Healthy Mountain Communities
HMC Newsletter
July 27, 2001
CONTENTS
I. HEALTHY MOUNTAIN COMMUNITIES NEWS
- Basalt Technology Committee working to improve Mid-Valley internet access and medical treatment
- Carbondale hosts affordable housing discussion with development community
- Glenwood Springs Council opens door to Affordable Housing
- Community Innovation Workshop Series to focus on impact fees
II. REGIONAL AND STATE NEWS
- Steamboat adopts impact fees on new development
- Hayden studies impact fees options
- Silt adopts new annexation fees
- Affordable housing enabling legislation wins bi-partisan support
- Most uninsured families hold jobs
- Citizen Initiatives for Open Space could be on ballot at county level
- Open space: A sign of the New Economy in the West?
III. NATIONAL NEWS
- Lincoln Institute for Land Use Policy Creates On-line Course for Planning Boards
- National Study Highlights Challenges of Homeownership for Middle Income Families
- Two-part Documentary Focuses on the Sprawling of America
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I. HEALTHY MOUNTAIN COMMUNITIES NEWS
Basalt Technology Committee
Working to Improve Midvalley Internet Access and Medical
Treatment
HMC is working with the Town of Basalt Technology
Committee (BTC) to develop funding for a high-speed
telecommunications network that would consist of a fiber
optic backbone in town and a wireless system in outlying
areas. One initial use of the network would be for
emergency medical services and continuous patient
monitoring. One reason for this effort is the
Basalt Area is 20 miles from the nearest hospitals in
Aspen of Glenwood Springs. Basalt is also outside
of the 15-mile radius area that will be provided with
high-speed connectivity (with no long-distance tariffs)
as part of the Colorado State Digital Network.
Contact BTC Chairs Peter Frey / pwfrey@yahoo.com, Howard Cohen / hcohen@aspenfinance.com or Marina Florian, Roaring Fork Project Management rfpm@rof.net / 945-6996 for more information.
Carbondale
hosts affordable housing discussion with development
community
In an effort to broad the range of approaches to
affordable housing in town, Carbondale Trustees hosted a
discussion on affordable housing with members of the
development community. HMC facilitated the work
session. The Town in the process of reviewing an
inclusionary zoning and replacement housing ordinance for
affordable housing.
Glenwood Springs Council opens door to Affordable Housing
The Glenwood City Council has agreed to require 15 percent affordable units within new residential development projects while rejecting a commercial linkage proposal. New residential development of three or more units with be required to provide deed restricted housing at 80% of the household median income, roughly $39,700 for a family of four. The City must still hold two public hearings on the new zoning ordinance and develop community housing guidelines. "I'm a free market person," said City Council Member Mary Steinbrecher, "but we are in a situation where we are obligated to do something about our housing needs."
The affordable housing ordinances come out of the Regional Affordable Housing Initiative, a multi-jurisdictional effort to augment and continue development of affordable housing programs in the Basalt to Glenwood Springs Area of the Roaring Fork Valley. HMC is the coordinator of the effort. Reports on the initiative are available at www.hmccolorado.org.
www.glewnwoodindependent.com June 9, 2001
Community Innovation Workshop Series to focus on impact fees
Growth and development in mountain communities over the last decade has left many communities wondering how they will pay for infrastructure-related improvements such as roads, parks, water and sewer. Many have begun adopting development impact fees to ensure new development pays its fair share of these improvements. HMC’s next Community Innovation Workshop, scheduled in September, will present communities that have adopted impact fees and examine both the reasons why and the process for adopting such fees. Stay tuned for a date and location!
II. REGIONAL AND STATE NEWS
Steamboat Springs Adopts Development Impact Fees
A unanimous Steamboat Springs City Council adopted new development impact fees based on research and analysis by Tischler Associates. The fees are designed to help the city pay for the capital costs of infrastructure created by new development. Builders of single family homes will be assessed $4,454 per home while office buildings will be assessed $1186 per 1,000 sq.ft.
www.steamboatpilot.com 7/20/01
Hayden studies impact fee options
Following Steamboat Springs' lead, the community of Hayden is contemplating impact fees on new development as a way to pay for costs associated with growth. The town has drafted a proposed policy that would establish transportation fees for new residential, commercial and industrial development within the town. The transportation impact fee is just one such fee the town is considering. Others include an impact fee for parks and one for water and sewer services.
The reason for examining an impact fee for transportation is not to burden current residents with the costs of new development, Manager Rob Straebel said. "We don't think it is fair or equitable to assess fees or higher taxes to our current residents because of growth," Straebel said. "Growth should pay for itself."
www.steamboatpilot.com June 18, 2001
Silt adopts new annexation fees
In an effort to recoup the administrative costs of development to the town, Silt's Board of Trustees has approved an increase in the annexation impact fees. The new rates, $3,500 per acre annexed, come after three large subdivisions have come into the town. The fee rate will increase by 6% annually.
www.glenwoodindependent.com June 17, 2001
Affordable housing bill wins bi-partisan support
Representative Al White, a Republican from Winter Park and Senator Joan Fitz-Gerald, a Democrat representing Summit County, worked across party lines to give communities and regions additional tools to develop affordable housing. House Bill 1172 is new enabling legislation that allows communities to create multi-jurisdictional housing authorities and support them through a combination of impact fees ($2/ sq. ft.), property tax (Up to 5 mills), and sales tax (Up to 1%). Voters must approve any proposed tax. A copy of the legislation is available at the State Assembly website: www.state.co.us/gov_dir/stateleg.html
Most uninsured families hold jobs
Almost three-quarters of Colorado's families without health insurance have at least one person working full time, and 13 percent have two people holding a full-time job, refuting a stereotype that the uninsured are without jobs, according to a study released today by an advocacy group.
