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Durango City Council seeks to encourage affordable housing

Protection for condo builders, fair-share ordinance changes possible
Durango Herald file photo <br><br>Workers with Tailor Made Custom Homes build in Edgemont Highlands during 2014. The city is considering increasing the fees builders would have to pay if they fail to include affordable or attainable housing in their subdivisions. The city is also looking to pass a law to offer builders protections from lawsuits if they build condominiums.

Durangoans will have a chance Tuesday to weigh in on two affordable housing policies.

The Durango City Council has been debating ways to address the housing shortage for months, and Tuesday councilors will consider a local law to encourage condominium development and increasing the fees developers are charged in lieu of building affordable units. The housing policies are part of a line up of nine public hearings.

Condo construction in Durango has been largely stalled by a state law that opens up developers to lawsuits.

The city is proposing a law that would give developers a right to repair defects before litigation can be filed. It also would require a homeowners association board to get approval from the majority of members before filing a lawsuit, according to city documents.

In addition, the law would require a homeowners association to abide by a mediation or arbitration process required by the governing documents of the association, city attorney Dirk Nelson said. The homeowners association could not amend the documents to file a lawsuit instead.

The Colorado General Assembly has tried to correct the construction-defects law several times. But better protections for developers don’t seem likely to pass this year, and so the city is working on local protection for developers, said Councilor Christina Rinderle.

“It’s not the level of protection that I’m sure they would like from the state,” she said.

However, other city’s across the state including Denver, Lakewood and Aurora have all passed similar legislation because the state has not acted.

Offering protection to builders could encourage greater density in the city of Durango and more affordable options, Rinderle said.

“Condominiums are often the first rung in the home ownership ladder,” she said

The council may also increase fees developers must pay if they are not going to build affordable or attainable housing.

City law requires developers to pay fees or to sell 16 percent of the housing in a subdivision at affordable or attainable prices.

But the fees fall short of what it costs to build a unit, and a developer has not chosen to build affordable or attainable housing since the law was passed in 2008.

The proposed changes would simplify the fair share ordinance and require developers pay 33 percent of the in-town median home sale price and 19 percent of the median home sale price, according to city documents.

The current system requires developers pay the difference between what people can afford and what the lowest new home sales prices are, said Karen Iverson, executive director of the Regional Housing Alliance.

“It really only captures the affordability gap in the most entry level subdivision,” Iverson said. Her organization manages the fair share program for the city.

However, Rinderle, a real estate agent, is concerned encouraging affordable housing construction could inflate the prices of other homes in a development.

mshinn@durangoherald.com

If you go

The city will take up two housing policies as part of a lengthy agenda Tuesday. The hearings will begin at 6:30 p.m. at Durango City Hall, 949 East Second Avenue.



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