County encounters minor setbacks with Whetstone build

“It is very evident why it’s incredibly difficult to build housing” 

By Katherine Nettles

Gunnison County’s Whetstone Community Housing project along Highway 135 across from Brush Creek Road has been a flurry of activity in the North Valley this summer, and while progress is happening there have been a few disruptions as well. County manager Matthew Birnie reported to county commissioners during their regular meeting this week that the project has run into two types of challenges: clay in the soil and bureaucratic delays at the state level. Both issues have proved pervasive.

The major impact project is set to bring 252 rental units in 23 structures, and the county’s contractor, Moss Construction Company, broke ground in February.

Clay

Birnie first reported that contractors had encountered clay on the project site a few weeks ago, as the parcel has been receiving utility infrastructure and site preparation. Clay is known to cause foundation instability and has to be removed from a build site, but Birnie said at the time that Moss was on track schedule-wise with underground plumbing finished on four buildings and foundations going in next before moving on to framing.

Birnie said Tuesday, however, that the clay issue has continued, and added some expense. 

“We are making good progress, he said. “But we have run into more clay, so that’s taking a big bite out of our contingency [funds]. Other than that, the project is going well.”

Red tape

Bureaucratically, Birnie said he had some personal commentary on state procedural delays that have dragged on past what seemed reasonable. “I will say it does not appear that the state agencies have gotten the governor’s memo that housing is a priority. We’ve struggled with every state agency except CDPHE (Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment) which is usually the one that’s a slower agency,” he said. 

Birnie reflected that it took four months to get a tax-exempt certificate from the Department of Revenue (DOR), “for a public project owned by the county,” which has cost the county hundreds of thousands of dollars which it will now have to get refunded through additional time and effort. 

“Just one agency after another has been a challenge,” continued Birnie. “It is very evident why it’s incredibly difficult to build housing. If we weren’t the government, it would be worse. And even as a government it has been incredibly challenging.”

Birnie said that the Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) stepped in and helped the county to “break through the logjam of DOR,” but he described what he believed to be a lack of awareness at the state of how their “lethargic decision-making impacts projects,” despite the administration’s prioritization of them. 

“It’s been insightful. We’ve done quite a few projects on a smaller scale, and on a smaller scale you can suffer some setbacks that on a larger scale are much more challenging and expensive, quite frankly.” He said one issue was that the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) added a specification to the project and then later removed it, but in the process the county had to pay for it and spend time dealing with it. “To be fair, we had a very good meeting with CDOT yesterday about the roundabout, and the other projects on the corridor,” he added. It’s just that around this issue of housing there needs to be actual prioritization and facilitation. And we’ve seen that with one state agency.”

Commissioners discussed the need for more direct orders from the state executive branch for agencies that don’t otherwise consider themselves involved in prioritizing public housing projects. Birnie agreed that not all agencies were named in the executive order despite their involvement.

Birnie said he was mostly sharing his frustrations to give commissioners situational awareness and policy awareness going forward, that actions matter more than words. “We’ve seen that repeatedly: Everybody supports housing. It’s very hard to get support for a particular project.” Birnie also said it was a good insight on the regulatory process.

“We really need to be aware that what seems like a reasonable timeframe when you’re the person in the regulatory position, when you’re the person spending money and trying to get something done, it’s not sometimes.”

In recognition of what has gone well, Birnie said CDPHE did prioritize and approve the project’s onsite and offsite utilities in record time. “But they are the only ones who seemed to understand that the governor has said to prioritize and facilitate housing.” 

Birnie also applauded the work onsite. “We’re very happy with Moss, and we’re very happy with the subcontractors that are working on the job,” he concluded.