Mt. Crested Butte continues tweaks to Homestead housing rules

Residency requirement can now be waived

For many people, times may be tough economically, but the town of Mt. Crested Butte is making it easier for people to find a new home in the Homestead affordable housing development.

This week, the Town Council approved two new changes to the deed restrictions on the development. One change the council made is to base a unit’s Homeowners Association dues on square footage rather than per unit. A second change eliminates a one-year residency requirement to qualify buyers.
Deed restrictions outline the qualifications needed to buy or rent a unit in Homestead and limit the selling characteristics of a property to promote long-term affordability.
At a council meeting on Tuesday, November 18, Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR) planning director John Sale said the proposed changes ”build in a little more flexibility” for qualifying buyers.
The Homestead project is being built at the entryway to the Prospect subdivision on the north side of Mt. Crested Butte. A joint project between the town of Mt. Crested Butte and CBMR, Homestead is currently planned to hold 37 units, as a mix of duplexes, triplexes, and single-family homes. Mt. Crested Butte is building 16 of the units and CBMR is building 21 units.
When the first of the new affordable housing units were close to completion in July, the town and CBMR discussed making changes to the existing deed restrictions applied to the housing project. Because none of the units had been sold at the time, the deed restrictions had yet to be recorded by the county, leaving the Town Council time to make changes.
On August 5 the council approved several changes, including a greater allowance buyers could devote to housing bills from their monthly income, and a change allowing Mt. Crested Butte business owners to purchase housing to rent to their employees.
The possibility of eliminating a restriction requiring buyers to have resided in Gunnison County for at least one year was also discussed at the time, but was never approved.
Sale said the town staff and CBMR were once again asking the council to eliminate the requirement to increase the pool of qualified buyers. Under the new change, both CBMR and the town will have to agree in a written document whether or not to waive the one-year residency requirement on an individual-buyer basis. Sale said the resort would like to be able to provide housing for new employees who may have been in the county for only a few months.
Community development director Hunter Dale explained that the second proposed change would be to base HOA dues on square footage rather than a per-unit basis. Dale clarified that the square footage would be based on the lot size. Although the buildings themselves are duplexes and triplexes, Dale said the lot lines underneath had been organized to provide a stand-alone lot for each individual unit. “We felt it was a more fair way to calculate HOA dues,” Dale said.
The council unanimously approved both changes with little discussion. Council members Gary Keiser and Wendy Fisher were absent.
Town manager Joe Fitzpatrick said the town’s first duplex was completed in August, but neither of the units have sold. “We have two three-bedroom units ready to go,” he says. The town is trying to sell one of the units and rent out the other.
Town clerk Donna Arwood said there has been public interest in both of the units. “We’ve had five people inquire about the rental. Four people turned it down because there was no bus service,” Arwood said, adding that the fifth person was ready to move in, but did not qualify under the deed restriction.
She said there has been one offer on the unit for sale, but the prospective buyer also did not qualify. Arwood said the interested person did not meet the one-year residency requirement, and, being a single buyer, would not qualify for a three-bedroom unit.
Fitzpatrick said the rental is being offered for $1,500 per month, and the other unit is listed for sale for $264,735.
Sale says CBMR has made a few sales of its first new affordable housing units. This summer CBMR finished two triplexes, each with a range of units including one bedroom, two bedrooms and three bedrooms. “We’ve sold one of the one-bedrooms and both of the three-bedrooms,” Sale says. The units range in price from about $134,000 for a single bedroom, to $262,000 for the three-bedroom unit.