Briefs: Mt. Crested Butte

County-wide affordable housing map in the works

Councilmember/mayor pro tem Lauren Daniel, who represents the town on the Gunnison Valley Housing Foundation, has begun working with the foundation to attain accurate, updated maps that show both potential and established affordable housing locations throughout the county. Daniel reported that she had asked Jennifer Kermode, executive director for the Gunnison Valley Regional Housing Authority, for some help labeling each development, getting names on potential project sites and working with software to print them larger and more legibly. “This would help us to get a better understanding of affordable housing in the valley,” said Daniel.

Carlos Velado, community development director, who helped create the original map, offered to help update it as well. “That map is somewhat misleading,” he said, “because up here they have condos that have some deed-restricted units but the entire building is not deed-restricted.”

Updated parking requirements approved for new construction

The town has approved the first reading of its Planning Commission’s recommendations to amend parking design requirements for all new construction. Prompted by an unusual nine-bedroom home being built in the area, the new requirement allots more parking spaces for higher bedroom counts. Former mayor Todd Barnes asked the commission to consider the shared driveways of past eras, in which “Maybe three homes share one dirt road as a driveway,” but Velado explained that the ordinance is not going to put new requirements on someone retroactively. Any parking requirement changes “would have to be triggered by an addition,” he said.