Colorado Department of Local Affairs awards Aspen $135,000 grant

The City of Aspen was recently awarded a grant for $135,000 from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) Strong Communities Planning Grant Program that will go towards examining the feasibility of developing a Community Land Trust (CLT) as part of continued efforts for more affordable housing.

Aspen Long Range Planner Haley Hart said that DOLA periodically has funding opportunities for municipalities that are awarded through a grant submission process. The funding that the city was awarded was from DOLA’s Strong Communities Grant Program, which had two goals for funding. 

One of the funding goals was planning grants to help communities align policies and regulations to locate affordable housing in infill locations near jobs, transit, and everyday services. The second goal was focused on infrastructure grants to provide funding to local governments for the development of “community benefit-driven infill affordable housing” that meets critical housing needs. 

The Strong Communities Grant Program was created through Colorado House Bill 22-1304 and is funded by federal stimulus funds. According to Hart, it’s managed by the Department of Local Affairs Division of Local Government, Colorado Energy Office, and Department of Transportation. Funding for Strong Communities is appropriated from the Affordable Housing and Home Ownership Cash Fund which originated from the Federal Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund (also referred to as State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds).

“The city felt that the Planning Grant was aligned with some of the strategies within the City’s Affordable Housing Strategic Plan, specifically the Land Banking Action Item,” she said. “The city gathered some different members of staff: community development, city manager’s office, capital asset – and worked together to put the application together. Subsequently – DOLA must have liked our application, and we were awarded the grant.”

A CLT is defined as a a non-profit that acquires property for the purpose of supporting community needs, such as affordable housing or commercial space. The city intends the CLT to be a city-wide program that will eventually become a 501(c)(3) and maintain its own group of stakeholders and governing board. 

The $135,000 grant funds will go specifically towards hiring consultants who will provide aid in conducting the feasibility study, facilitating community conversations, and developing the CLT structure and bylaws. Hart said that the city does not have any targeted locations for property acquisition or development at this time.

She said the CLT project aligns with the city’s 2021-26 Affordable Housing Strategic Plan, which hopes to accomplish City Council’s goals of creating 500 new affordable and deed-restricted units by 2026. The initiative also supports DOLA’s Land Use Best Strategies, addressing the housing shortfall documented in the 2019 Roaring Fork Regional Housing Study.

In a statement from the grant application, “The city believes that affordable housing is a tool to preserve and enhance economic and social diversity and enhance our sense of community. Each affordable housing development and each tool to create affordable housing should endeavor to further that mix and avoid segregation of economic and social classes.”

The city’s proposed timeline includes developing a Request for Proposals in spring of 2024, hiring a consultant in summer of 2024, conducting a feasibility study and community conversations in the winter of 2024/2025, and aiming for the CLT structure and bylaws development from 2025 to 2026. 

Hart said the ultimate intent of the project is to create a strategy to implement a CLT within Aspen’s context. The city would additionally look to successful examples in the Front Range and nationally on best practices in the creation of the CLT. If established, she said a CLT could transform Aspen’s affordable housing landscape and serve as a model for other resort towns and Western Slope communities.

“The city is enthusiastic to have the opportunity to expand the tools in our toolbox to expand access and options to fund and build affordable housing in our community,” she said. “While Aspen has a long history of developing and utilizing creative solutions to affordable housing, a CLT is one of the few strategies not yet explored.”