The PAWSD Board of Directors’ agenda, last night, dealt largely with housing — affordable housing in particular — and the effect of a dramatic increase in the Capital Investment Fees (CIF) on the construction industry in Pagosa Springs. That increase was approved last month.
The increased Capital Investment Fees are necessary to help finance a series of new wastewater facility upgrades being demanded by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
The CIF has been waived in the past, for affordable housing projects. But can PAWSD afford to waive the now-much-larger fees? That was the main question facing the Board last night.
The weekly Pagosa Springs SUN posted a lengthy article yesterday, written by reporter Josh Pike, about how PAWSD fees and waiver policies might affect efforts by local governments to address the housing crisis in Pagosa Springs. Mr. Pike has been following PAWSD issues closely over the past several months, and has written reasonably accurate accounts of recent PAWSD Board meetings.
Disclosure: I currently serve as a volunteer on the PAWSD Board of Directors, but this editorial reflects only my own personal opinions, and not necessarily the opinions of the PAWSD Board as a whole, nor of the PAWSD staff.
At the end of his 4,000-word article — most of which covered discussions at the March 7 PAWSD Board meeting — Mr. Pike quoted comments made at a recent Archuleta Board of County Commissioners meeting, during which our three commissioners — who were not, as I recall, present at that March 7 PAWSD Board meeting — reacted to the possibility that a revised PAWSD policy might negatively affect the current Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation housing project in the Trails and Chris Mountain subdivisions. The BOCC has been supporting the PSCDC project with donations of vacant County-owned parcels there, and with cooperation in writing and submitting grants to support the PSCDC project.
I was not present at the March 12 BOCC meeting during that discussion. Mr. Pike quoted Commissioner Warren Brown — who sits on the PSCDC Board of Directors — as saying:
““My concern in this matter is that, I know that the budget is very tight with PSCDC and they have managed to pull together a rousing number of community supporters, not only the County but also the Town, [Pagosa Lakes Property Owners Association], some local banks to do financing, our broadband provider, LPEA… and even the contractor that was selected — BWD — all to pitch in to make this project work, because all of us know and understand the need for workforce housing. If the fees are not reduced or eliminated in this project, my understanding and speaking with [PSCDC Executive Director Emily Lashbrooke] is this project will not pencil and this will not happen…
“This is a project that I think benefits our county across the board. I just wanted to put out a sincere request to the PAWSD board to give some very thorough consideration in making this decision, and if they want to implement the moratorium after this project, then everybody can go into funding with the knowledge of this is what that new price is going to be and maybe there’s going to be fewer houses that were attempted to be made, so they can hit these 80% AMI points in order to get additional funding.
“My understanding is another $2 million is at stake with the application to be submitted this Friday…”
PAWSD created a waiver policy in 2020, to support affordable and workforce housing, and past recipients of the waivers were Habitat for Humanity of Archuleta County and Archuleta County Housing Authority; total waivers have amounted to about $128,000 so far. The policy waived the fees
PSCDC is newly involved in the housing crisis. Last year, the PSCDC Board directed their staff to figure out ways to encourage additional housing, and the greatly increased Capital Investment Fees presented a challenge to their current plans.
Presumably, we all recognize the need for affordable and workforce housing in Pagosa Springs, and we all appreciate the efforts by some of our local governments (and their taxpayers) to support affordable solutions. Perhaps, we all hope that tax and fee subsidies are not funding housing for wealthy second-home owners and short-term rental investors?
With that need in mind, the PAWSD meeting last night drew a standing-room-only audience, with a surprisingly high proportion of the audience being elected and appointed government officials, who attended to promote special treatment for affordable housing projects.
PSCDC Executive Director Lashbrooke made a presentation to the PAWSD Board at last night’s meeting, explaining that the current project by PSCDC to build ten new homes in the Trails and Chris Mountain subdivisions is threatened by the increased CIF. In particular, she said, a $1.9 million grant to complete some of the never-completed infrastructure in Chris Mountain is dependent upon a promise, made by the Archuleta County government, to ensure that a total of 43 or more affordable homes are built over the next three years.
Ms. Lashbrooke implied that the planned homes would not be eligible for state grant subsidies, unless the CIF fees were waived for the project. A string of audience members stepped up to the podium to corroborate her testimony.
Habitat Archuleta, the local non-profit that has been helping build homes for lower income families for nearly 30 years, also presented a request to have the CIF waived for three homes they plan to build in 2024.
The PAWSD Board had, in their meeting packet, a resolution that would waive CIF fees for projects serving workforce households earning 80% or less of the Area Median Income (AMI). Ms. Lashbrooke and her supporters were asking for waivers, also, for homes at the 100% AMI level — households with incomes in the $65,000 per year range.
In the end, the PAWSD Board voted 4-to-1 to adopt a policy that will waive the CIF completely for housing serving 80% AMI and below, and to offer a 50% waiver of the fees for projects serving households in the 80% to 100% range, so long as the projects included deed restrictions preserving their affordability for at least 15 years. The vote also allowed the Board to give enhanced waivers to projects in the 80% to 100% range, when those projects demonstrated wide community support.