details remain to be hammered out.

Read the full article in the Telluride Daily Planet . . .

Meeting of the mayoral minds

Mayors from Aspen to Grand Junction joined together on the morning of August 3rd to take a flyby airplane ride of the Roaring Fork and Colorado River Valley and discuss regional issues. The flights were provide by the nonprofit Eco-Flight and the day was organized by Healthy Mountain Communities and Silt Mayor Dave Moore.

Mayors met at Garfield County Airport in the morning to get an aerial view of the valley’s oil and gas wells, oil shale projects, gravel pits along the Colorado River and the Interstate 70 corridor. Afterwards, the group met at Silt Town Hall for an informal discussion about various issues.

“It was very beneficial,” said Rifle Mayor Keith Lambert. “We found a lot of commonality in the issues that are before us. I’m very proud to be working with this group of people. There’s a strong possibility of productive outcomes to be had from this group.”

The mayors will be meeting in Aspen during September to continue discussing issues facing the region.

Read the full article in the Post Independent . . .

Summit struggles to fund affordable housing efforts

The Summit Housing Authority (SHA) board of directors decided this week to pursue placing an initiative on November’s ballot in order to fund a countywide multi-jurisdictional housing authority, despite less than encouraging results from a survey of county residents on a potential tax question.

The move is spurred, in part, by the expiration at the end of this year of the of the existing intergovernmental agreement between the towns, the county and the ski resorts that funds the the authority. Even without the expiration of the IGA, SHA needs more money to tackle the formidable task of finding the 3,000 additional units of affordable housing, which a recent needs assessment predicted Summit County will require by 2010.

Funding for a countywide affordable housing entity could be obtained from tax sources, if approved by voters. Possibilities for financial support for a housing agency include impact fees, sales taxes, property taxes or some combination of the three.

A recent survey asked respondents about their support for possible tax combinations that could provide the housing authority with anywhere between $1.3 million and $5 million per year. The combination of a new sales tax and impact fees – fees assessed on new construction based on square footage – was the most popular scenario among respondents, but garnered support from only 47 percent of those surveyed.

SHA last went to county voters in 2002 to request a sales tax which would have raised about $400,000 a year for affordable housing, but the measure was defeated bt a seven-to-six margin.
Read the full article in the Summit Daily . . .

Yampa Valley Housing Authority looks at funding options to meet needs

The Yampa Valley Housing Authority is looking for ways to meet the growing need for affordable housing in Routt County. YVHA currently relies on funding from Steamboat Springs and Routt County to fund projects. The Housing Authority was formed in early 2004 and is composed of a variety of community members.

According to state statute, there are three options for dedicated funding sources: a sales tax of 1 percent or less; a property tax of 5 mills or less; or an impact fee of $2 or less per square foot. An impact fee charges a dollar amount for every square foot of a new building. If the Housing Authority chooses an impact fee, it must also have a tax. All three of the options require a vote by the residents who live within the Housing Authority's boundaries.

YVHA staff and board members said it is too early to say what type of funding the board may go for. Funds that are gained from a dedicated funding source would be used for more affordable housing projects.

The median sale price of a home in Routt County — the price that falls in the middle of prices for all home solds — rose from about $270,000 in 2000 to $370,000 in 2004. In April, only one single-family home in Steamboat Springs area listed at less than $300K.

Read the full article in the Steamboat Pilot . . .

The West’s big landscape demands big vision

Western author Wallace Stegner wrote about the goal of creating a society to match the scenery of the region. To get there, the West will have to formulate a vision to match its views, an expert in regional planning and conservation told a Glenwood Springs audience Friday. "We need to articulate a broad vision, a bold vision for a more sustainable, more benign society," Luther Propst of the Sonoran Institute said at the State of the Valley Symposium, presented by Healthy Mountain Communities at the Hotel Colorado. Propst is executive director of the nonprofit institute, which he said promotes decisions that respect the land and its people. It's based in Arizona, but recently opened a satellite office in Grand Junction.

The West has a unique competitive advantage in the global economy, Propst said. Besides its economic opportunities, it offers its residents easy access to vast amounts of public lands where they can find recreation and solitude. The result has been a population boom that is expected to continue. Under one estimate, 40 million more people will live in the intermountain West by 2040, and Colorado's population will grow to 7.1 million then, from 4.7 million now.

"The question is how do we accommodate those people while still protecting what we all value about the West," Propst said.

That growth is threatening the quality of life on which the Western economy now depends, he said.

"The changes are occurring faster than the structures for dealing with them," he said.

Propst said that to achieve Stegner's goal, "we have to tap into the proclivity of the West for thinking big, the proclivity of America for thinking big."

Negative thinking won't cut it, he said.

Among other attributes, such a society would be less reliant on cars, would protect landscapes and watersheds, and would have well-planned communities with attainably priced housing, he said.

Examples of that big vision already can be found around the West, Propst said. Among them:

• Pima County, Ariz., undertook the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan, originally to address conflicts over endangered species. Voters approved a $275 million bond issue to purchase open space, and other bonds for public transportation and other needs.
• Cities such as Denver and Phoenix are turning extensively to passenger rail transportation.
• Wyoming created a wildlife trust fund from energy development revenues.
• Residents of Custer County, Colo., realized they didn't have the tax base to conserve ranch lands themselves, so they talked to ranchers and state and federal agencies and came up with a plan to protect 20,000 acres from the kind of fate that has met a lot of agricultural lands in the nearby Front Range.

Another speaker Friday, Tim Watkins of the nonprofit organization Envision Utah, described how the Salt Lake City area and surrounding counties jointly agreed on their vision for the future of the region, where 1 million more people are expected to live by 2020. Some of their goals are protecting air quality, boosting passenger rail, making communities more walkable, promoting infill development, and deciding how much land is needed for development and what land should be protected.Propst believes Healthy Mountain Communities provides an example of forward thinking in western Colorado. Based in Carbondale, it promotes regional collaboration and innovation on issues such as affordable housing, transportation, economic development and human services.

"The work you have done in this region is an inspiration for people all over the West," Propst said.

Article by Dennis Webb, Post Independent Staff
May 7, 2006

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