HMC's State of the Valley Symposium is an annual forum to explore the health and wealth of the Roaring Fork and Colorado River Valleys.

Boomers retiring, second homes, oil and gas, and high cost of living have created a “Perfect Storm” over our region. This storm has strained housing affordability, created a workforce shortage, and challenged them capacity of public infrastructure and organizations to work effectively. This year’s State of the Valley Symposium examines how our region can ride out this storm to ensure a prosperous future. Please join us on May 5th!

Speakers:

• Luther Propst, Sonoran Institute
• Tim Watkins, Envision Utah
• David Chrislip, Author Collaborative Leadership and
  Principal, Skillful Means

Topics and issues include:

• Envisioning the Future: Tools, techniques, and outcomes
• Creating a preferred future: Policy tools
• Demographic Updates
• Regional Report (local efforts and trends of impacting the region - water, housing, energy)

Registration is $70 (includes materials, lunch and refreshments). Seniors are $35 and students are $20

Sponsorship is also available and a number of different levels.

The planned Carbondale recreation center could be the second in the state to receive a nationally recognized LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, if town trustees continue to support the process.

Trustees took the first step toward “greening” the rec center in February, agreeing to dedicate $150,000 in Park Land dedication money toward landscaping and xeriscaping around the building. The rec center is to be built immediately west of town hall on Colorado Avenue.

An energy design charette was held March 9 for the proposed 13,000-square-foot rec center with members of the design/build team, engineers and energy consultants, to see if a LEED certification was feasible for the building.

LEED is a nationally recognized code for energy efficiency and has four levels from basic certification to platinum. The certification is based on a points system taken from a checklist that covers everything from site maintenance, water efficiency, materials and indoor air quality to innovation of design.

The local team of engineers, designers and builders for the rec center have received $15,000 from the town to continue its work to pursue a LEED certification. The money came from the Xcel Energy franchise fees.

The Community Office for Resource Efficiency (CORE) has committed to pay for energy modeling, which will help determine the energy savings of the green design.

The days of Garfield County being the "affordable housing stock" for Pitkin County could be coming to a close. A recently released study by the Garfield County Building & Planning Department shows that the median income household cannot afford the median priced home in the county.

While wages have risen 18 percent between 1999 and 2005, prices for single-family homes have jumped 48 percent, putting them out of reach for many.

Out of the 809 units listed for sale in Garfield County in October 2005, 43 percent are priced at or above $500,000. Most of those homes are in Glenwood Springs and Carbondale, but every community in the county has homes for sale at that price.

Today, a family earning 120 percent of the AMI, or $68,280 annually, cannot afford the average price of a single-family home in Glenwood Springs, which in 2005 was $325,000, or Carbondale, where a single- family home averaged $395,000.

Currently, a family earning less than the area median income cannot not afford a home in New Castle or Silt.

The report is available on the Garfield County website.

For likely the first time ever, tax revenues from Garfield County's booming natural gas industry made up the bulk of the county's assessed value — more than monster second-homes, hotels, resorts, and shopping areas combined.

Natural gas values made up 55 percent of the county's assessed value in 2005, up from 45 percent the previous year. The increase has brought $16 million more in revenues to county coffers and taxing districts, from $70.7 million in 2004 to $86.7 million last year, a 23 percent increase. Garfield County own revenues increased $7.1 million to $24.2 million.

Residential properties made up just 19 percent of the county's assessed value last year, down from 25 percent in 2004. Commercial properties contributed less, too, from 16 percent in 2004 to 14 percent in 2005.

Although a new study, based on a data collected by the American Chamber of Commerce Researchers Association and the city of Aspen, proves what almost everyone knows - that Aspen is a pricey place - the numbers are still impressive.

According to the study, the cost of living in Aspen is more than 300% higher than the national average. The study takes into account prices for groceries, housing, utilities, health care, transportation and miscellaneous goods and services.

Housing was by far the greatest expense in Aspen, with costs soaring 951 percent above the national average. That figure was decreased significantly for residents of Aspen's subsidized employee housing, although their housing cost was still 23 percent above the national average and their overall cost of living 32.75 percent higher than the rest of the country.

