Pitkin County updates Phillips affordable-housing plan; utility work eyed for 2026–27

Pitkin County staff on Tuesday updated the Board of County Commissioners on plans to develop affordable housing at the county-owned Phillips property and on repairs and relocation work for the existing Phillips mobile home park.

The presentation said design work on the water and wastewater systems is roughly 90% complete, and staff presented updated cost estimates: about $4.9 million for the wastewater treatment plant, about $2 million for the water treatment facility, roughly $1.9 million for the water storage tank, and about $1 million to repair or replace the county’s wells. Civil and roadwork and site development raise the utilities-and-site work order of magnitude to roughly $15 million; staff also listed an overall vertical-construction rough order of magnitude near $50 million for building new housing. "We are currently budgeting for all of the utility work ... out of existing county budget," Construction and Assets Director Jiar Fielding said, adding that "we are holding, I believe it's a $13,000,000 budget for 2026 and 2027 to fund all the things you'll see here today."

Why it matters: the county owns a roughly 65-acre Phillips parcel that contains an existing mobile-home park and areas staff has proposed for stick-built housing, utilities, and potential public uses. Replacing failing water and wastewater infrastructure is already necessary to maintain the mobile-home park; the larger build-out work would enable about the level and mix of housing the board directed in prior sessions.

What staff presented and board…