Prior to this week’s regular meeting, the Town Council held a public work session with the citizen-run Basalt Affordable Community Housing (BACH) group. During this session, Town Planning Director Michelle Thibeault presented BACH’s 2025 plan to improve housing availability and address market difficulties in Basalt.
Based on information gathered from a community housing needs assessment over the course of the year, the bulk of BACH’s 2025 plan consists of the use of $5.2 million in bond initiative funds for Town-owned community housing developments — plus the issuance of strategy and policy recommendations to Town Council.
Part of the $5.2 million is currently in use for the development of housing projects at three sites. The first, and furthest along, is a duplex at Stott’s Mill, for which foundation construction will begin this fall with the units to be delivered in 2025. The next two are both currently in a design phase, including a 12+ unit complex adjacent to the Willits rugby fields and a housing complex and community space across from TACAW.
Most of BACH’s recommendations to the council were consistent with recommendations presented by contractor Economic & Planning Systems, Inc., which can be found in Aug. 13th’s Basalt Report. However, a question hung in the air: How will Basalt fund more housing?
A portion of BACH’s funding comes from state and federal housing grants, but even when these grants are awarded they often need to be matched with a jurisdiction’s own funding.
“With our existing revenue, there’s not a lot of money to be carved out,” said Town Manager Ryan Mahoney. “If we want to put that towards affordable housing, we’re going to lay people off or delay projects.”
During the presentation, Thibeault highlighted that hiking sales taxes can generate an estimated $583k a year per a 0.25% increase. The Council also discussed potentially increasing short-term rental fees to fill the funding gap. Basalt currently has over 50 short-term rental properties, for which it requires a $460 annual licensing fee. Following in the footsteps of a voter-approved policy in Steamboat Springs, a potential tax on short-term rental accommodations was also suggested.
As the work session closed, the question of where to find funding was left for council members to chew on.
Bear update
During the regular meeting, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) District Wildlife Manager Peter Boyatt was called to the table to provide the community with a brief update on increased bear conflicts.
A low crop of wild food sources this year means that bear conflict rates in Pitkin and Eagle counties are the highest they’ve been in five years. In fact, the Roaring Fork Valley is currently experiencing the most incidents in the state.
Conflicts take the form of trash raids, collisions and more. Due to folks leaving windows open at night to ease the summer heat, CPW has seen multiple instances this year of bears breaking into homes in search of late-night bites.
Boyatt encourages citizens to familiarize themselves with bear hazing strategies to keep interactions nonlethal for both parties. Making loud noises, using bear spray or throwing rocks are viable techniques to make bears uncomfortable with human environments. CPW also issues rubber bullets to those living in rural areas as another nonlethal option when bears get too close for comfort.
However, Boyatt stated that it’s a goal of CPW to handle bears as little as possible and thereby prevent them from acclimating to human interaction. Boyatt recommends all citizens to button up and be extra attentive in keeping doors, windows and any potential food sources locked up and out of reach. That way, bears will have less reason to come into town at all.