Crested Butte Town Council candidates squared off at the annual Crested Butte News Candidates Forum held last Thursday, October 18. Commonalties among the candidates became the theme of the night as candidates shared aspirations and opinions on topics ranging from the proposed Lucky Jack mine to recycling.
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By Katherine Nettles
Although housing prices have continued creeping upward over the past several years, property owners looking to build more affordably in Gunnison County may soon have the option of using a free set of model home plans that comply with all current county energy and wildland urban interface building codes.
The county’s community and economic development department secured two grants from the state energy office last month to help the county comply with its recently adopted energy codes. One of those grants will provide up to $61,000 for staff training, a contractor information session this spring and to develop a set of model home plans to be available to property owners at no cost. The other grant provides up to $90,000 for scholarships to local contractors to obtain energy efficiency training and equipment.
The grants became effective on February 2, 2024, and the terms require that the model home plans be complete and available online to the public by the end of the year.
Model home plans
The notion of providing model home plans to valley residents is one that Gunnison County commissioners have been loosely discussing for years, beginning with former commissioner John Messner and continuing with current county commissioner Liz Smith.
“I heard about it originally from Pitkin or Summit County,” recalls Smith. “I was intrigued by the concept that could help reduce the barrier for those trying to build a home. To have plans available for free, anything that can help fast track a building proposal through administrative review or show what people might be able to do on their property without having to hire an architect seems like a good idea for people who might want to build their own home locally that may not have the resources to do a custom project.”
The county adopted the 2021 International Wildland Urban Interface Code (WUI) in the fall of 2022 followed by the 2021 International Energy Conservation Codes (IECC) in the fall of 2023. Each places stronger regulations on building materials, building practices and energy efficiency performance for new buildings constructed in the county. These codes were adopted in keeping with the county’s climate-related strategic goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030 from 2005 levels, and in advance of anticipated state requirements.
But some in the building community have also complained that these new codes drive up the already unprecedented building costs for the area, which puts undue financial strain on locals hoping to build a home of their own someday.
“As we go through the WUI codes and IECC codes we’ve been asking, what are the ways we can capitalize on this in an affordable way without people trying to wrap their minds around these new building material requirements and energy budget limitations? How do we help people see and understand what a WUI home can look like?” said Smith. “So the ideas expanded from there. One of the things I like is you have this sort of trifecta. You can make building more affordable upfront, then lower the ongoing maintenance and utilities costs if you are able to build in some long-term benefit with energy efficiency, while insulating our homes from the risk of wildfire.”
The idea began to coalesce when assistant county manager for sustainability and operations John Cattles and assistant county manager for community and economic development Cathie Pagano started talking about the concept in late 2022 and brought it to commissioners in 2023. It was a stated objective in the county’s IECC resolution adopted in November 2023.
“We’ve been able to move quickly on this idea from conception to implementation,” said Pagano.
A memo to commissioners from county building and environmental health official Crystal Lambert outlined the terms and conditions of both grants, which are aimed at making WUI and energy code adoption easier on everyone.
“The first grant is specific to Gunnison County to update materials related to the recently adopted building energy codes, train building office staff, develop model home plans, and host a spring construction kickoff meeting for local building industry professionals,” wrote Lambert. A second grant was also awarded to provide funding to Gunnison County on behalf of the Gunnison Valley Building Code Collaborative, “to develop an energy efficiency scholarship program and to host educational seminar series for local energy professionals.” The Gunnison Valley Building Code Collaborative includes Gunnison County, the City of Gunnison, the Town of Crested Butte and the Town of Mt. Crested Butte.
Cattles said the county plans to release a request for proposals (RFP) and solicit responses from architects to do the model home plans. “We will also consider proposals from others with design experience like builders and engineers,” he said. “We don’t have anyone in mind yet. I hope we can have a set of plans and details complete sometime in the fall but that will depend on the responses we get and the availability of architects who propose.”
The grant award states that the county “shall develop publicly available, free model home plans that property owners and builders can use as a template to meet adopted building energy codes,” and conduct a public engagement process to identify practical features that will ensure the final model home product is affordable, desirable and appropriate for the climate zone and community.
