Pitkin County gives verbal commitment to Cavern Springs for $1.5M 

Pitkin County gave a verbal commitment on Tuesday to provide $1.5 million toward the purchase of Cavern Springs Mobile Home Park between Carbondale and Glenwood Springs. 

The contribution would support a resident-owned model so that those currently living in the mobile home park could purchase the land beneath their houses.

“It is the best way to increase our affordable housing stock in the valley without building new buildings,” Commissioner Francie Jacober said during discussion on Tuesday. 

The other present commissioners — Jeffrey Woodruff, Ted Mahon and Greg Poschman — echoed Jacober’s sentiment. Discussion mostly centered on how much the county was going to be willing to commit. 

All commissioners agreed that the county needed to settle on some type of formula that would help determine how much the county would be willing to give to future, similar efforts. 

“It’s kind of good to have some sort of set formula,” Mahon said. “So when the next one comes, the one after that, it’s not just the ‘shot clock’ … I just feel like it gives us a little more solid footing to say this is what we’ve done, and this is what we’re going to do.” 

But despite the councilors agreeing on a contribution number for Cavern Springs, they tabled the more long-term formula for their affordable housing retreat in May. 

The funds committed to Cavern Springs will come from the county’s affordable housing mill levy, which allows for funds to be directed to partnerships that “generate affordable rental or ownership housing,” according to the ballot language.

The $1.5 million contribution will leave an additional $1.5 in the mill levy fund for possible future partnerships this year. 

The effort is the second of its kind in two years that Pitkin County has participated in. Last year’s contribution went toward the purchase of the Aspen-Basalt Mobile Home Park in Basalt and the Mountain Valley Mobile Home Park in Carbondale, a joint sale in which Pitkin County contributed $3.25 million. 

The owners of Cavern Springs received an offer to purchase the mobile home park for $23 million, which kickstarted this process. Colorado Law allows residents a window to make a counter-offer that the owners must consider in good faith. 

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According to West Mountain Regional Housing Coalition Executive Director April Long, Cavern Springs residents have until mid-June to make their offer, which means they need commitments from lenders, local governments and anyone else willing to contribute before that time. 

The West Mountain Regional Housing Coalition is helping coordinate government contributions to the effort, similar to what they did in last year’s mobile home park purchases. If successful, the coalition will help facilitate discussions around deed restrictions and other aspects of the Cavern Springs final purchase. 

Long is aiming for $24 million for the residents’ counter-offer, which will allow them to build some money in capital reserves. 

So far, Cavern Springs has at least $5 million committed toward their purchase, with potential for an additional $500,000 from Glenwood Springs this week. 

The town of Snowmass Village will be contributing $1 million, Town Manager Clint Kinney confirmed to The Aspen Times Tuesday, which will be penned in on May 18. 

Cavern Springs also has a $2 million commitment from the city of Aspen and a $500,000 commitment from the town of Carbondale.

Long has set a goal of $6 million for local government commitments ahead of the mid-June offer date, hoping the remaining money will come from individual contributions and loans, business and non-profit contributions. Nonprofit lending services like ROC Capital USA will be supplying a bulk of the final remaining funds in the form of a below-market rate loan of between $7 and $14 million, depending on how much is raised from other sources. 

The loans would be paid off over time similarly to how mortgages are paid, according to previous reporting by The Aspen Times.