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State of the Valley News
June 2008
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The State of the Valley News is a periodic newsletter from
Healthy Mountain Communities. Valley News contains
information on initiatives, trends, ideas, and events
impacting the Roaring Fork and Colorado River Valleys. |
Group eyes purchase of mobile home park for affordable
housing
A 9-acre mobile home park outside
of Carbondale that is for sale may be the location of
a new affordable housing project in the area.
The concept received the preliminary support of the
Garfield County commissioners in May, although they
still had several questions about the project's
estimated cost to the county and whether county zoning
regulations would even allow it.
The Roaring Fork Community Development Corp. (RFCDC),
which is a nonprofit subsidiary of Healthy Mountain
Communities, is working to patch together different
area governments and groups to purchase the Mountain
Valley Mobile Home Park for its affordable housing
project. Right now, the corporation has secured enough
money to potentially put the property under contract.
The goal is to purchase the property and convert it
into permanent deed-restricted affordable housing for
as many of the current residents of the mobile home
park as possible and preserve the units for Garfield
County residents making 80 percent or less of the
area's median income. The project is looking to make
it affordable by either subdivision and lot sales back
to the current residents or in the form of long-term,
appreciation-capped lot leases.
Read Phillip Yate's article in the Post Independent .
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Nonprofits seek to transform C'dale school into 'living
building'
 Walking
through the hallways of the old Carbondale Elementary
School, cluttered with unused shelves and file cabinets,
it is hard to imagine the nearly half-century-old
schoolhouse as a state-of-the-art green building. That's
what a group of nonprofits have in mind, though, as they
set about trying to convert the former school into a
nonprofit center.
Dozens of local nonprofit representatives and experts in
engineering, design, energy use and other fields with a
bent toward sustainability gathered in the school in late
April to take a look at how to turn the aging building
into a model of sustainable design.
Their hope is to make it a "living building," a concept
that takes sustainable LEED-certified construction to a
higher level. Developed by the Cascadia Region Green
Building Council, a chapter of the group that certifies
LEED buildings, the
living building challenge asks developers to create
super-efficient, zero-energy, zero-water buildings that
are pleasing to look at, too.
Much of the school dates back to 1961. Additions came in
1967 and 1988, but none of it was designed with
sustainable energy in mind, or architectural beauty, for
that matter.
"We are reaching to attain the highest levels that can be
done to a reused building like this," said Gavin Brooke, a
member of the
Carbondale Community Center group, or C3, which formed
to spearhead the effort.
Read David Frey's full article in the Aspen Daily News . .
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The Roaring Fork Transportation Authority has will
unveiled special service on what it is calling its "Bike
Express."
RFTA mechanics retrofitted the interior of a bus by
removing most of the seats and installing 12 bike racks.
The bus will load and unload at specially designated bus
stops - but not at every stop. Bike Express service will
begin in Glenwood Springs in the morning and end up back
there in the evening, but most of its service will focus
between El Jebel and Aspen.
RFTA communications and marketing director Sylvia Cranmer
stressed that people who want to use the new service must
remember that the Bike Express will only serve the bus
stops where RFTA regularly loads and unloads bikes. Those
stops can be found at the agency's website,
www.rfta.com.
Read Scott Condon's full article in the Aspen Times . . .
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Aspen may
tax for teacher housing
The Aspen School District might ask voters to authorize
$25 million in debt to build more affordable housing for
their teachers.
The school district has 22 housing units, which no
longer meets its teachers' needs. At a recent school
board meeting meeting, Superintendent Diana Sirko said
she recently received three calls and two e-mails from
teachers who needed housing for the following year.
In August, she said, she often finds herself scrambling
to replace teachers who couldn't find housing. And every
spring, teachers leave the district because of the cost
of housing.
Bonds would be sold to pay for the debt, and the
repayment cost to the district would be no more than $44
million.
Read the full Vail Daily Article . . .
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The Carbondale trustees recently approved a set of revised
guidelines for the town's affordable housing program.
The existing guidelines require developers to provide 15
affordable units out of every 100 housing units
constructed, or 15 percent mitigation. The revised
guidelines will continue to require the same level of
mitigation except when the new development is to be
annexed to the town, in which case 20 percent mitigation
will be required.
In addition, the new guidelines require that a lottery be
used to ensure that the affordable units are distributed
fairly among deserving locals, and the maximum income used
to determine eligibility for affordable housing will be
adjusted for the size of the applicant's household.
The revised guidelines also have added a requirement that
developers are to supply resident owner-occupied (RO)
units. RO units do not limit the income or assets of the
owner and do not have limits on initial price or
appreciation. However, they must be occupied by their
owner, and that owner must live there year-round, with
absences of no more than three months total per year. Once
a developer has provided the required percentage of
mitigation units, 30 percent of the remaining units built
must be designated RO.
Read the full article in the Post Independent . . .
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Plans to redevelop a 30-acre property in Rifle for a large
affordable-housing project that could have more than 200
rentals, condos, townhomes and single-family homes are
slowly coming into sharper focus.
Partners in the project are about a month away from giving
their employees and others surveys to find out if they are
interested in the affordable housing project and what kind
of housing they would like to see, said Ed Green, Garfield
County manager.
Garfield County, Rifle, the Grand Valley Hospital
District, Garfield School District Re-2 and the Aspen
Community Foundation are all partners in the affordable
housing project.
