All of the trustees were present for the regular meeting on Tuesday, June 11, including Chris Hassig who joined by Zoom from Massachusetts.
During public comments, Sue Zislis with Age-Friendly Carbondale commended the upcoming rollout (pun intended) of the new Downtowner service on July 1. Later in the meeting, there was an agenda item to approve a grant agreement with Roaring Fork Transportation Authority (RFTA) for the six-month pilot program, which was unanimously approved by the board. The agreement states that RFTA will reimburse Carbondale for 50% of the microtransit service costs and expenses up to $182,000. Secondly, the trustees agreed to apply for a First Last Mile Grant through RFTA for next year’s bike share (WeCycle) and Downtowner service, although the Town has not yet committed to continuing the Downtowner service after the first of the year.
Ahead of an agenda item regarding Age-Friendly’s Highway 133 Survey scheduled for the first meeting in July, Niki Delson stressed that it will be important to request that the Colorado Department of Transportation redesignate sections of Highway 133 in order to effectively reduce speed limits.
Deborah Colley appeared on behalf of the Mountain Fair team requesting a liquor permit for the event, and explained that the Oasis, because of pool construction, would need to be moved. The plan is to shut down Main Street to traffic between Fourth and Sixth Street, making space for a family-friendly Oasis Block Party and implementing a more established fair presence downtown which should help reduce congestion in Sopris Park. The trustees unanimously approved the liquor permit and facility use agreement.
Community housing
The crux of the meeting came with the final agenda item: “Community Housing Guidelines Update.” The conversation stemmed from a joint work session with the Garfield County Housing Authority in February. There were members from two different households present on Monday who provided practical implications they’ve encountered since attempting to build additions on their deed restricted homes.
Staff also recommended considering other updates to the guidelines, such as whether or not deed restricted homeowners need to seek permission to rent a space, maintaining proof of eligibility and ownership of other properties.
“The big thing that really kicked this off was capital improvements and additions to units,” stated Planning Director Jared Barnes. “Our current regulations … could be viewed as disincentivizing homeowners from making improvements because they all contain a financial cap of what you can get added to your maximum sale price. That financial cap is either 10% or 20%, depending upon each individual’s deed restriction.”
Michael Stout and Nicole Rebeck-Stout, residents of a two bedroom community housing unit on Bridgewater Place, submitted a letter to the trustees on June 4 and spoke during Monday’s meeting. The Stouts have two children. The family received approval from the Thompson Corner HOA a week ago for an addition and plans to file a building permit application in the coming weeks.
“We were reassured to hear the general support from trustees that deed restricted units should be allowed the same privileges as free market housing as long as the integrity of the affordability is maintained,” the Stout family wrote.
The Stouts explained that they were led to believe, prior to purchasing the property at Bridgewater, that they’d be able to build an addition and recoup at least part of that investment if they decided to sell. They also expressed their understanding that a previous community housing resident in Carbondale had recouped the full value of their capital improvement costs.
Liza Mitchell and her family live in a deed restricted home at Keator Grove. Mitchell told The Sopris Sun that she and her husband filed a building permit application, but that process has been stalled. She said that recouping their investment is of concern, but she ultimately wants to move forward with the addition to accommodate her budding family.
During the meeting, Barnes and the Town’s attorney Mark Hamilton expressed that the planning department has the current guidelines to work with regarding these two cases, but will do what’s within their means to accommodate the requests.
In the end, the trustees agreed that appointing a working group to investigate changes to the Community Housing Guidelines will be the first step toward policy changes. The working group will consist of at least one representative each from the Board of Trustees, the Planning and Zoning Commission and staff. The working group will engage with deed restricted homeowners to develop more of a consensus, research other communities’ policies (such as Eagle County) and relay their findings to the board during an upcoming meeting.
In the meantime, the trustees expressed their wishes that staff do its best to support the two families in their pursuits.