Residents came together to grill the Durango City Council candidates on housing and infrastructure Monday night.

Candidates Dave McHenry, Sean Waddell, Councilor Dick White and Mayor Sweetie Marbury debated the issues important to members of the Citizens for Healthy Established Neighborhoods and the Boulevard Neighborhood Association Inc.

While the crowd sampled a myriad of homemade pies, the councilors took on perennial questions about the need for more homes and higher quality rental units.

“If you see a really poorly maintained, bad house ... you can pretty much guarantee it’s a rental,” Alma Evans told the candidates.

Creating a habitability code could help raise the standards for rental housing in many capacities, according to several candidates.

This code could require the housing to be safe and create equal standards, McHenry said. But he would also like the city to start enforcing the code that is already in place.

Marbury suggested neighbors should hold property owners accountable for both the behavior and appearance of rental properties.

“We need to be asking why wouldn’t you want to be investing in your own property,” she said.

Waddell, a property manager, pointed out the insurance industry already regulates these properties.

The increased demand for housing was also a hot topic. To help address this issue the city planning department is currently starting a study to help identify policy changes that would make many kinds of housing more available, White said.

“The housing study that the planning department is undertaking gives us at least a chance to get our arms around the issue,” he said.

McHenry predicted growth would spark challenges around increased density that the neighborhood groups have already faced: ADUs.

“We need to be proactive and protect our neighborhoods,” McHenry said.

Balancing the infrastructure, such as water and sewer needs and the expansion of the La Plata County- Durango airport, arts and culture were all top priorities for all candidates. They all promised to be fiscally responsible and take care of water and sewer first.

But McHenry was straightforward about the situation.

“It’s going to cost a fortune; you and I are going to pay for it.” McHenry said. “We need to have people treat the taxpayer money like it’s real money.”

Candidates also heard faced some of the toughest and most congenial questions they will hear this cycle.

Among these was a question from Susan McGinness who asked how they plan to keep themselves from being that one member on council that just can’t compromise.

“How are you going to keep yourself from being the royal pain?” she asked.

McHenry described himself as reasonable and open minded, and Waddell said he had never been on a dysfunctional team.

Marbury owned the fact that she was the only person that voted to keep the trolley free, but otherwise she worked well with others.

“You win some you lose some. You get over it, and you go on,” she said.

mshinn@durangoherald.com