The plans are required to include at least one single family dwelling and one multifamily dwelling and contain all the provisions to meet or exceed the 2021 IECC and the Colorado Model Electric Ready and Solar Ready Code.
Cattles said the county intends to begin with one model home plan which can be adjusted for various needs.
“We are not planning on multiple plans but hope to create one that can be adapted to different looks with modest changes to rooflines and exterior materials. We also hope to come up with details that can be incorporated into plans by others to comply with energy code and WUI code,” said Cattles. “All of the plans we produce will be available to the public for their individual use. We hope this can be a resource that may help community members affordably build housing. It will also be a learning experience for us to apply our own codes and work through issues to find solutions.”
“We’re going to need a lot of quivers and a lot of help to make this place affordable for those who live here,” said Smith. “And anything we can do to help encourage multifamily building in construction is important as well.”
The spring construction kickoff meeting will share information about the newly adopted codes with the local building industry professionals. The focus will be on the 2021 IECC and the Colorado Model Electric Ready and Solar Ready Code and the date is April 24 at 8 a.m. in the commissioners meeting room at the county courthouse.
Local building industry scholarships
The second grant is to provide funding to Gunnison County on behalf of the Gunnison Valley Building Code Collaborative to develop an energy efficiency scholarship program (up to $67,500) and to host and educational seminar series for local energy professionals (up to $15,000).
The Gunnison Valley Building Code Collaborative includes Gunnison County, the City of Gunnison, the Town of Crested Butte and the Town of Mt. Crested Butte.
The scholarships will help offset costs for local professionals attaining energy efficiency certifications and training, such as Home Energy Rating Systems (HERS), mechanical heat pump installation, insulation installation and mechanical solar installation. The scholarships are also meant to aid professionals that have received energy efficiency training or a certification in purchasing equipment. The grant states that this may include energy efficiency-related measurement, diagnostic or testing equipment. Scholarship application materials can be found at https://www.gunnisoncounty.org/1072/Energy-Efficiency-Professional-Scholarsh.
The education series is designed to help building contractors, designers, local energy professionals and property owners develop local knowledge and expertise of energy related code provisions, technologies and available solutions and options for building specific to climate zone 7. Classes may include heat pump technology, pv solar technology, electrification, energy rating, air-tightness and ventilation and insulation.
By Mark Reaman
People riding the bus
Ridership on the Gunnison Valley Rural Transportation Authority (RTA) buses between Gunnison and Mt. Crested Butte continues to increase. During the December 8 RTA board meeting, executive director Scott Truex said ridership last month was up 31% over November 2022. With 41 roundtrips per day starting this ski season, Truex said the RTA is on track to handle more than 320,000 passengers this year. Last year just under 250,000 people used the buses. “That’s a big jump,” noted Truex. “It’s about 100,000 riders more than our pre-COVID numbers.”
Housing paying off
The RTA owns nine affordable housing units to house employees, and as of December all but two were occupied or would be within weeks. Truex said one of the two empty units is being held for a mechanic position while the second unit will be used for a driver.
Strategic plan to include survey of passengers (and non-passengers)
The RTA board agreed to allocate $85,000 to hire a consulting company to develop a strategic plan for the organization. The board will engage the firm Fehr and Peers. As part of the plan the company will spend some time on the buses surveying passengers. The board would also like the company to survey some people who are not regular users of the RTA buses.
Senior transit question
RTA board member Laura Puckett Daniels said she heard from a resident living in the Antelope Hills subdivision outside Gunnison that the senior service bus would not come pick them up for a medical appointment. Truex said the contract with Gunnison Valley Health designates a service area of three miles outside of Gunnison. The Mountain Express senior service contract does not have such a restriction. Puckett Daniels said in her view all county residents should have equal access to senior transportation availability. “It is important to me that everyone is served,” she said. “There is a wave of seniors coming our way and we should do what we can to help them age in place.”
Truex said he would look into details of the two services and report back to the board on specifics. The board approved both senior service transit contracts at the December 8 meeting.
By Katherine Nettles
Gunnison County commissioners held a public hearing on some land use resolution (LUR) amendments last month before approving the amendments as recommended by county staff with one modification.
