The city of Durango is on track to issue more certificates of occupancy this year than its annual average the last decade, and it has nearly 2,000 housing units in the pipeline across 24 projects.
City housing innovation manager Eva Henson said during Wednesday’s joint meeting between Durango City Council and Durango School District 9-R Board of Education that 121 certificates of occupancy have been issued thus far in 2023. The city’s 10-year average for certificates issued annually has been 125, and there’s plenty more time to introduce additional homes to the inventory before 2023 ends.
Durango Community Development Director Scott Shine said rent-restricted units are needed immediately for workers struggling to find or afford housing, but underlying structural issues around homeownership opportunities also need to be addressed.
The city is trying to diversify its housing inventory to ensure more opportunities for workers earning various incomes, he said.
“The need is very real for our local workforce, for local government, for first responders and for our school-based employees as well,” Henson said.
The city is in active negotiations with a workforce developer to complete construction of potentially 30 units in October, Henson said. She said the project is similar to a voucher program that aims to make housing more affordable and attainable for workers. The program would use American Rescue Plan Act funds.
The city is looking at a potential two-year pilot program for the 30 units and will look to partner with Durango School District 9-R and other organizations to get the units leased out, Henson said.
There are 1,990 units for rent or homeownership in Durango being developed, she said.
The units are either under review by the city’s Community Development Department, approved for construction or actively under construction, she said. About 590 of the units are being built for homeownership, with 199 of them possessing affordability components. The remaining 1,400 units are rentals.
The Animas City Park Overlook Townhomes, a 22-unit project with 14 deed-restricted units, is expected to complete its second and final phase of construction in December, which will add another 11 units to the city’s housing stock, Henson said.
The Best Western motel conversion, a low-income housing tax credit project officially called Residences at Durango, will introduce 120 workforce housing rental units.
The units will be reserved for people earning between 30% and 60% of the area’s median income when the conversion is completed next year, Henson said. Rent will range between $600 and $950 per month for one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments.
The BLD Apartments, a large-scale multifamily apartment project with 492 units planned for the Southfork district west of Mercy Hospital and Three Springs, will designate about 25 units as affordable workforce housing units, Henson said. The apartments will be built in phases over several years.
Another project called the Twin Buttes, located at the former Animas High School site, will feature another 30 affordable units. The city awarded Elevation Community Land Trust with the project, which aims to develop units for homeownership that will be available in 2024 or 2025, Henson said.
Around 1,100 more units are planned for Three Springs, although significant development of the area is still required before they can be built, Shine said.
He said Durango School District 9-R, which is interested in building an elementary school in Three Springs, is an important partner for the area’s continued development.
The city made a $250,000 commitment to fund the design and engineering of a road extension to improve access to the site, called Village Two, where the school would be built, he said.
“That opens up the school site and makes it a lot more accessible,” he said. “... It also opens up a park opportunity. So there’s a lot of synergy right there to work together about how you want to use that land.”
Three Springs committed 40 acres of land for a future school or schools. Shine said city staff members are looking into more housing opportunities at the site.
“This is a big opportunity and definitely requires close partnership and a lot of trust and interaction between our organizations,” he said.
cburney@durangoherald.com
