Conversations about affordable housing took center stage during this week’s Town Council meeting, beginning with a presentation by the Basalt Regional Library and culminating with a contentious second hearing concerning the new apartment complex coming to downtown Basalt.
Basalt Regional Library
At the start of the meeting, Amy Shipley, executive director of the Basalt Regional Library, presented a strategic plan update for the library, as well as reports from a community listening tour.
The Basalt Regional Library strategic plan received its last update in 2016. This year, the library staff is taking a community-centered approach to its strategy and interviewed over 50 community members. In their research, library staff found that the most pressing needs were the most basic ones: housing, transportation, healthcare, livable wages, along with what Shipley called a “desire to not become like Aspen,” meaning concerns over wealth disparity and the inability for people to live and work in the same place.
“None of the people I talked to are averse to change,” said Shipley. “They all realize that growth in our area is a reality. They just want some semblance of a livable community to be protected from unrestrained growth and increasing wealth disparity.”
Now that the library has finished gathering data, their next step is to analyze those findings, select certain initiatives as areas of focus and draft a strategic plan before the end of the year.
Basalt Center Circle
A public hearing and second reading was held for an application to condominiumize the apartment buildings planned for Basalt Center Circle, where the old Clark’s Market currently sits empty.
The applicant, BCC Basalt LLC, received approval in winter of 2022 to build 65 residential units with a grocery store on the ground floor located at the intersection of Two Rivers Road and Midland Avenue. In the 2022 approvals, the applicant intended to maintain ownership of the units as rentals, with 17 being deed-restricted. The applicant now requested to condominiumize the rental units, and sell those initially deed-restricted units to employers to rent to their employees.
During this application’s first reading on July 9, BCC Basalt met with pushback from Town Council members, especially Ryan Slack who was the sole councilor to vote against a second hearing. During this meeting, the application met with similar resistance.
The applicant stated that the change in the ownership program does not change the project’s goals, and the request is prompted by changes in financial markets.
Several citizens offered comment on the proposal, with half voicing their concerns over the density that the project would create and the other half supporting the development and its potential to add vibrancy to downtown Basalt.
Councilor Slack reiterated his consternation. “This was approved as a rental building. That was very substantial in what we went through.”
Councilor Angèle Duprè-Burchart stated that, in accordance with her platform when she ran for a seat, she wants to see the project completed. However, she seconded Slack’s concern over the disparity between renting and ownership. In response to a question by Duprè-Burchart, the applicant stated that, should their request be denied, the project would be stalled for a year.
Councilor Hannah Berman voiced a concern regarding a part of the request to adjust the deed-restricted affordable housing mix by changing a one-bedroom apartment into a studio. “Everyone is telling all of us we need more affordable housing, and I don’t feel comfortable reducing that part, but the rest of it I’m comfortable with,” she said.
Other councilors in support of the request agreed that the change in ownership would not affect the project’s goals of providing affordable housing, and cited the necessity for any housing at all.
The request was approved by a 6-1 vote, with Slack dissenting.