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.

Join national and local experts to explore the many opportunities offered by Transit Oriented Development. Find ways to turn the concept into reality in more places in the Roaring Fork Valley.

Please register by September 13 for workshop materials and lunch. You can Register on-line or call New Century Transportation Foundation at 970-704-9200.

Glenwood Springs has long been the retail center of the region, but with the growth of commerce within the city and across the region, it has had to tackle the vexing problems of traffic and the lack of affordable housing.

Traffic Impact Fees
Glenwood Springs City Council has been discussing lifting a development moratorium in the south part of town, but on the possible condition that the city consider again imposing traffic impact fees on new growth.

The moratorium was adopted at the start of the year because city officials saw a need to first complete some planning to meet future traffic, sewage treatment and other needs. City staff members are recommending that council lift the moratorium.

However, they qualify that recommendation based on several conditions, such as the city pursuing improvements to the 27th Street intersections at South Grand and Midland avenues, and other road projects. And they urge reconsideration of traffic impact fees on new development as one means of helping pay for such projects.

The city charged such fees beginning in 1994, but ended the program in 1998 due to several concerns. The fees drew opposition out of fear that they were deterring commercial growth.

Community Development Director Andrew McGregor said it's valid to ask whether the fees might serve as a disincentive and drive development elsewhere. But most neighboring communities have imposed such fees in recent years.

Commercial Linkage for Affordable Housing
In a recent workshop with the city Housing Commission, several council members voiced concerns at a suggestion that the city make commercial developments help provide affordable housing because the approach might impede commercial growth.

Commercial linkage is based on the idea that creators of new jobs also should help provide housing for the employees who fill them, either through building affordable housing or contributing financially to affordable housing programs.

Ride Glenwood soars
One policy that seems to have worked much better for the city has been going to free fares for Ride Glenwood Springs.

Monthly ridership numbers for the in-town bus service for 2006 keeps running well above the same months in previous years, and May's total topped 30,000, the first month ever that the system has surpassed that mark. The increase follows the city's decision early in 2005 to eliminate a $1 fare.

May's ridership reached 30,324, with passenger totals in previous months this year ranging from 23,348 in February to 27,578 in March.

Total ridership for the year so far is about 132,000, which puts the program on pace to easily exceed the 226,000 or so riders recorded in 1999, when service also had been free.

In what has become an interesting summer in Snowmass Village, Base Village developer Intrawest Corp. is out and, in an unrelated development so is Town Manager Mike Seagrest.

The search for a replacement will begin immediately.

Frenetic might not be the best term to describe life in Garfield County these days, but the County Commissioners and staff have been a level higher than 'busy' these days. Here are just a few of the issues on the radar screen:

Affordable Housing
With the need for more affordable housing a big blip on their radar screen these days, the Garfield County Commissioners have agreed to "buy down" eight units in the Keator Grove housing development in Carbondale.

Commissioners also promised to contribute $10,000 per unit to decrease their cost to buyers. They also agreed to give $1.5 million to Glenwood Meadows developer Robert MacGregor to construct a 120-unit apartment complex that would include 84 units restricted to lower-income families.

Gravel Pits
After a candid and sometimes heated meeting with Mayors and elected officials from Colorado River Valley Communities, Garfield County Commissioners agreed to convene a stakeholder meeting to discuss the future of gravel pits in the county and decide how to handle them.

Increased housing construction, as well as a burgeoning oil and gas industry, have fueled the demand for gravel for road material and concrete and have sparked applications for expanded or new pits. Gravel operations are required to have special use permits from the county.

The issue is a growing concern to municipalities on the west end of the county, which have seen proposals for several pits this year. Continued gravel extraction and its long-term effects on the flow of the Colorado River is especially worrisome to the city of Rifle, which draws some of its water from the river.

The mayors of Silt and Rifle called for a moratorium on further applications for gravel pits until an overall plan for reclamation and environmental protection can be developed for the whole corridor, but two of the three county commissioners balked at taking that step.

The Commissioners did agree to bring all interested parties, from government agencies to environmental organizations, to the table to hear the issues and decide if new county regulations should be created.

Land Values Study
A comprehensive analysis of the impacts of industrial activity on land values, conducted by BBC Research Inc., based in Denver, has been posted on the Garfield County web site.

The study examined a variety of factors that influence land values, and tested various influences for statistical significance. The Study is one of several major work efforts undertaken by the county under the auspices of the Energy Advisory Board, and was guided in large part by a "Land Values Committee" of the EAB comprised of interested real estate professionals, appraisers, lenders, land owners, energy industry representatives and local government staff.

The Study was initiated to provide foundational and background information for the Land Values Committee to explore possible mitigation measures to assist land owners impacted by adjacent industrial activity.

The findings do show a noticeable dip in property values where drilling activity is recent or underway, but suggest that values begin to return to area value levels after the proximate industrial activity is completed. Further, those area values have been enhanced by the economic activity, as that activity generates jobs and economic stimulus that drive overall property values upward.