Paul Menter, finance director for the
Aspen Community Foundation, said the future of the
project depends on what the survey results show.
Menter said the foundation just recently formed a new
office in Glenwood Springs and that one of its major
focuses right now is to help communities develop an
affordable housing program that "works for them."
Assisting with the Rifle affordable housing project is the
foundation's first attempt to do that.
Garfield County Manager Ed Green said the county and the
other partners are looking to hire a developer for the
project sometime this year. Infrastructure development at
the property, which would include roads and sewer systems,
would probably occur in 2009.
It is hoped that by the end of 2009 developers will begin
building residential units on the property and that some
residences will be available for area workers by the
spring of 2010.
Read Phillip Yates article in the Post Independent . . .
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The Bureau of Land Management recently
announced that it will include 55,000 acres of land on the
Roan Plateau in its August lease sale. The agency's
announcement immediately drew rebukes from Colorado Gov.
Bill Ritter and U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, both of whom said
the BLM ignored their proposals for the area.
The BLM's Aug. 14 lease sale will include 55,186 acres in
31 parcels in the Roan Plateau Planning Area, according to
the agency. Eighteen of the 31 parcels, which encompass a
total 34,087 acres, are for the top of the plateau.
The announcement that Roan acreage will be included in the
August lease sale comes after years of controversy
surrounding possible natural gas drilling on the western
Colorado landmark.
Read Phillip Yates article in the Aspen Times . . .
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Drilling
requests pile up in Garfield
Requests for drilling permits in Colorado continue to
surge, according to updated figures from the Colorado Oil
and Gas Commission.
The pace of drilling permit applications in the state so
far this year is about 20 to 25 percent ahead of where it
stood last year, said Dave Neslin, acting director of the
commission.
The state has received about 2,933 applications for
drilling permits so far in 2008, with 1,029 of those
permits for wells in Garfield County.
Last year, the state processed 6,368 drilling permits. If
the level of activity that has occurred already this year
continues through the remainder of the year, the state
expects to receive about 8,000 permit applications to
drill.
About half of all the ongoing permitting activity is
occurring in the Piceance Basin.
Read Phillip Yates article in the Post Independent . . .
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While the nation's economy stumbles, Western Colorado
booms.
As The High Country News cover story for May 12 details,
the boom is the result of an energy boom being added to an
already booming amenity economy.
Both drivers bring big dollars into the region, and both
have big impacts, particularly the lack of affordable
housing and the associated commuting traffic. They also
seem to be on a collision course with each other, which
begs answers to a number of questions, including:
- Can the region reap the best of this round of
economic growth without sacrificing its communities and
environment in the process?
- Can the region
avoid
the collision course it seems to be on, and work its way
to a greener and more equitable economy?
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Economic data collected by the city of Aspen show that
the local retail and lodging sectors have stayed strong
despite a flagging national economy, although it's a
different story in the real estate market.
The Real Estate Transfer Tax, which assesses an additional
1.5 percent on all real estate transactions in the city,
continued its downward plunge, with collections now 38
percent off 2007 through May. Even with the downturn, the
RETT has pulled in $3.87 million so far this year,
although that figure is 27 percent behind the city's 2008
budget projections.
On the other hand, sales tax collections continued their
strong growth trend, which has been evident since January.
In April, the city's sales tax collections were up 5.6
percent from April 2007, and year-to-date collections
through April are up 10.2 percent from 2007. In total, the
city's 3.2 percent sales tax has pulled in $5.4 million to
date this year, and $555,000 in April alone.
Read Curtis Wackerle's article in the Aspen Daily News
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Eagle County, hospitals struggle to treat uninsured
Of all the things Eagle County is known for, having a
high number of medically uninsured residents is not one
of them.
However, that description is something county officials
and hospital staff are hoping the federal government
will recognize. If the county's medical needs are
recognized, the area could get money to build a public
health center and hire more doctors and nurses.
The health center would be federally funded and help
meet 80 percent of the area's uninsured medical need in
2010, said Jill Hunsaker, Eagle County public health
manager.
The health center would be similar to Summit County's
public health center, which combines mental health
services, the public health clinic and sick care clinic
all under one roof. Summit County is federally
designated as a "medically underserved" area.
According to a 2005 county survey, almost one in four of
residents are uninsured. The survey analysis predicted
that the number of uninsured will likely continue to
rise as the tourism and second-home industries increase
the demand for a service workers.
Read Melanie Wong's full article in the The Vail Daily .
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The largest solar array on the Western Slope (for now at
least) will be officially unveiled Tuesday, July 1 from
3-5pm at the Colorado Rocky Mountain School Site in
Carbondale.
Governor Bill Ritter Senator Ken Salazar and other
dignitaries will celebrate the innovative partnerships
that made this project a reality.
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Thanks to the
Colorado Office of Smart Growth, you can receive
timely information on upcoming smart growth events around
the state and nation.
Sign up for their list serv to have information emailed to
you or check out the list of upcoming events on their
website, such as:
- CCRA's "Selling Your Downtown," July 18 ( Brighton)
- RMLUI Call for Conference Session Submissions (due
July 18)
- Western Planners Conference, August 5-8 ( Cheyenne)
- DOH's Developer's Toolkit, Aug. 19-20 (Grand
Junction)
Get more detail from the Smart Growth website . . .
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