The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
County housing authority now the umbrella for all affordable housing management
By Katherine Nettles
Gunnison County is managing several complex financial details around the Whetstone Community Housing project in the North Valley, for which final plans on land use change were approved by county commissioners last month. The major impact project is set to bring 252 rental units in 23 structures to a parcel along Highway 135 across from Brush Creek Road with initial groundbreaking to start in February 2025 and potential for people to move in starting in 2027.
Since the county has now cleared the process of land use approval in October, county manager Matthew Birnie covered several aspects of the project’s financing approach with county commissioners last week.
The first order of business was signing several quit claim deeds granted from the county to the Gunnison County Housing Authority (CHA), to convey the various parcels associated with the Whetstone parcel that the county has purchased to the CHA.
Next, commissioners approved an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) and promissory note for Whetstone with the CHA to enable the CHA to own and operate the property while the county funds it. “This [promissory note] is a loan from the general fund of the county to the county housing authority to retire the existing, underlying debt that remains from the purchase of Whetstone. This would be paid back to the county general fund through operating funds from the CHA,” said Birnie of the IGA. The county has not yet determined how to handle a separate loan to repay potential energy rebates for the project.
Commissioners then approved of directing workforce housing linkage fee revenues to the CHA. This essentially takes rent and applies it to the debt for Whetstone.
“The debt we are going to issue from the CHA will be a general revenue bond, which means that all potential revenues of the housing authority are available and pledged to the debt repayment,” said Birnie, which means that in addition to the Whetstone rents being pledged to pay back the debt, the rents from the county’s other workforce rental properties, such as Sawtooth, will be pledged.
“It doesn’t mean that we believe it will take other funds, other than what is generated by Whetstone, but this is essentially a credit enhancement for the deal,” he explained. “This makes sense in a lot of ways outside of the debt piece because the housing authority is now our vehicle for which we are going to do projects. And these fees are restricted to capital housing projects,” summarized Birnie.
The commissioners then convened as the county housing authority to accept these provisions and to execute the IGA. The IGA also delegates authority to the CHA to negotiate and execute contracts and other documents for the Whetstone project to help expedite the process of getting business done in a timely manner.
Commissioners reviewed the various parts before passing all provisions unanimously. They also referred to the details of an extensive Whetstone project update they received from county staff in a work session the prior week, and a third-party review for the development contract. “It’s a big complex deal and we want you to be fully informed,” said Birnie.
Commissioner Laura Puckett Daniels said she appreciated all the communication and structure of updates thus far, “So that we have a chance to learn and weigh in.”
Commissioner chair Jonathan Houck said the strategic advantage of putting Whetstone under the umbrella of the county housing authority allows it to sit in one place separately from other county business. “I think the other part that’s important,” he said, “Is what we approved a couple weeks back was the land use element of this project. There’s a whole other business side of this and it is ongoing. The due diligence that is happening is incredibly deep; we have professional third party organizations examining all of our assumptions, everything in the pro forma.” Houck noted that there is still debt to issue later in the process.
“Everything we’re doing today is moving these final aspects into place and making sure that what we have in assets and leverage are properly utilized and making sure that there is not exposure to the county and our ability to do the day in, day out statutory work responsible for the citizens of Gunnison County,” he concluded.
