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If approved, November property tax question could bring affordable housing partnerships to the Roaring Fork Valley

The tax would bring in $8.5 million

News News |

Regan Mertz
  

Habitat for Humanity of the Roaring Fork Valley recently completed housing on a seven acre parcel that includes 27 homes behind Basalt High School called Basalt Vista.
Habitat for Humanity of the Roaring Fork Valley/Courtesy Photo

With a property tax meant to help fund affordable housing in Pitkin County on the November ballot, local organizations are looking forward to potential partnership opportunities.

The tax question will ask voters to support a new property tax for up to the next 25 years for a mill levy of 1.5 mills. For homeowners, the tax is approximately a $121 increase per $1 million of property value annually. For commercial property owners, it is approximately a $435 increase per $1 million of value annually.

This would bring in about $8.5 million to the county that could be used for building senior and transitional housing, supporting housing partnerships, converting free market properties to deed-restricted ones, and preserving and restoring current affordable housing. 

“$8.5 million, as you all know, doesn’t go terribly far in the housing world, but it can get Pitkin County to the table for partnership conversations,” Ashley Perl, community resiliency director for Pitkin County, said during an Aspen-Pitkin County Housing Authority (APCHA) meeting last Wednesday.

“Right now, we get called a lot. ‘Can you be part of a funding stack for this project? Could you give us a low interest loan on this?’ And the answer is always, ‘No, we have no money to come to the table for that,'” she said.


Potential partnerships include nonprofits, like Habitat for Humanity of the Roaring Fork Valley and the West Mountain Regional Housing Coalition, but also governmental entities, like APCHA, the village of Snowmass, the city of Aspen, the town of Basalt, and Eagle County.

Gail Schwartz, president of Habitat for Humanity of the Roaring Fork Valley, said that if the tax does get passed, there would be more opportunities to support housing projects regionally because the amount of funds Pitkin County currently has to offer is restrictive. To date, the county has not contributed any funds to Habitat for Humanity.

“And certainly Habitat can support the project at the Phillips Mobile Home Park, you know, that would be something that can be engaged in,” she said.

The Pitkin County Board of Commissioners is looking to make the Phillips Mobile Home Park in lower Woody Creek an affordable housing community, with 35 new units. A new wastewater treatment facility and water tank is also needed at the site. Altogether, this will cost over $10 million.

In 2018, the county bought the mobile home site for $6.5 million in order to preserve 40 units of affordable housing and acquire ecologically valuable river frontage, according to previous reporting from The Aspen Times.

While where the tax funds will go is not yet determined, part of the $8.5 million could be used for this project.

Habitat for Humanity also recently completed housing on a seven acre parcel that includes 27 homes behind Basalt High School called Basalt Vista.

“Now there are almost 30 children living in that neighborhood,” Schwartz said. “That is life changing. It’s changing for the community, and it’s life changing for those families, and especially those children. Those children growing up in that neighborhood are going to be part of this community long term, and those families can contribute. That’s a great example of success.”

The Board of Commissioners has identified housing as a number one priority. This ballot question is coming from the board’s recognition that there are several tools to address the affordable housing crisis, and it is not just new development, Perl said.

Perl is also on the board of directors for the West Mountain Regional Housing Coalition. The board has given the coalition $1 million, $719,000 of that with American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding, and the rest from the county’s general fund. With the help of this money, the coalition is running a deed restriction program from Aspen to Glenwood Springs called the Good Deeds Program.

She said the coalition is taking a “development neutral approach,” which means they will not be building housing in the future. They are currently focused on the deed restriction program, which buys free market homes and then buys a deed restriction for that home. They just recently closed on their first property through this program.

She went on to say that there is not a lot of space left to build, so the county has to get creative with how affordable housing is created with already existing units, while not losing any units along the way. 

“They’ve set a goal that they want to be part of 250 new units over the course of the next 10 years, and I think that this is their first step in trying to make that happen,” Perl said. “But, you know, we serve at the pleasure of the election.”

Regan Mertz can be reached at 970-429-9153 or rmertz@aspentimes.com.