The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Preparing draft plan in the coming months
By Kendra Walker
Community housing remains a priority for the Mt. Crested Butte town council as they have held discussions over the past several months with the goal of developing a five-year strategic plan to guide the town’s affordable housing efforts. The council held a full-day housing retreat on February 5 and will now plan on another work session in May or June to begin preparing a draft plan.
During their March 17 meeting, the council reviewed an executive summary of the housing retreat from Michael Yerman of MY Rural Planner (MYRP), who facilitated the retreat to help the council establish a framework for developing a strategic plan.
During the retreat, the council discussed past accomplishments, current challenges and future opportunities in community housing. The four major focus areas they addressed included policies, programs, development and fiscal planning.
According to the summary, council feedback focused on policies related to existing deed-restricted properties and potential strategies to promote additional long-term rentals or generate revenue from vacant properties. “The council reached consensus that future policy updates should prioritize preserving long-term affordability and supporting community members facing rising housing costs associated with HOAs, insurance and utilities,” wrote Yerman.
When looking at programming, the council discussed the gap in regional housing support with the recent dissolution of the Gunnison Valley Regional Housing Authority (GVRHA). “The council largely agreed on the need to continue exploring regional approaches to support housing programming,” he said. “The council recognized the town’s short-term internal need to support the administration of existing deed restrictions and properties. An important outcome of the future strategic plan will be determining which programs and administrative efforts should be led by the town versus those that should be supported through regional partnerships.”
When discussing development, Yerman said there was strong support for a new rental project in town limits, especially to serve the community housing need for households between 80–120% AMI (Area Median Income). “The council discussed the importance of engaging in public-private partnerships to leverage local funding with private equity. Members expressed interest in creating incentives that would leverage local funds and provide meaningful support for project development.”
With fiscal planning, Yerman noted the council expressed strong interest in working with the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) to incentivize one or more projects within the district. “The council agreed that fiscal planning and savings to establish this program should be treated as a high priority over the next three to five years, in advance of developing a project-specific incentive package,” he wrote.
He said the council also expressed interest in pursuing grant opportunities that could help the town leverage its available funds, and in reallocating the $100,000 previously designated for the GVRHA to support regional collaboration opportunities and programming efforts.
Yerman explained that the Colorado state legislature passed Senate Bill 24-174 (Sustainable Affordable Housing Assistance), which requires specific local governments to develop and submit a Housing Action Plan (HAP) by January 1, 2028. He noted that Mt. CB is exempt, but it does apply to the other jurisdictions in the valley. “I bring that up because what’s going to occur to create those action plans is a robust public process. Communities can choose to do individual action plans or they can do regional plans. Given the fact that you guys already did your housing needs assessment as a regional plan, that would lend you down the path of going through a regional process.”
Yerman suggested that the town proceed with a straightforward strategic plan that would adopt the council’s feedback and actionable items from the retreat, while keeping in mind a more extensive regional planning process down the road.
“This is an opportunity for you guys to get your priorities on paper so that can lead those regional discussions,” he said. And then that document (strategic plan) would guide the bigger, regional housing action plan if you guys choose to engage as a region.”
He suggested a work session in May or June to begin prep work to look at short, medium and long-term action items and fiscal guidance for each of the main topics discussed at the retreat.