The bulk of the amendments were recommended based on a recent court order that came from a lawsuit between the county and a property owner in Crested Butte South (Gunnison County vs. Tyzzer) challenging the county’s LUR appeals process. The amendments bring the LUR into compliance with the court order for the process of appeals to be handled by the Gunnison County board of adjustment instead of strictly by county commissioners. At the same time, the Gunnison County community and economic development department made other minor changes to the LUR.
The Gunnison County Planning Commission reviewed and recommended the amendments in early November, and Gunnison County assistant county manager for community and economic development Cathie Pagano presented the changes for the second time at the public hearing on December 19.
The amendments included removing some restrictive barriers and creating “more equitable regulatory standards” around mobile and manufactured homes; accommodating state regulatory updates; allowing digital submission documents; and eliminating the requirement of an administrative review LUR application for secondary residences to make it slightly easier for people to add secondary dwellings to their primary residences and possibly help improve the long-term rental inventory.
“It’s a very small bar to lower to try to make that creation of those secondary or smaller residences more feasible for folks,” said Pagano. “By no means do I think it is a panacea and that we will have a bunch of folks applying for secondary residences. The majority of what we see in the county do not appear to be for rentals, they appear to be for family or occasional use. But we want to take the opportunities where we can.”
The amendments also allow people to take longer periods of time to build a residence as they are able to finance and permit it in phases, such as building a driveway one year, then getting a septic system a few years later and a building permit after that.
“Previously we had only issued driveway permits when somebody had applied for septic and or building permit,” said Pagano. “This allows for that opportunity.”
The public hearing brought some pushback as Almont resident Mark Schumacher and county resident Marcus Lock took exception to another change proposed in the amendments that removed Almont, Somerset and Ohio City from a list of existing population centers for the purpose of how future development is considered. This led to a lengthy discussion about Almont, population centers, and how to determine what makes an area qualify for easier development versus additional processes. That topic will be considered more deeply in the county’s upcoming corridor planning, and in the meanwhile led to an ultimate modification to the LUR amendment.
Public comment: Almont a city center?
Schumacher expressed concern during public comment that staff recommended removing Ohio City, Somerset and Almont from a clause that identifies them as city centers in the LUR. Areas not considered city or population centers must undergo an additional requirement for development applications, referred to as “locational standard review.”
“I’ve lived in Almont for 40 years and I believe it’s a population center. I’m not sure why it won’t be considered that,” said Schumacher. He recalled that in the 1990s, residents and business owners determined that they wanted the area to be a mix of residential and commercial uses and have acted accordingly with two commercial businesses, three restaurants, tourism, workforce housing, a post office, storage units and bus stops as well.
He said the last land use change in Almont was his own, in the early 2000s. “The rate of growth has been really slow in Almont,” he said, but said it is entirely platted with established water supply and he has been required to set aside some of his property for an expanded wastewater treatment plant when he has gone through a land use change in the past. “What’s the problem with Almont that makes us not a city center?” he asked.
Pagano said she disagreed with Schumacher’s statement that all of Almont is platted and there is no room for additional development. “There are certainly parcels that may be redeveloped or changed and we may receive applications for subdivisions of existing parcels. There is future opportunity,” she said. She also noted that not everyone in Almont has access to the wastewater treatment plant.
County commissioner chair Jonathan Houck asked to clarify what the area’s removal as a city population center in the LUR means for future development there, and if existing uses would remain protected. Pagano said they would, and that development not adjacent to an existing city center would have to demonstrate that it has no significant adverse impact to the neighborhood. Pagano said the applicant would have to submit a written statement explaining that there would be no adverse impacts; then the planning commission and commissioners would have to evaluate the statement. This could include public comment, staff comment or agency review supporting or disputing the submission.
Commissioner Laura Puckett Daniels said she recognized the additional barrier this could create, having served on the county’s planning commission for four years and understanding that evaluating for adverse impacts tends to make up the bulk of what the commission does, and people don’t always agree—especially as it relates to wildlife.
“It would be another burden for development to happen, I just want to be clear about that,” Puckett Daniels said. “I feel like there’s a wider community conversation to be had like the one that was had in the ‘90s about what do we want the future of Almont to look like…is Almont where development should be happening in the future? I feel ill-equipped to have a conversation about that right now. I feel like the community would want to participate in that. And I would love to see some of those documents that were created before in that community conversation so we could ground it in historical context.”
