PHOTO: Colorado State Rep. Julie McCluskie. Courtesy Colorado Newsline.
I awoke this morning, early, from a dream about Julie McCluskie.
Actually, not about Julie McCluskie, the person, but about her name. “Julie McCluskie”.
The dream had something to do with affordable housing, a subject that’s been on my mind, this week, due to my current editorial series (this series) about recent updates to Archuleta County’s Land Use Regulations (LURs).
I’ve never met Julie McCluskie, and in fact, prior to this morning, I knew very little about her. She didn’t appear in person in my dream this morning… (as far as I can recall…) but when I woke up, her name was resonating in my head. “Julie McCluskie.” Something about housing?
This doesn’t happen to me very often — that I dream about someone’s name, and wake up remembering their name. So, of course, I had to turn on my computer and find out, “Who is Julie McCluskie, and how is she related to housing in Pagosa Springs?”
As it turns out, Julie McCluskie is from Dillon, Colorado, and represents District 13 in Colorado’s House of Representatives. She was elected Speaker of the House last January, and during the 2023 legislative session, she was one of the prime sponsors of HB23-1304, which established some rules around the distribution of affordable housing funding — in particular, the revenues approved by the Colorado voters when they passed Proposition 123 last November.
Rep. McCluskie has been mentioned in a number of articles shared here in the Daily Post this year. So obviously, I had some familiarity with the name. But I myself hadn’t written anything about her, and when I first woke up this morning, I didn’t remember that I knew anything about Julie McCluskie. That name…?
Life is strange sometimes.
So I’m laying there in bed, thinking about housing, and land use regulations, and the people who make rules about land use and about the use of tax revenues, and how all of this fits into a worsening housing crisis.
And I find myself thinking about the Pagosa Springs Apartments.
So I jump out of bed (couldn’t sleep anyway, with Julie McCluskie’s name on my mind) and I drive over to Village Drive, and take a bunch of early-morning photos of the Pagosa Springs Apartments. According to the Town of Pagosa Springs, this apartment building is supposed to have about 98 units. I counted 40 vehicles in the parking lots, so I guess less than half the units are currently leased?
A couple of years ago, during the COVID crisis, some developers proposed an idea to the Town of Pagosa Springs. They wanted to convert a struggling motel (Pagosa Springs Inn & Suites) into apartment housing. But there was a problem. Although tourists and travelers are allowed — by Town regulations — to live packed together in motels, the Town regulations did not allow full-time residents to live packed together in apartments. The Town Land Use and Development Code (LUDC) zoning would allow a maximum of about 66 apartment units on the four-acre parcel, but the Pagosa Springs Inn & Suites had about 98 rooms.
So the Town revised its LUDC to allow the developers to convert all 98 motel rooms into tiny apartments.
I mention this for a couple of reasons. One: to remind us that rules can be changed. And two: the Town of Pagosa Springs believes that housing is a good thing to have.
That seems like such a simple statement. “Housing is a good thing to have”. But many of the rules our community leaders have created have prevented us from having enough housing to serve our community’s needs.
I’m not complaining about the Land Use Regulations (LUR) changes approved by the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners last week. They are definitely a step in the right direction.
But I wish they went further, in addressing the crisis.
5.6.8 Affordable Workforce Housing Units (AWHU).
Property owners may apply for a Dwelling Density Bonus with a Residential Use-By-Right Permit (per section 3.2.2) allowing construction of additional Dwelling Unit(s) above typical Maximum Density limits found in Table 4 Zoning District Standards under the following circumstances.
5.6.8.1 Property owners must sign and record a Deed Restriction Agreement provided by the Planning Department outlining the requirements listed in this section prior to applying for a Building Permit. This agreement will be for an indefinite term and will run with the land. Twenty (20) years after the receipt of a Certificate of Occupancy for the Dwelling, property owners may request removal of the Deed Restriction through the Development Director. Final approval will be decided by the Board of County Commissioners.
5.6.8.2 Property owners must agree to provide AWHU(s) equivalent to the number of Bonus Dwelling Units approved. For as long as all Bonus Dwelling Units are AWHUs, other Dwelling Units on the parcel are eligible for use as Vacation Rentals subject to compliance with all regulations applicable to Vacation Rentals.
5.6.8.3 Availability of water, sewer, and electricity adequate to support the total number of Dwelling Units is required.
The above text was officially added to the Archuleta County Land Use Regulations (LUR) along with the additional text that we will discuss, below. The County did not have the term “Affordable Workforce Housing Units” or the acronym “AWHU” in the previous versions of the LUR.
The primary purpose of this text (as I understand it) is to provide a coherent definition for the Board of County Commissioners, and for potential developers, to let everyone know that Archuleta County wants to encourage housing — and would even be willing to allow a developer to benefit from certain bonuses and grants, for a particular type of housing.
“Affordable Workforce Housing Units.”
“Affordable” means different things to different people. It can even have a negative connotation for some people, if it means “Inexpensive”. Some people (as has already been discussed in Part Five) prefer to be surrounded by “Expensive” housing units. But historically, Pagosa Springs was one of the more “affordable” mountain towns in Colorado. When Clarissa and I moved here in 1993, we were able to purchase a two-bedroom house, downtown, with indoor plumbing, for $52,000. Yes, it was something of a fixer-upper, but the bones were good. We sold it a few years later and recouped our remodeling costs.
It’s not a fancy house, by any means. 1/6 acre lot. No driveway access. Working class neighborhood.
It’s now valued by the County Assessor at $457,000… nearly ten times what it sold for in 1993. To qualify for a $457,000 mortgage (assuming $45,000 down and a good credit score) your household income would need to be in the $120,000 range.
In other words, you would need two incomes, from well-paid professional positions. The “median” household income in Archuleta County is about $65,000.
This house, which was once “very affordable” has become “very unaffordable” for a typical working family. Or for a retired couple, for that matter.
Archuleta County wants to address this crisis. So the revised LUR now goes to some length to clearly define “Affordable Workforce Housing Units”. A new category of home, that will have some controls applied…
We don’t want people building just “any old housing”. We want to control it.
Read Part Seven…