The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Waiting for the entire magnificent seven
Given the absence of Crested Butte councilperson Dan Escalante from the April 18 meeting, the council has pushed off the ordinance making changes and adjusting fees to its affordable housing regulations. The council will now vote on the ordinance at its first meeting in June.
The proposed changes will substantially increase the fees charged to someone building a house in town or developing a commercial project. Affordable housing fees could jump on a sliding scale as much as three times from what they are now for residential construction. On the commercial side, the increase could be as much as 39 times current rates. Town planner John Hess emphasized that the town doesn’t want the fee but would rather have developers build actual units. Council members Jim Schmidt, Phoebe Wilson and Roland Mason have voiced a desire to phase in the big fee increases over a three-year period. “It softens the blow and might motivate someone to build now or soon before the fees increase,” said Schmidt.
“There is a benefit to doing this now while the real estate values are in a slump,” said mayor Leah Williams. “They will be in place for when the turn-around comes.”
“That’s why a three-year phase-in is good,” said Schmidt.
“The fact is, we are in a new reality,” said Wilson. “It’s a really bad recession and to put this on all at once is pretty dramatic. I feel strongly it should be phased in over three years. We are in a recession and this won’t help.”
Williams also said she had spoken to the Telluride mayor, who indicated the fees in that resort were twice those being proposed in Crested Butte. “The program there is working and the community is now behind it,” she said.
“You can’t really use Telluride as a comparison to here anymore,” said Schmidt. “They are at a different level.”
“There are very pronounced differences between us and Telluride,” added Wilson.
“This increase brings a significant impact to residential building in Crested Butte,” said Mason. “Ultimately I think these fees will be good for the town. But that will be in 10 or 15 years when the economy turns around. Phasing it in over three years isn’t going to make it or break it.”
“But the bigger the house the bigger the fees,” said councilperson John Wirsing. “It is the large homes that have the most impact and generate more jobs and impacts. Plus if anyone were motivated to build to avoid these fees, they would be moving now. We’ve been talking about this for a long time.”
“The fees have been so low for so long that we can’t maintain the affordable housing infrastructure we have,” said councilperson Reed Betz. “This is a tool that keeps Crested Butte what it is, but we are playing catch-up. This citizen’s committee has worked hard and come to us with a recommendation and I think we should take it.”
“What we’re saying here might not seem like a lot but it does make a difference to people,” added Schmidt.
No public spoke to the ordinance during the public comment period at the Monday meeting.
Williams noted that given the nature of the decision, a full seven-person council should vote on the ordinance. The rest of the council concurred. And so given the schedule of the council, the ordinance was put off to be voted on at the June 6 meeting.