“I’m going to be hesitant to use the word burden,” said Houck of Schumacher’s argument. “Because our rules and regulations reflect the community’s values and standards. And so does it require more work? Yes, but it is it a burden to say we’re going to protect our water, to protect our air, that we have concerns about wildlife impacts?”
Houck said there has also been a significant community discussion around keeping the corridors as open as possible and concentrating development near the population centers. He acknowledged that the variety of what is in Almont does look different than what is in Ohio City or Somerset. “But it is also significantly different than CB South, the town of Crested Butte, Mt. Crested Butte or the city of Gunnison.”
“This adds a layer for consideration, but it is not a stop or a denial of future development in Almont, or any of these other areas,” said Pagano.
“It would be used as a justification at the end for a denial or limiting factor. It’s just one more hurdle to make things more expensive and less affordable, and all the things that happen when you have more rules and regulations,” said Schumacher. “It’s just another tool to stop things.”
Houck added that grocery stores, doctors, dentists and hardware stores are still missing from Almont.
Commissioner Liz Smith asked to review the distinction about population centers in the LUR. “Is it appropriate for greenlighting a lot of growth? I think that’s the distinction that we’re getting at.” She wondered if they should use more specific terminology to identify “the need for responsible due process” in places such as Almont, Somerset, Marble and Pitkin.
Ultimately, Pagano suggested that commissioners could leave Almont in the LUR as a city center and discuss it more later as the county continues a larger corridor discussion expected to start in earnest in 2024.
Local attorney Marcus Lock also commented on his own behalf and said he could have clients who might want to develop in Almont at some point. Lock spoke in favor of leaving Almont in the LUR as a city center, and suggested removing Almont from the LUR clause would potentially become an impediment to adding workforce housing in the county.
“To the extent that you want to maintain flexibility in terms of the model for workforce housing potential development in that area, I’d say that’s another reason to leave it in. But more importantly, you all are about to engage in this year-long corridor planning process. Almont is going to be a part of that discussion, so why not at least wait until you’ve had that process before making a change?”
Commissioners discussed the issue at length before agreeing that it was appropriate to leave the Almont discussion for the upcoming corridor planning process in 2024 and 2025. They approved the LUR amendments as presented and included the modification of retaining Almont in the list of existing population centers for locational standards.
By Kendra Walker
The Mt. Crested Butte town council is making moves toward a GreenDeed Program in 2024. Through a partnership with the Gunnison Valley Home Energy Advancement Team (GV-HEAT), which is managed by the Gunnison Valley Regional Housing Authority (GVRHA), a GreenDeed program would provide energy efficiency upgrades for the deed-restricted units in the town of Mt. Crested Butte.
GV-HEAT coordinator Gesa Michel discussed the program with the council during a work session on December 5. The program is intended to ensure that the town’s deed-restricted units remain affordable, safe and comfortable while simultaneously reducing energy use and cost in alignment with the town’s sustainability goals. Michel explained that homeowners pay a $50 enrollment fee for an energy assessment with an energy analyst, followed by an energy efficiency retrofit.
“We provide an energy report with recommendations of what to do to the home based on a savings to investment ratio,” she said. “We recommend upgrades based on what makes sense financially.”
After determining the suggested upgrade measures, GV-HEAT then schedules contractors to complete the energy efficiency retrofits up to $5,000, such as installing LED lightbulbs, programmable thermostats, efficient sink aerators and water saving devices, air sealing and insulation, and refrigerator and appliances. GV-HEAT also conducts a secondary analysis at the end of the retrofit to measure its effectiveness.
There is no specific income qualification for homeowners to participate in GreenDeed, but the home must be a deed restricted unit. “With GreenDeed, everybody who lives in a deed restricted home or who is an owner of a deed restricted home qualifies,” Michel explained. “We will only serve those homes that are compliant,” she said, noting that GVHRA monitors deed restricted units in the valley.
Town staff has earmarked $50,000 into the 2024 town budget to launch a GreenDeed program, which would fund approximately 10 retrofits up to a maximum of $5,000 per deed restricted unit. There are approximately 80 deed restricted units in Mt. Crested Butte. “The goal for 2024 is to complete five to 10 energy assessments and retrofits,” said Michel. “Since this is the first year, we just have to see what the demand is for it. We’ll see how people are responding to it, how interested they are and the types of homes that are being upgraded.”
