First Burlingame lottery is Feb. 13

Thirteen will be a lucky number for somebody.The long-awaited first lottery for worker housing at Burlingame Ranch will take place Feb. 13. That’s when the buyers of the first eight single-family lots in the housing development will be chosen from among a pool of hopeful bidders that could number … well, that’s anybody’s guess.The Aspen-Pitkin County Housing Authority intends to post an advertisement for the lots on its website Friday; a newspaper ad will first appear Jan. 25. It will begin accepting applications on Jan. 23; the bid period closes Feb. 8, according to Cindy Christensen, housing operations manager.It will be the first time a city-built housing project has included lots in the mix; interest is expected to be high, but no one knows for sure.”I think we’ll get a lot of people. I could be totally wrong, but I think we’ll get a lot of people,” Christensen said.The first phase of Burlingame Ranch will include 83 townhome-style units, the eight lots to be sold next month and five more lots that are slated to come on the market in April. The townhomes, arranged in multi-unit buildings, are now under construction; lotteries for those units will take place sometime this summer. Lot buyers won’t be allowed to begin construction on their homes until July.The housing office plans to hold two open houses at Burlingame – on Jan. 25 and Feb. 1 from noon to 2 p.m. and 4 to 5:30 p.m. – so those interested in the lots can take a look at the lay of the land. The lot boundaries will be staked. Burlingame is located north of the Maroon Creek Club on the outskirts of town.The first eight lots include two priced at $119,400 (Category 6), three priced at $122,600 (Category 7) and three RO, or resident occupied, lots priced at $150,000.Buyers must qualify as full-time Pitkin County workers – defined as 1,500 hours of employment per year. The lots in categories 6 and 7 have associated income and asset caps for buyers. There is only an asset cap of $900,000 for RO buyers, but they, too, must qualify as full-time employees in the county and must earn at least 75 percent of their income in the county, Christensen said.”We would recommend highly, if someone is a new bidder, that they contact the housing office and set up an appointment,” she said.Bidding for the first time entails providing four years’ worth of employment history and income information, along with a detailed list of assets and debts.While lot buyers will arrange to build their own homes, the city has set caps on what they can spend, in essence setting the base price for the homes. The construction value of the RO homes, the most expensive of the residences, is not to exceed $640,000. Appreciation on employee housing is capped.For details on Burlingame, go to http://www.aspenhousingoffice.com, then click on New Projects, APCHA Projects and then Burlingame Ranch.Janet Urquhart’s e-mail address is janet@aspentimes.com