With the Study as background now, the Land Values Committee will resume its work to explore ways to soften the blow on property owners that might have to sell during that period of "Value Dip," and work with appraisers and lenders on better characterizing and documenting longer term property values.

Pitkin County approved a new land-use code making changes for the first time in more than a decade.

The county has had a restrictive land-use code since the mid-1970s, and this latest incarnation continues the trend of tightening development regulations with the goal of preserving the rural quality of Pitkin County.

The new countywide code limits houses to 15,000 square feet, reduces the value of a transferable development right to 2,500 square feet, limits houses in urban areas to 5,750 square feet, increases the number of county roads with scenic review restrictions and increases stream setbacks for building from 20 feet to 50 feet.

Pitkin County also deleted two important building exemptions from the code. There is no longer a 1,000-square-foot exemption beyond the 5,750- square-foot limit for a house, or an exemption for a 4,000-square-foot basement and 750-square-foot garage. Both deleted exemptions are expected to increase demand for transferable development rights significantly.

The revision of the code was a long and arduous process that included extensive public comment at five public readings. The Aspen Times published two versions of the full land-use code, and revisions to the code that was passed have already begun.

Heading into the heart of summer and busiest time for showings, the dollar volume from all sales in Pitkin County is already 17 percent ahead of 2005’s record pace, according to research by a title company.

Land Title Guarantee Co.’s latest monthly report showed that sales reached $1.25 billion in Pitkin County from January through June. The mark at the same point last year was $1.07 billion.

A big factor influencing the market is sales of interval ownership units. Buyers acquire a fractional interest in the property and use of it at certain times of the year. Intervals accounted for 450 transactions and $116.16 million in dollar volume during the first half of the year, according to Land Title Guarantee Co. The number of transactions was up 114 compared to the same period last year. Dollar volume soared 57 percent, according to the title company.

Overall, there have been 995 real estate transactions in Pitkin County through June, according to Land Title Guarantee Co. That is an increase of 14 percent from the same period last year. The firm bases its research on all transactions recorded at the Pitkin County clerk’s office. Those range from sales of employee housing units to McMansions.

While soaring real estate prices make many homeowners giddy over their bulging equity, they might prevent a new generation from taking root in the Roaring Fork Valley. Midvalley residents in their 20s say they aren't sure they can afford to remain part of the community in the long run. Settling into the upper valley has been tough for the past few decades, but places like Basalt, El Jebel and Carbondale provided affordable options. Now workers are being priced out of those towns as well.

In what could be an interesting model for other communities, Carbondale town trustees unanimously agreed to move ahead with the town of Carbondale Energy and Climate Protection Plan (energy plan) by allocating $140,000 in the 2007 budget to fund the initiative.

The money comes from franchise fees paid by Xcel, Holy Cross and KN Energy to operate in town. The fees vary every year but usually come out to about $150,000.

The Carbondale Environmental Board came up with the energy plan and originally presented it to the trustees in May. It is a comprehensive document that includes facts and figures on the town’s consumption of energy and things that can be done to minimize Carbondale’s effect on global climate change.

In May, the trustees directed town staff to come up with a strategy to implement the energy plan. Carbondale Town Manager Tom Baker agreed with the recommendation from the Environmental Board that a staff person must be committed to implementing the plan and money allocated for the plan to be successful.

Baker recommended that the town contract with the non profit Community Office for Resource Efficiency (CORE) to implement the plan instead of hiring another town employee.

The town has also applied for more that $1.5 million from the federal government in Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREB). The interest on the bonds would be paid by the government as part of the 2005 federal energy bill.

The town would need to put the question to the voters if they decide to pursue the bonds, and they have taken the necessary steps with the Garfield County Clerk to ensure that the question could be on the ballot this November.

The Office of Smart Growth has released a new publication on intergovernmental agreements in Colorado.

Since almost every issue facing local governments (affordable housing, transportation, land use impacts, social services, and economic development) cross political boundaries, Planning for Growth is a timely and useful resource.

The Eagle County Commissioners voted to put a early-childhood tax proposal on the fall ballot. If approved, the tax would raise $2 to $3 million per year for projects aimed at “early childhood,” or kids between birth and six years old.

The Eagle County tax question follows on the heels of a similar ballot issue that passed last year in Summit County. Other governments around the state are also looking into finding money for early-childhood services.

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 by a seven-to-six margin.

Larry Swanson and the folks at the Center for the Rocky Mountain West have put together a interesting chart of construction activity by county. The map above shows areas of the U.S. with relatively high concentrations of construction activity in relation to area personal income.

Dark red areas have construction labor earnings of $1.6 million and more for every $20 million in personal income - “very high” concentrations. Medium red areas have construction labor earnings of $1.3 to $1.6 million per $20 million in income (“high” dependencies) - note the group of dark red counties in western Colorado.

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.