Over 90 people crammed into the Glenwood Springs Community Center on Oct. 6th to discuss efforts to create affordable housing.

Presenters included housing authority directors from several mountain counties including Grand, Gunnison, Routt, and Summit, the Director of the State Division of Housing, and representatives of the Colorado Housing Finance Authority, Mercy Loan Fund, and Funding Partners, Inc.

The workshop was organized by Mountain Regional Housing Authority, the Garfield County Housing authority, the Roaring Fork Community Housing Fund and Healthy Mountain Communities to share affordable housing success stories, policy tools and funding strategies.

One outcome of the workshop was to begin to develop regional housing strategy for the Roaring Fork and Colorado River Valleys.

Participants identified key elements of such a strategy, including:

• Building more political will at the local level and regional level to develop housing attainable to a larger segment of the population;
• Creating housing strategies community by community as “one size does not fit all”;
• Developing a regional housing strategy that compliments and enables community housing plans with additional financial resources and capacity;
• Pursuing public-private-nonprofit partnerships to develop community housing since no one group should bear the burden of producing housing for all levels of income;
• Exploring dedicated local, regional, and state level financing tools and,
• Committing to do a better and more continuous job of educating ourselves and elected policy makers at the local and state level on the issues related to developing affordable community housing.

At the Oct. 6th Affordable Housing Workshop, Susan Shirley (Director of Mountain Regional Housing Corporation) and Geneva Powell (Director of the Garfield County Housing Authority) discussed their ongoing efforts to merge the two organizations to streamline affordable housing efforts in the lower Roaring Fork and Colorado River Valleys.

As of last week, the two organizations have created Valley Housing Partners (working title) with offices in Glenwood Springs City Hall. The new phone number is 970-384- 6447. The new fax is 970- 384-6449.

The legal structure of this new partnership is still evolving but the merger includes Garfield County Housing Authority, Mountain Regional Housing Corporation and the Roaring Fork Community Housing Fund.

Valley Housing Partners will be "house" the following services under one organizational roof:

• Section 8 rental assistance program management
• Senior Housing Management (Silt)
• Deed Restriction Administration (sales, refinance, qualification of buyers)
• Home Buyer Education (monthly classes) and Counseling (by appointment) in English and Spanish
• Revolving Loan funds for pre-development, down payment or closing cost assistance
• Housing Advisory Services to government and other organizations.

Valley Housing Partners will be meeting with area local governments in the coming months to discuss this exciting collaborative effort and how it can help them better achieve their community housing goals.

What could the mayors of Aspen and De Beque, or Snowmass Village and Silt, possibly agree on?

A lot, they say. Basalt, Carbondale, Glenwood Springs, New Castle, Rifle and Parachute, too. And they hope to become a louder regional voice and a stronger political force.

For the past seven months, the mayors throughout the Roaring Fork and Colorado River valleys have been meeting every two months to discuss issues of common interest. Despite differences in geography, demographics and political affiliation, the mayors have found there's more that unites them than divides them.

They have gathered in Carbondale, Rifle, Basalt and Silt. During September, mayors from Aspen to De Beque braved falling snow to gather in a conference room at the Aspen Alps to talk about gas drilling,gravel pits, water diversions, affordable housing and what to talk about next.

The group has been so popular, mayors have come from as far as Grand Junction, and mayors from Palisade, Fruita, Paonia and Hotchkiss have expressed interest, too. They hope that by acting jointly, they can find power regionally and statewide they couldn't find working separately.

They come from playgrounds of billionaires to communities surrounded by the natural gas industry, to towns caught in between. But they've found issues like affordable housing bind them, and impacts from natural gas drilling and gravel pit expansion unite upper valley environmental sensibilities with downvalley realities.

The group started meeting in February at the urging of Healthy Mountain Communities and has agreed to a series of meetings throughout 2007.

Mayors from Rifle, Silt and New Castle and the Parachute town manager attendees a special meeting Oct. 30 with the Garfield County Commissioners to discuss gravel pits.

An increased number of applications and demand for gravel pits along the Colorado River, especially between New Castle and Rifle, has generated a growing concern about the impacts the pits will have on area communities as far as views, wildlife, water quality — and reclamation after they’ve been mined.

