The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Looking to remove the price cap
By Kendra Walker
The spotlight on the long-awaited Homestead affordable housing development continues. While construction moves forward with the 22-unit affordable housing development this building season, neighbors have expressed their frustrations with the state of the neighborhood, continuous construction zone and constrictive deed restrictions. Current homeowners in the Homestead at Prospect subdivision have asked the town to help improve the affordable housing conditions at Homestead and consider revising the deed restrictions to better reflect the current market by lifting their price appreciation cap.
Theresa Henry, a homeowner in the Homestead at Prospect neighborhood, spoke during public comment at the July 2 council meeting.
“For five years now, we have been forced to live in a haphazard, dangerous, noisy, littered and high-traffic construction zone without outreach from the Town or the HOA Board on the status of our living environment. Over the past five years our children could not play safely in our neighborhood. There was so much traffic, noise and a very dangerous unsecured construction site.
“This year we hear a new developer is slated to take on the project, and we are grateful that an effort in communication with existing homeowners has begun. However, there has been no accountability from the Town of Mt. Crested Butte to make reparations to the homeowners for the nuisance and diminished quality of life for the past five years. Demolition of our neighborhood is currently underway, and we still have several more years of construction remaining. Several more years of living under these conditions.”
She asked the council to consider revising the neighborhood’s current deed restrictions, specifically lifting the price/appreciation cap. “As the cost of living and real estate have skyrocketed in this Valley, we strongly feel that the deed restrictions of the Homestead Affordable Housing neighborhood need to be reworked…We are asking that the Town considers a lift on our deed restriction cap to accommodate the hardships forced upon us, the impact on our quality of life and the rise in housing costs, including affordable housing costs. The sale of our affordable housing units purchased 10-15 years ago needs to better align with the sale of a comparable affordable housing unit sale today. As it stands now, we could not sell our unit and purchase a different, more suitable affordable unit, for our growing families. Many of us looked into or even tried to qualify for a unit in the newer Homestead development, but the unit sale costs were too high for us to even consider or qualify. Given that this neighborhood is no longer what we invested into years ago, some of us would also like the option to sell and move to another affordable housing neighborhood. However, the gap in the current affordable housing pricing and Homestead’s current 3% appreciation force us to remain in our originally purchased units, unable to secure financing.”
Deed restrictions typically include specific requirements for affordable housing units, such as the homeowner working locally and falling within a certain Area Median Income (AMI) threshold, not using the home as an investment property and having an appreciation cap for how much the property can be sold.
According to Community Development director Neal Starkebaum, there are currently 79 total deed restricted units in Mt. Crested Butte. There are 15 completed deed restricted units in the Prospect Homestead subdivision, as well as the additional 22 affordable units coming down the pipeline. All of the new Homestead units are under contract, 10 of which are previous contract holders from the original project. The town is also under contract for two units. The Gunnison Valley Regional Housing Authority (GVRHA) qualified eligible buyers through a lottery process earlier this year.
Starkebaum confirmed with the Crested Butte News that the town has never amended a deed restriction to remove a price/appreciation cap. “Tools such as price/appreciation caps are typically incorporated as a deed restriction to balance the goals of maintaining affordability for future homebuyers,” he said.
However, revisions to deed restrictions are possible. The process to amend or update a current deed restriction requires review by town staff, deliberation by the council and final action by the council. “The Town Council can amend the Homestead Deed Restriction and has done so multiple times,” said town manager Carlos Velado. “The Town has never taken major measures as part of these amendments such as removing price caps.”
The council has not formally discussed the deed restriction revision request from Henry and the Homestead at Prospect homeowners. The topic did briefly come up during the July 16 town council meeting when the council met the GVRHA’s new executive director, Melissa LaMonica.
While the town would ultimately be responsible for making any decisions regarding revisions to those deed restrictions, LaMonica told the council the GVRHA can field questions from the Homestead at Prospect homeowners. “Ultimately we want to be able to provide affordable housing to our community members,” she said. “We also want them to prosper and move up through the system. If there are things placed in the past that are hindering them, sure let’s look at it and talk about it. But we must be intentional. The purpose is to provide stability, not wealth.”