Most uninsured Coloradans - 15.8 percent of the state's population doesn't have a health plan - are the working poor or middle class who make too much to qualify for Medicaid but whose companies don't provide health insurance, according to a study by Colorado Coalition for the Medically Underserved. The coalition is a group of doctors, health policy analysts and insurance carriers that hopes to get every Coloradan insured by 2007. Colorado currently ranks 49th in the nation for its high qualifying threshold. If a family of four makes more than $6,012 a year, the adult will not be eligible for Medicaid benefits. Kids can qualify for insurance a little more easily under the Child's Health Insurance Plan, or CHIP.
www.denverpost.com July 13, 2001
Citizen Initiatives for Open Space Could be on Ballot at County Level
Garfield County
The board of directors of the Roaring Fork Open Space, Parks and Recreation District decided to place a question on the November ballot to seek voter approval for a 2.5-mill property tax. Revenues would fund a $10 million bond issue. The district was formed with voter approval last November. Voters OK’d all components of the district except funding.
Based on the projected assessed valuation on real property in the special district, which includes parts of Garfield and Eagle counties in the Roaring Fork Valley, 2.5 mills would bring in a total revenue in 2002 of $1.3 million. A property tax of 2.5 mills would cost the owner of a $250,000 home $58 annually. Commercial properties valued at $250,000 would pay about three times that amount.
www.glenwoodindependent.com June 17, 2001
La Plata County
Residents for the Open Space Initiative (ROSI) are working to get an initiative on the November ballot in La Plata County that would put a 2% use tax on building materials, vehicles, and oil and gas equipment bought out of state. County Commissioner Bob Lieb is in favor of the tax, which would support open space purchases and affordable housing in an 80/20 split. The new tax could add $1 million dollars to the County’s $40 million budget. The County Commissioners recently directed staff to develop resolution to place the question on the November ballot.
www.durangoherald.com June 20, 2001; July 24, 2001
Open Space: A sign of the New Economy in the West?
Mark Muro, an analyst at the Morrison Institute for Public Policy at Arizona State University (http://www.asu.edu/copp/morrison/), writes that recent open space initiatives such as Boise, Idaho, citizens voting to raise the property tax to protect its foothills and Scottsdale, Ariz. moving ahead on its plan to preserve 16,000 acres of state land at the edge of one of the West's hottest real estate market are a sign that the New Economy has altered the way cities establish their economic advantage. Instead of western towns providing cheap land for resource development or subdivisions, the knowledge-driven high-tech economy covets environmental quality. Muro writes, “Environmental quality and dramatic open spaces have become important not simply as ends in themselves but as prerequisites for attracting talent and companies, whether for moves to Boulder or Missoula, Salt Lake City or Tucson.” To receive an electronic copy of the full commentary contact claird@hmccolorado.org.
III. NATIONAL NEWS
Lincoln Institute for Land Use Policy Creates On-line Course for Planning Boards
Lincoln Education On-line (LEO) is designed to facilitate the teaching of critical issues in land and tax policy through a series of online courses. Planning for Planning Officials is designed as an introductory planning course for members of planning boards, planning commissions, zoning boards, conservation boards, and other related planning positions.
The registration fee for the Basic Planning course is $75 for individuals and $200 for government entities, such as a local planning board or nonprofit community groups. The $75 registration fee gives the individual user access to the planning course for one full year. This allows ample time to study each lesson, explore the links and related materials, and participate in ongoing discussion groups. The $200 registration fee for local government entities provides all board members access to the course for one full year.
For more information go to www.lincolneducationonline.org
National Study Highlights Challenges of Homeownership for Middle Income Families
"Paycheck to Paycheck: Working Families and the Cost of Housing in America" a recently released report, by the National Housing Conference, is one more in a series of studies about the housing needs of the working class. This issue describes the general numbers and characteristics of a working family in need of housing, and how working families across the U.S. cannot afford to purchase median price homes in their communities.
To see the full report go to www.nhc.org/nhcimages/paycheck.pdf
Two-part Documentary Focuses on the Sprawling of America
Great Lakes Consortium TV has produced a two-hour documentary on the causes and consequences of spawl in the U.S. Inner City Blues, part one of a two-hour documentary on land use, examines the social, political, and economic causes of sprawl and urban decline using Detroit, Michigan as a case study. Fat of the Land picks up where Inner City Blues left off. The second hour in this two-part series explores the direction in which suburbs are headed, and their impact on rural areas, agriculture, and small towns.
The video is available at http://greatlakestv.org/
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