County moves forward on Whetstone affordable housing

Aggressive timeline includes “sketch plan-ready concept” by end of the year

[ By Katherine Nettles ]

A new county-driven affordable housing opportunity is in the works at the north end of the valley, and county officials spoke publicly about preliminary plans for the 13-acre Whetstone parcel for the first time during a county commissioner work session on Tuesday, May 25. The focus is on getting extensive public engagement on the front side of the planning, and to quickly move toward a sketch plan before putting out a request for proposals from experienced local builders. The project could have a sketch plan in place as early as November or December of this year.

The county purchased the Whetstone parcel in 2019 for $1.8 million, and it is located just north of the Riverland Industrial Park across Highway 135 from Brush Creek Road.

Gunnison County community development director Cathie Pagano said the county made this purchase with “the intent of developing a neighborhood for local community members,” to build on the county’s other recent affordable housing projects that are either finished or underway. These include eight units at Buckhorn and two larger projects in Gunnison, the 76-unit Paintbrush and 36-unit GardenWalk developments.

Pagano said the county wants to make another meaningful contribution to the valley’s housing needs, recognizing that those needs are “urgent and pressing” and worse than ever this year. “The step we are launching today is to explore finance and design options to accomplish that goal.”

The county has contracted Willa Williford, an affordable and community housing consultant based in Crested Butte, and Trestle Strategy Group, a real estate consulting firm in Boulder that specializes in community building projects. Williford appeared in person before commissioners to present a starting vision for the process and introduced several members of the Trestle team via Zoom.

“I work across the mountain west focusing on rural and resort communities, and I really love working here in my home valley,” said Williford. She said she has worked with Trestle on and off for more than a decade, “and they felt like a really good fit for this project.”

Trestle’s founder Danica Powell and several of her team members, as well as consulting engineers and the architect from both Paintbrush and the Lazy K project in Gunnison will be a part of the Whetstone project kick-off.

“We know it’s a complex site and there’s a lot of technical things to sort out as we go hand in hand with community engagement,” said Williford. “Our end product is a sketch plan-ready concept by the end of the year.”

Williford said community engagement would be the hub of sorting out the technical elements and engineering constraints of the site, and she said it would be a valley-wide outreach to make it very attractive and well-defined for a developer further in the process.

Community engagement early and often
“One of the major guiding principles for us is we want to hear from all affected stakeholders,” said Williford. “And we know that often that involves going to the community rather than inviting the community to come to you.”

Williford said that includes Riverland business owners, current affordable housing residents, immigrant and Latinx communities, students, healthcare and tourism workers and developers.

“Since 2016, in the valley, public private partnerships have delivered more than 200 deed restricted units. So we actually have a really nice stable of developers to go to right now who have practical hands-on experience,” she said. “We very much see them being collaborators and partners to inform if we are on track with our feasibility and the approaches we’re taking.”

She asked if one or two of the commissioners would join a process committee to keep up with the team over the next six months. “It’s not to talk policy,” she emphasized, but to talk process.

Gunnison County sustainability coordinator John Cattles said it would be different from the Brush Creek approach, because the sketch plan would happen before a Request for Proposals and a developer was selected.

“Noticing that difference is important,” said commissioner chairperson Jonathan Houck.

Powell, Trestle’s principle, said diversity, equity and inclusion would be a part of this process and spoke of “windows of engagement” that are best in the beginning to help everyone with the visioning and big ideas. She said it is important to be very clear with the community about what stage the planning process is in and informing people what happens in that stage to set realistic expectations. “We want to work together in a very transparent way,” she said.

An example of that, explained Williford, is that it is always exciting for people to have a drawing down on paper, and her team can do that very loosely so people have something to look at, but understand it can and will change.

Houck reflected that having been involved with the Brush Creek project that didn’t work out, he wanted to know how to make input more a part of the process on the front end rather than at the end. “No matter how much input, how much outreach, how much connectivity, there are going to be people opposed to denser development or new ways of thinking about addressing these issues,” he said. “A lot of folks will stay out of the process…and then they show up at the end and that’s when the bomb-dropping happens.”

“We can’t inoculate a process completely against that,” said Williford. But she said there are ways to include people and let them be heard, and Powell added that it is important to elevate the positions of people either directly affected by housing or who really care about it.

“People need to know how to use their voice,” she said. “And people who don’t want development next to them exist in every community…I can’t promise you that we won’t have opposition, but we will do a good process. And hopefully that helps you at the end to make decisions.”

Houck added that the opportunity to work on a project of this size is important, echoing the trouble that people and businesses are having finding secure housing. He also said he believes in people living near where they work so they can participate in the community and feel connected to it.

Commissioner Roland Mason said he wanted to incorporate a larger vision for the whole area, including the Brush Creek parcel across the highway.

“That is on our radar,” said county manager Matthew Birnie. “It will need a unified look.”

Williford agreed that the surrounding areas would be considered and included, “This is not being designed in isolation.”

“We don’t just see this as a project. We see it as a movement; it’s happening everywhere,” said Powell of the outlined approach.