Michel also explained that there may be additional funding opportunities through Tri-State Generation Transmission, Gunnison County Electric Association (GCEA) and Atmos Energy.
GV-HEAT currently operates a GreenDeed program for the Town of Crested Butte, helping to upgrade 15 homes in 2022. The upgrades on average projected an annual energy cost savings of $220 per home and a decrease in air leakage of 19%. “That’s very significant,” said Michel. “And we’re hoping for similar numbers here in Mt. Crested Butte.” In 2023, the town will have completed 18 additional retrofits and there is currently a waitlist.
The council was amenable to moving forward with a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with GV-HEAT to facilitate the GreenDeed program in 2024. The council will review and consider the agreement at an upcoming meeting.
By Mark Reaman
The town of Crested Butte is in the midst of a comprehensive strategic planning process that could change the look and feel of town over the next several years. Town staff and council are gathering data and reviewing alternatives for a transportation and mobility plan; an historic preservation plan; an update of the current climate action plan; and a strategic infill plan that will consider possible changes to land use regulations in town like zoning, permitted densities and building height restrictions in town.
While cognizant that juggling four major initiatives that could move Crested Butte to a new level of future direction might be overwhelming to the general public and result in “outreach fatigue,” the town council gave a thumbs up to keep plowing along with the dense process during a Monday, December 4 work session.
“Each of these efforts build on the foundation of the Community Compass and will ultimately lead toward a comprehensive update of the town’s zoning code, the town’s building codes, the town’s design standards and guidelines and create frameworks for the town’s new housing and community resilience strategies,” a memo from community developer Troy Russ to the council makes clear. “These plans are intricately intertwined and need to intentionally inform and be informed by one another to be successful and have broad community support.”
Russ emphasized that the Compass was a planning tool that created the nexus between public needs and due process. He said it provided the decision-making framework that deals with the trade-offs needed to move the town forward.
Individual councilmembers along with members of the Board of Zoning and Architectural Review (BOZAR) were recruited to sit on the various advisory panels for each plan. Councilmember Anna Fenerty and BOZAR member Ed Schmidt will be on the transportation mobility plan committee; councilperson Beth Goldstone and BOZAR member Danny Davol will work on the climate action update; councilmember Kent Cowherd and BOZAR member Roxana Alvarez will be part of the strategic infill plan panel.
Councilmembers Gabi Prochaska and Mallika Magner along with BOZAR member Erik Nauman will be part of the Historic Preservation Plan advisory committee.
Mayor Ian Billick will participate in the quarterly Compass Plans Integration Committee that will recommend how each individual initiative can identify opportunities and tradeoffs to ensure each initiative is well informed to help “create cohesive, and community supported, town-wide strategies that reflect the values of Crested Butte.”
The Monday work session also officially kicked off the Historic Preservation Plan which, according to the staff memo, will “aim to look at ways to protect Crested Butte historic buildings that reflect different periods of the town’s history, while allowing more architectural creativity for new construction in appropriate areas.”
Councilmembers and BOZAR members at the work session delved deep into what “architectural creativity” might mean, especially for areas of town not part of the historic core of Crested Butte. Crested Butte senior planner Jessie Earley said the town was officially designated a National Historic District in 1974. The Town designated the entire town a “local” historic district in 1972 and BOZAR was established in 1974. She said the Historic Preservation plan could help protect buildings constructed during other periods of the town’s history other than just the mining era, for example those built at the start of the skiing and tourism period post 1952.
Fenerty said the discussion about creativity in architecture should also help to facilitate and not prohibit affordable units. Magner expressed that creativity might be used to incorporate technology used for climate mitigation into new construction. Schmidt warned that too much creativity could be a “slippery slope. I recommend cautious use of that phrase,” he said. “We all want to be more creative, but we all know mountain towns that let that out of the bag and never got it (historical preservation) back.”
Billick expressed that he was comfortable if there were a variety of building looks in town. “We have a bunch of buildings forced to look the same,’ he noted. “I look to London as an example of how modern architecture works with its historic structures.”