City and town officials have asked that a master plan be devised for gravel pits along the Colorado River before any more applications are approved.

The county is currently looking to Routt County, which has a report card for gravel pits that address issues such as visibility, traffic, dust, noise, wildlife, air and water quality and reclamation.

Some say the demand for gravel has been prompted recently by the ever-increasing oil and gas companies in the area who use it to construct roads to their well sites.

For now, area mayors and county commissioners have agreed to revisit the issue at least one more time at a meeting sometime in December. County staff has been directed to review a comparison of gravel pit regulations between Routt and Garfield counties and then to present a report. A public meeting will also be scheduled to allow citizen input about gravel extraction.

Basalt will keep cows rather than condos on its western edge with the help of Pitkin and Eagle Counties.

The ranch is just west, or downvalley, from Big O Tires in Basalt. It stretches from the lower slopes of Light Hill on the south to the Roaring Fork River on the north side of Highway 82.

Pitkin County is putting about $3 million into the purchase, assuming the county commissioners approve the expenditure. The town of Basalt has pledged $250,000. The Eagle County open space program is contributing $1.75 million.

The ranch has been in the family since the early 1900s. Billy Grange said his grandfather bought the land around 1918. Billy now operates the cattle ranch with two of his nephews, who represent the fourth generation to work the land. They are one of the last families in Pitkin County that depend on ranching for a living.

Basalt pledged $250,000 from its general fund. If voters approve a 1 percent sales tax increase in this November's election, additional funds could be donated to the cause.

The midvalley is on the front end of what could be an unprecedented surge of development.

Recently approved projects, along with development applications that are just entering the government review pipeline, could add roughly 1,675 residences and 600,000 square feet of commercial space to the Basalt and El Jebel areas, according to an analysis of land use applications by The Aspen Times.

The fate of half of the big projects is still up in the air, depending on decisions by the Eagle County commissioners and Basalt Town Council this fall and winter season.

Glenwood Springs water engineer Louis Meyer, who represents the county on the Colorado River Basin Roundtable, reported to Garfield County Commissioners that declining flows in the Colorado River - due to the worst drought in the state's history and increased demands by West Slope and Front Ranger water users - point to future water quality problems right here at home.

The demands of the Front Range and downstream states of Arizona, Nevada and California on the Colorado River are well know to most residents of the Western Slope, but a recent move to renegotiate an agreement between the Denver and Xcel Energy to relax the use of Colorado River water by the Shoshone Hydroelectric Plant in Glenwood Canyon, could increase problems with water quality.

Meyer said salinity, minerals and new pollutants called "endocrine disrupters" - medicines, hormones, pesticides and herbicides now entering the river, which have not been targeted by water treatment plants - will increase in the river if more water is diverted.

While the western portion of Garfield County is booming with oil and gas development, and the associated environmental impacts, the eastern end of the county is looking in a different direction for energy production.

Carbondale Question 2F on the Nov. 7 ballot will ask voters to allow the town of Carbondale to issue up to $1.8 million in Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBs) to construct and operate two large-scale solar systems.

The proposed systems would provide about 250 kilowatts (KW) of power. One of the systems would be the largest solar system in western Colorado.

Voting "yes" on 2F will increase the town's debt, but will not raise local taxes. Revenue from the solar systems will pay off the bonds over the next 20 years. And, under a provision of the 2005 Energy Incentives Tax Act, the interest on the CREBs will be paid by the U.S. Government.

Carbondale trustees unanimously decided to pursue the CREBs after the town's advisory environmental board produced the Carbondale Energy Plan earlier this year. The plan outlines specific ways Carbondale can reduce its contribution to global warming.

The CREBs will fund two separate solar projects, one for 50 kilowatts (KW) and one for 200 KW. The 50 KW system will be located at the Carbondale Elementary School (the town is in negotiations with the school district to purchase the property) or the new recreation center and the larger system will be located either at Colorado Rocky Mountain School or at the town's Roaring Fork water plant.

The Pitkin County real estate market appears well on its way to setting another record in 2006 despite stumbling in September.

