CB council has mixed feelings about Housing Needs Assessment final draft

Confusion with the process?

By Mark Reaman

The Crested Butte town council discussed the 2024 Gunnison Valley Housing Needs Assessment (HNA) on February 17 as part of a state mandated public review process. They disagreed with some elements of the recommendations and were a bit perplexed when informed that the Gunnison County Housing Authority had submitted the assessment to the state as required before receiving and including the town’s comments.

The lengthy assessment document and addendum was filled with information, statistics and potential recommendations. It identified “significant housing challenges” in the Gunnison Valley including the need for 1,300-1,550 additional housing units before 2029 to address current shortfalls and keep pace with job growth and retirements. At least 75% of those units should be priced below market to meet local workforce needs. The assessment said 92% of employers in the area report housing as a serious or critical problem. Eight percent of jobs in the valley remain unfilled due to housing constraints. The report stated that homes priced under $500,000 have nearly disappeared in the South Valley while median home prices exceed $1 million in the North Valley.

Crested Butte housing director Erin Ganser said the two takeaways that struck her were that housing costs were accelerating well beyond what local wages could afford and that there is a risk for a widening homeless community in the valley.

“We are building units, but the severity of the problem is accelerating,” she said. “Job growth and housing expansion are not coordinated.”

Among the primary recommendations in the assessment were that regional coordination and organizational capacity needed to be better; funding sources needed to be expanded; production of new housing needed to be accelerated; current affordable housing units, such as those in mobile home parks, needed to be preserved; those with super low incomes who were homeless needed to have special protections; zoning should be updated to permit higher densities while regulations governing that part of land use policy needed to be streamlined; employer assisted housing should be built; and data and accountability of housing projects should be regularly reviewed to measure progress toward goals.

“Of the eight recommendations, the accountability piece is most critical to me,” said councilmember Gabi Prochaska. “We’ve been building units but how is that investment working? Collaboration is also important.”

“It was hard to get through that document,” said councilmember John O’Neal. “It was unwieldly. It doesn’t seem a useable document for a lot of people. It’s very technical. I’ve also had feedback from local contractors that the numbers used for construction labor costs are very low.”

“I appreciate what the state is trying to do by standardizing analyses, however that approach falls apart with smaller data sample sizes and broken markets, which are the reality here,” said Ganser. “There are portions of the report that are grounded in locally generated data, which is very valuable and other places where the report feels disconnected. Hopefully through the upcoming corridor plan, we can add local nuance to the story and improve the applicable recommendations.”

“I agree with John that the recommendations seemed boilerplate,” said councilmember Beth Goldstone.

“I’m concerned some things in the document could be a little dangerous,” said mayor Ian Billick. “I’m worried that four or five years from now the elected officials will think everyone agreed with this assessment and use it for policy and that’s not the case. I suggest including a caveat that the study was done for particular state reasons.”

“I really dislike the recommendation to get rid of barriers in density,” Billick said. “It could make matters worse in a resort community like ours unless some sort of deed restriction was included. Just increasing the number of units doesn’t work without deed restriction and clear public benefit in ski resorts.”

Town manager Dara MacDonald told the council that the report was already submitted to the state from the county housing authority without council feedback. That tweaked the council.

“I want to make sure it is clear some issues like increased density are not agreed upon,” reiterated Billick.

Melissa LaMonica, who was head of the Gunnison Valley Regional Housing Authority as the Housing Needs Assessment was put together, said all entities involved with the GVRHA were given lots of opportunity to provide feedback and contribute to the final report that would be sent to the state which was required under state regulations. In fact, she said that process is still going on, and Crested Butte has been actively participating in gathering what is needed for the submission. 

“Perhaps there is some confusion about the process, as the Housing Needs Assessment is still yet to be officially submitted to the state (as it is not officially due until December 31, 2026), however we are in the process of doing so,” she said this week in an email. 

Last fall after seeing a draft of the local study document, Colorado Department of Housing (DOH) officials determined an “addendum” with more information needed to be added to the assessment document. LaMonica said the updated draft addendum was sent to participating jurisdictions. “We received feedback from the county, The Valley Housing Fund, and the town of Crested Butte. This feedback was incorporated in the final draft,” she said.

“The statute requires a public meeting to gather feedback from stakeholders as a part of a regional process,” LaMonica continued. “The final draft was presented at a GVRHA board meeting in December by our consultant. Crested Butte town staff were in attendance and provided additional feedback to the consultant in that forum – which was also incorporated in the final work product. I assure you that nothing was done in a vacuum.”

LaMonica is chief financial officer for Gunnison County but continues to manage some residual administrative items as a result of the transition from GVRHA to the County Housing Authority. She said the completed assessment and addendum will be officially submitted to the Colorado Department of Housing once they are able to provide more specific submission instructions. She said it appears they are still working out some kinks.

She did explain that Crested Butte housing director Erin Ganser “has already submitted the additional comments to our contact at DOH in a memo, and he advised us to upload the memo with the submission. So, while the latest comments will be submitted with the HNA, they will not be incorporated in the actual Housing Needs Assessment.”