“Creativity is good in the right ways,” said Nauman. “But we can’t think that being ‘creative’ will solve all of our problems. And keep in mind that our history is that of a poor coal mining town.”
“Everyone will attach different meanings to the word ‘creativity,’” added Alavarez. “But there is room to play.”
Councilmember Gabi Prochaska said she was open to having areas of town where more modern styles of architecture could be allowed. “When someone is walking around Crested Butte 50 years from now, hopefully they see some architecture they can point to that was built in this current time frame,” she said.
Fenerty concluded the work session wondering what the lines are in that regard that can’t be crossed. That will all be discussed as just one part of the new planning initiative taking place in Crested Butte.
By Katherine Nettles
After more than six months of review and meetings, Gunnison County commissioners adopted 2021 international building codes this month. The new codes take effect at the beginning of the new year. Several local contractors attended the public hearing and implored commissioners to halt the drip of continually rising building costs.
The process of adopting the 2021 building codes began in the spring when the county’s staff, specifically targeting reduced greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), raised the issue of adoption with commissioners. In 2022, a Colorado bill was enacted that requires any municipality, county or state agency that updates any of their building codes to also adopt the equivalent or better energy performance than the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) and the Model Electric Ready and Solar Ready code.
The county approved adoption of the International Wildland Urban Interface Code (IWUI) in September 2022, and according to county planners, the building codes were the next step toward compliance ahead of potential state required timelines.
County planning staff and commissioners held an initial work session in April to discuss how the new codes can support their climate related strategic goal of reducing GHG emissions by 50% by 2030 from 2005 levels.
Staff gathered commissioner feedback from that meeting and integrated it into the following concepts in the resolution document:
1. Incentivize use of the Energy Rating Index (ERI) through a reduction in plan review fees and allow applicants that choose this path to be prioritized for application review.
2. Require use of the ERI approach in the 2021 IECC for residences greater than 5,000 square feet.
3. Create an energy budget allowance based on efficiency (ERI) multiplied by a fixed size for structures and require that new construction demonstrate compliance using the ERI performance path. This would prohibit use of energy consumption beyond a certain amount and be used to limit size and many luxury amenities such as pools, heated driveways, outside heating devices or numerous appliances, unless other energy saving features were used to offset the consumption. The energy budget was set based on the median home size and code minimum energy performance compliance to avoid any impact on the median-sized homes but would require that all homes utilize the performance pathway for compliance.
4. Review and adopt the Colorado Model Electric Ready and Solar Ready code.
5. Amend IECC to prohibit outside heated driveways.
6. Amend IECC to allow spas with an R-12 cover. If a spa is heated by a separate appliance the appliance must have high level efficiency.
7. Amend IECC to prohibit gas fired heaters for pools and spas. Pools, if desired, shall have heat pump only.
8. Amend IECC to require that heated gutters have controls that only activate the heater when the temperature is below 40 degrees and when water/ice is detected.
9. Adopt new building and energy codes on a regular three-year cycle, rather than the six-year cycle that the County has been doing.
10. Consider allocating funding to support the development of model home plans (single-family and multi-family) and detailed pre-approved assemblies for walls, roofs and other details, that are IECC, Model code and IWUIC compliant. These plans would then be available at no charge to the public.
11. Consider funding performance path review costs for income qualified homeowners up to an annual limit. For example: budget for up to 10 analyses for residents earning 150% area median income (AMI) or less.
12. Maximize any state funding opportunities available to support training and implementation of the 2021 IECC.
Staff incorporated the first nine concepts into eight amendments, which it reviewed over the course of three work sessions with the county’s planning commission this summer. The planning commission voted to recommend the changes in August, and staff presented their final adoption resolution for a public hearing and commissioner approval on November 7.
Assistant county manager for sustainability and operations John Cattles acknowledged that one barrier to the ERI is lack of certified ERI or Home Energy Rating System (HERS) professionals in the area. “One pathway to compliance is to get an ERI/HERS rating, and we’re hoping to create more of a marketplace for it,” said Cattles. This would be required for homes over 5,000 square feet, but it would reduce fees for any home that opts for it.