As for bragging rights, Aspen's cost of living was:

• 42% higher than Vail's;
• 156% higher than Breckenridge's; and,
• 206% higher than Steamboat Springs.

The 23-page report is available on the City of Aspen website.

The gas fields aren't the only places busy with activity in Garfield County. Thanks to the approval of a 1-cent sales tax for park and recreation improvements last September, Rifle's parks are hopin'.

The city is busy working on a number of projects, including replacing old playground equipment, resurfacing playgrounds, and installing new picnic shelters. The city has also purchased three scoreboards for the fields, hired a new recreation coordinator, and a bus. The city estimate the tax to generate at least $1.2 million this year.

Costco recently filed a building permit application with the Town of Gypsum for a 159,000-square-foot retail center in the Airport Gateway Commercial Park.

The big-box retailer has been able to slip relatively quietly into Gypsum is because the zoning is already in place at the Airport Gateway Commercial Park. The location is also not right in someone's neighborhood or in an open space entrance to town.

The economic development agreement calls for the town to rebate 38 percent of the sales tax that Costco generates for three years; or until a $4.2 million cap is reached - whichever comes first. If the revenue cap isn't met in three years, the town will rebate 15 percent of the sales tax for an additional two years.

The Town estimated that in Costco's first years of operation, Eagle would get about $230,000 annually in sales tax, and Gypsum would get $350,000 in addition to the sales tax revenues that are committed or rebated.

Costco will pay for traffic lights at Highway 6 and Cooley Mesa Road - estimated cost is $500,000 - and for several hundred linear feet of improvements to Highway 6. Costco will hire 200-300 employees, which will make it the second largest employer in Gypsum. The school district is the biggest employer in the town.

This is the first time Costco has come to a community with less than 150,000 residents. Currently, the closest Costco is in Denver.

After postponing construction work last fall, the Snowmass Base Village project finally received a 404 permit with conditions from the Army Corps of Engineers.

The $400 million development project has been delayed for a year as Intrawest and the Army Corps negotiated what conditions would be attached to the issuance of the 404 permit, a provision of the Clean Water Act.

Intrawest agreed to mitigate their disturbance of .47 acres of wetlands (by purchasing .906 acre of credits at the Rocky Mountain Institute Wetlands Mitigation Bank.) There are no conditions attached to the permit which direct Intrawest to mitigate for any Snowmass Creek stream flow depletion.

During this summer, Intrawest and Skico will move ahead to construct a new Assay Hill Lift replacement as well as the $13 million Elk Camp Gondola. Both of those projects are anticipated to be finished in time for next winter’s ski season.

TIME Magazine made the reality of global warming the cover story of their April 3rd issue.

The Aspen Skiing Company and Environmental Foundation Director Auden Schendler received kudos for their efforts in the "Climate Crusaders" section.

The whole Roaring Fork Valley probably deserved some ink given the work of the Community Office for Resource Efficiency, Solar Energy International, Rocky Mountain Institute, Rising Sun , Aspen Global Change Institute, as well as all the local governments in the region that have purchased wind power. Add Pitkin County's Renewable Energy Impact Program, Aspen's Canary Initiative and Carbondale's Green Rec Center and TIME probably could put the whole valley on their next cover.

Many municipalities around the region have interesting races this election season. From Minturn, to Basalt, and Silt to Carbondale, candidates are running to help shape their communities.

"Democracy," H.L. Mencken once wrote, "means paying attention." So make sure you get to the voting booth Tuesday, April 4th and exercise your right to vote.

In the second of a speaker series, the Roaring Fork Conservancy will host State Representative Kathleen Curry on Saturday, April 22nd at 5:30 pm in Paepcke Auditorium, Aspen.

Representative Curry will speak about recent and future Colorado water legislation and how citizens can get involved in making important water decisions. This event is part of a valley-wide Earth Day celebration.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information call the Roaring Fork Conservancy at 970.927.1290.