The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
The fees aren’t going to get cheaper
The Crested Butte Town Council is ready to make some major revisions to the town’s affordable housing ordinance. Fees for affordable housing will rise for new commercial and residential construction, but the ultimate idea is for developers of new projects to build actual affordable housing units instead of paying any fees.
The town has used a citizens’ subcommittee to germinate the new revisions. Under the guidance of town planner John Hess, the committee came up with the foundation of the plan. “We’ve been trying to get to this point for years,” Hess said to the Town Council at the Monday, March 21 meeting. “There are changes in a lot of the fees and requirements.”
The pace of the change concerned councilperson Jim Schmidt. “It is a pretty big increase in the affordable housing fees,” he said. “I think we are jumping things considerably when there isn’t a lot of building going on. As a council, we have to look at the big picture. As the housing committee, they only had to look at housing. That’s good. But I’d rather raise the fees over three years. I think that will encourage some people to build sooner rather than later. We are in a bad market and the council is raising fees considerably. That’s tough.”
Fees would be based on the size of a house or project. For example, a 2,000-square-foot house currently would pay $3,640 in affordable housing fees. Under the proposed regulations, the house would be tapped for $5,960. The fee slides with the size of the house or commercial project. Hess said he expected that residential builders would pay the fee, while commercial developers would be encouraged to opt for building actual units.
“The focus and intent is to provide the units and not a payment in lieu,” said mayor Leah Williams. “I think it is fair to raise the fees.”
“The fees have been so small that developers would happily pay the fees and move on,” explained committee member Margot Levy. “Everyone paid the fees but the fees weren’t significant enough for the town to be able to use them. We want people to build the units and for people to move into the units. The fees are an incentive to get people to build the units.”
“To build the units is not free,” responded Schmidt. “Will it push people out of town to build?”
“That’s fine with me if they go to Skyland or Mt. Crested Butte to build. In this town, development is supposed to pay its own way,” said Levy. “If you create a need with more workers, it has to be mitigated.”
Councilperson Dan Escalante suggested inserting a section in the new ordinance that would allow a developer to approach the town about using town-owned land to build deed-restricted units. “A public-private partnership could be beneficial,” he said.
The council liked that idea.
“For me, the new fees don’t seem to be going up that much,” said councilperson John Wirsing. “My family ski pass has more than doubled in the last six years and is more expensive than a pass in Vail. These fees are still cheaper than Vail. Housing is important and valuable. There is a lot of good stuff in here that helps us be the town we want to be.”
The council will consider the ordinance with the changes at the Monday, April 4 meeting.