Through the third quarter of this year, sales were at $1.87 billion, or an increase of 12.5 percent over the same period last year, according to a monthly report by Land Title Guarantee Co.

Through September 2005, sales were at $1.67 billion - on the way to a record year. Sales for all transactions settled at $2.24 billion last year.

With three months to go, that mark appears destined to fall. The market is so strong that the sales through the third quarter this year ($1.87 billion) is better than the year-end mark in 2004 ($1.6 billion).

The Vail Town Council has taken steps to adopt regulations that will require commercial and residential projects to add employee housing units to their developments. The Council unanimously approved an emergency ordinance at its meeting on Oct. 17 declaring its intent to establish the new regulations on or before April 15, 2007.

The Town Council has identified a goal of retaining at least 30 percent of Vail’s workforce in deed- restricted housing units in the future. Currently, there are an estimated 9,100 jobs filled by 6,300 employees in Vail, with about 30 percent of those employees living in Vail.

Commercial linkage is a zoning provision that requires new commercial development to provide housing or funding for housing for the some percentage of employees generated by the new development. Basalt (20%), Aspen/Pitkin County (60%), Snowmass Village (60%), and Whistler, B.C (20-30%) all have commercial linkage programs in place.

Thanks to Andy Hill for the heads up on a couple of good workshops in November:

Annual Demography Meeting, November 17 (Westminster)
The Colorado Demography Office is hosting its Annual Demography Meeting November 17th at the Front Range Community College, Westminster Campus. The State Demography Office holds its annual meeting to review its basic assumptions and methods so that its statistics, estimates, and forecasts are as accurate as possible.

DOH’s Developer’s Toolkit Workshop, November 28-29 (Denver)
Join the Colorado Division of Housing for a two day workshop designed to enlighten participants about the art and science of affordable housing development.

Register by November 14 (class often fills fast) at the registration form and mail it in soon!

After a summer of commissioner appointments, the Colorado Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care Reform holds its first hearing on Monday, November 13, 2006 from 9:00 am-3:30 pm. The last thirty minutes of the meeting is reserved for public comment.

The meeting will be held at the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, 1445 Market St. in Denver. To attend the meeting RSVP to Anita Wesley by Wednesday, November 8, 2006 208commission@comcast.net.

The commission was created by Senate Bill 208 and recognizes that health care has reached a critical juncture in the state, and statewide policy reform might be an appropriate response. Colorado joins a number of states (Massachusetts, Maine, Illinois) and working on health care absent action at the federal level.

When Michael Shuman presented at Healthy Mountain Communities’, 1st State of the Valley Symposium in 2003, he presented an alternative approach to economic development that focused on local ownership and import substitution (LOIS) rather than the export model so common today.

Now he has completed The Small-Mart Revolution, which details the reasons why ‘local’ is working across the U.S.

As the publisher summarizes, The Small-Mart Revolution:

• Shows exactly why locally owned businesses are far more beneficial to their communities than massive chains like Wal-Mart
• Outlines specific strategies small and home-based businesses are using to successfully outcompete the world’s largest companies
• Advises consumers, investors, policymakers, and organizers on how they can support the the local entrepreneurs who contribute to their communities

The Garfield County Building and Planning Staff has had more than its fair share of change over the last few months. The biggest change being the retirement of long-time director Mark Bean. His three decades of experience, historic knowledge of Garfield County's land use codes, and quick wit will be missed as he enjoys his retirement. Mark his sharing the directorship of the department with Fred Jarman during his last few months. Fred has proved himself a worthy successor to Mark over the last few years.

Planner Dave Pesnichak replaces Richard Wheeler, who moved to Denver to pursue his masters degree at the University of Denver. Dave comes most recently from Vermont, but he has worked in Montrose in the past and is familiar with Western Colorado.

Finally, Long Range Planner Randy Russell accepted a position as manager for the Town of Jerome in Arizona. Randy served on the HMC board for two years, germinated the idea of State of the Valley Symposium, initiated many regional studies and wrote the grant to begin the current Garfield County land use code update. He has been a tireless advocate for regional thinking and collaboration and "horizontal" networking between the staff of federal, state and local planning agencies. Our region has benefited from his energy, insight, and vision.