The housing crisis rippling across Colorado’s high country has caught most municipalities flat-footed. After corralling spending during the economic recession, the explosion of the tourist industry has created more jobs and more construction that has not been matched with affordable housing projects to accommodate the new workers.
That’s changing.
Salida approved a plan to build 200 tiny homes — 200 to 800 square feet apiece, renting for $750 to $1,400, utilities and similar bills included.
Vail Resorts inked a deal with builder Gorman & Co. to develop 380 beds for workers in Summit County, part of the resort operator’s 2015 promise of $30 million toward partnerships to develop employee housing around its resorts in Utah, California and Colorado.
In Summit County, where a housing needs assessment shows 1,685 new affordable units will be needed to house 3,035 employees by 2020, voters approved a sales tax to generate about $8 million a year for workforce housing.
In Eagle County, where a 2016 housing assessment shows a valleywide shortfall of 4,500 affordable units, voters rejected a sales tax for workforce housing.
Across the Western Slope, communities have elevated affordable housing to a top priority. Strategies under consideration across the region include sales tax support for housing projects, tweaking zoning to allow higher densities and requiring employers, developers and second homeowners to help support housing projects. And increasingly, the approaches involve curtailing the explosion of short-term rentals, which are blamed for reducing the supply of homes that local workers once rented long-term.
In a rare issue that blankets both major urban centers like New York City and Denver as well as rural communities like Georgetown, Durango and Crested Butte, municipal leaders are exploring a variety of strategies to corral the growth of short-term rentals. The efforts, which 10 years ago were focused on licensing and taxing owners of short-term rentals, have evolved beyond licensing and taxing toward moratoriums and caps limiting the number of vacation rentals.
Read the rest of the top business stories of 2016
- Amazon and Colorado make peace
- Vail buys Whistler Blackcomb
- Voters lift minimum wage
- Towns get creative to solve high country housing crisis
- Chipotle’s less-than-healthy recovery
- Internet shakes up how we watch TV
- A new era for Molson Coors
- R.I.P. Sports Authority
- Cybersecurity firms gain investment as hacks proliferate
- Overtourism becomes an issue
- Denver home prices stay hot, but rent gains cooling
- Energy outlook brightens
