Town renews movement toward affordable housing preparation

These are baby steps

The Crested Butte Town Council is taking a few small steps to prepare for the time when more deed-restricted affordable housing will be needed in the town. The council decided Monday to spend about $5,000 to have engineer Norm Whitehead finish construction drawings for the infrastructure on blocks 79 and 80 in the Paradise Park Affordable Housing subdivision on the northeast side of town. That subdivision was created as part of the Verzuh annexation and is dedicated to providing housing for those who qualify under income requirements and want to buy or rent housing in town.
The council also wants town planner John Hess to investigate whether granting agencies that might actually fund putting in infrastructure like streets, alleys and utilities need a recent survey gauging the affordable housing needs of the community. The council also directed staff to keep an eye out for such granting opportunities that might provide “free” money for such a project.

It is estimated that to install infrastructure in block 79 would cost about $485,000. Throw in block 80 and the cost goes to $548,000. The town’s affordable housing fund has about $175,000.
Councilperson David Owen informed the council that a private entity has approached the Gunnison County Housing Authority with the idea to potentially build rental units in Crested Butte. He said that group would likely seek some form of town subsidy. Owen said that project wouldn’t likely start for at least a year.
If other projects bring in rental units to Crested Butte, interim town manager Bob Gillie suggested the town might want to change the unit mix currently platted over on the blocks to more for-sale opportunity and fewer rental units.
“No matter what happens, we’ll eventually need infrastructure for block 79,” said Mayor Aaron Huckstep. “That justifies spending the money to get the construction plans finished no matter what.”
“I’m of the mindset with the current real estate market that I don’t really see any urgency to put infrastructure in,” said Councilperson John Wirsing. “We’ve been witnessing very slow sales of affordable housing units. To go get a loan to pay back infrastructure installation would be foolhardy right now. We have open lots we could use for actual housing if we need to. I’d say look at 79 and 80 as land in the bank. It’s good to be aware of the situation but we shouldn’t stretch ourselves too thin to do infrastructure we might not need for a long time.”
“I agree that the market is telling us there’s not a lot of demand at the moment,” said Owen.
Gillie countered that argument saying that when the market is down, the timing is right to get ready for an eventual boom. “If you wait until the market turns and people are lining up but it’s not ready, you miss the opportunity,” he said.
Gillie also pointed out that when the economy does turn around, Crested Butte is more in demand for housing than places like Crested Butte South or Mt. Crested Butte. “Let’s see what grant opportunities are out there to pay for this and finish the plans so we can strike when the iron is hot. These are baby steps,” he said.
“My general feeling is to move forward with putting infrastructure in,” said Councilperson Jim Schmidt. “I’d still suggest we put a lot or two over there up for sale on the free market to pay for the infrastructure costs.”
“Someday we’ll need infrastructure over there and if we can do it with free grant money, we should,” said Huckstep.
The council agreed to proceed with completing the unfinished construction plans, asked Hess to contact granting agencies to see if a new survey would be beneficial to landing a grant and directed the staff to start researching if any grant money was available for infrastructure implementation.