Contractors speak out about rising costs
During the public hearing, several contractors spoke out against the amendments as they believe they represent another way that the area is becoming too expensive for locals to build.
Both John Stock from High Mountain Concepts and his construction manager said the problem was getting worse with every code update. They also said these HERS ratings were unrealistic in the Gunnison Valley’s extreme climates.
“We’re dealing with this up valley right now,” said Stock. “The [cost] you came up with is not even close to the expense that we’re running into up there.” He said achieving the optimal numbers was also being falsified due to the climate zone.
“I understand the good intentions that everybody has and what you’re trying to achieve, but there’s a bigger thing going on here,” said Stock. “The burden this puts on people working in this community that ever want to live or own a house in this community—you’re pushing it way down the line. It’s not going to happen without assistance from the government, and there’s plenty of people who live and work here who don’t want to depend on the government to make sure they can stay here.”
Stock said many of his clients don’t mind an extra $50,000 in added energy savings and tests, or even more. But he said for those who live and work locally it makes a difference.
“Somewhere along the line the good intentions need to get checked for the livability of our community,” concluded Stock. “I’m not saying I know what the answer is, I’m just saying there’s more impacts to this than you guys are getting in your information.”
Newly certified HERS rater Andy Tocke spoke as well. “They have a lot more requirements than just the HERS ratings,” he said of Crested Butte’s requirements for new construction. “The HERS rating does require many visits to a house,” he said, which costs anywhere from about $2,500 to $5,000 depending on the size and complexity of a house. He said it is important for people to understand how to achieve the proper rating, which can be much more challenging and expensive than just having the tests done and often involves architects, engineers and other professionals consulting on the project.
President of Professional Contractors Inc. Brett Adkins agreed that the amendments, however understandable, increase the cost barrier for locals to build in the valley. “I’ve been building to 2021 codes for several years now; this doesn’t change a whole lot for me in terms of what I’m doing on my projects. My concern here is that as a county we’re consistently adding new codes and new requirements…everything adds to costs, he said. “We are eliminating the middle class from being able to live here.”
Adkins said he didn’t think he could afford to build in the county, despite having access to resources, deals and connections. “To me it’s unaffordable. I make decent money. My wife works in this building for the courts. She makes decent money. We have two kids in school. We’re very hard workers, and we’ve been here for a long time. It is becoming unaffordable,” he concluded. He implored commissioners, as they prepared to adopt the required codes, to find ways to help locals with upfront costs in other ways.
County commissioner chair Jonathan Houck also read an email sent in for public comment requesting that commissioners consider eliminating sprinkler system requirements to avoid the cost barriers for locals building modest homes.
As the county staff and commissioners took the public comments into consideration, they discussed several points.
Cattles said the 2021 codes and additional amendments were not as restrictive as what Crested Butte has chosen to require. He said the additions to the 2021 code are only applicable to those building high-end luxury homes over 5,000 square feet. “We’ve gone through it, Crystal [Lambert, county building/environmental health official] has gone through it in a lot of detail. We took our time with this. I think there’s some things being implemented in other places that we’re not asking,” he said. “That’s not what’s in this proposal.”
Finding solutions elsewhere
“We’re trying to take this law and create a condition where the larger homes, the people that do have the resources start to break the path and then we can hopefully lower that barrier and be more efficient by the time the requirements for everyone else take effect,” concluded Cattles.
Lambert added that she did see some areas for improvement in the administration side of things and said she would like to address those areas with the planning office.
Commissioner Liz Smith said they would continue to look for ways to streamline the process for people on smaller budgets. “It’s very much on our minds and important to us,” she said.
“It is really hard with some of these things, to balance our goals around the environment, our mandate from the state, consumer protection,” said commissioner Laura Puckett Daniels. She highlighted the idea from the spring work session that commissioners can advocate for state regulations that help alleviate some financial burdens. She noted that the board has also expressed interest in covering the optional energy efficiency costs for those making up to 150% AMI in the future and set aside funds for it.
She also reiterated Smith’s advocacy for developing model home plans.
“How do we build a rung? How do we get from government funded housing to something on the private market,” Puckett Daniels said of the board’s next steps.
After closing the public hearing, commissioners approved the code adoption unanimously, and the code takes effect on January 1, 2024.
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