The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
CB council looking for alternative funding ideas
By Mark Reaman
The Crested Butte Town Council discussion about putting an empty house tax before voters in November will be postponed from a planned work session scheduled for Monday, February 10 to sometime in March.
Council members want to have a broader discussion to explore other possible ways to raise revenue to fund affordable housing and projects in the town’s Climate Action Plan.
Many on the council have received copious negative feedback about the idea of an empty house tax and mayor Jim Schmidt, never a fan of the idea, said the discussion should be expanded to look at alternative revenue streams.
Earlier in the council meeting, longtime resident Glo Cunningham told the council that as someone who had been a part of more than 30 local non-profit organizations over the decades, she was not in favor of the idea. “Second homeowners have been a huge part of what we are today,” she said. “There needs to be a different approach to funding affordable housing. I would like to see a committee formed to find different ways to raise money for affordable housing. I’ll volunteer to be on the committee that can look at many diverse ideas to help solve the problem.”
Schmidt said he has met with some second homeowners who have offered interesting alternatives to the tax idea.
Schmidt told the council he had a recent meeting with a couple of second homeowners who indicated they would be interested in donating a substantial amount of money for affordable housing. “That goes to what Glo said earlier,” he said. “I directed them to the Valley Housing Fund about using that organization for such a contribution.”
Council member Chris Haver liked the idea of forming a committee to look more deeply into the situation.
Council member Mallika Magner suggested the council should have staff gather numbers of what future projects for both affordable housing and the town’s Climate Action Plan would cost. From there, the various revenue streams could be analyzed to see if they could adequately fund the ideas.
Town manager Dara MacDonald said changing and broadening the scope of the scheduled February 10 meeting would be a crunch for the staff since packets would be put together this week. She said the town should have pretty solid numbers on Climate Action Plan projects by mid-March. She said a scheduled work session on the Climate Action Plan, both on immediate and longer-term goals, was in the works for March 16.
“My concern is talking about raising funds for affordable housing and raising funds for climate action,” said Haver. “The conversations can be parallel but I’m not sure we can do one thing and solve it all. The numbers could be pretty big. I don’t want the discussion to be so broad that it doesn’t go anywhere.”
Magner said the discussion would allow them to “look at a multitude of income streams that are possible.”
Schmidt reiterated the suggestions from community development director Michael Yerman, who stated during the five-year affordable housing plan presentation a few weeks ago that in order to raise $250,000 a year for affordable housing projects on the horizon, things like a possible mill levy or sales tax increase could appeal to voters. “I don’t want a meeting where the only topic is the empty house tax idea,” emphasized Schmidt.
Councilwoman Mona Merrill said she was “blown away” by the idea of the Green InDeed program to deed-restrict more houses in town. “There seems like so much potential there and maybe that is a program second homeowners would want to contribute to. It has great opportunity,” she said.
MacDonald said with Yerman moving on from his position at the end of the ski season, the staff’s goal for 2020 is to develop the framework for the Green InDeed program, but it won’t be implemented this year.
The council agreed to cancel next week’s meeting and set a work session on the funding issue for March 9 as long as councilman Will Dujardin, who was not at the February 3 meeting, could make the March date.
