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 direction - Parcel planning and subdivision: staff showed a conceptual subdivision that separates the existing mobile-home park, the new-build housing parcels (multifamily and hillside units), utility parcels (water tank, water treatment building, wastewater treatment facility), and a potential future public-use parcel. Staff said the plan is intended to enable different ownership, management and funding approaches for each portion rather than treat the 65 acres as a single project. - Utilities: the wastewater system specified in the design uses an AquaPointe BioClear packaged plant; permitting with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) is under way. Staff said monthly permit reporting to CDPHE is already occurring even though construction has not started. Staff described the wastewater package as largely buried components and a small building for final treatment and ultraviolet disinfection. The flow-storage calculation includes a large fire-flow-driven storage need: county staff said the Roaring Fork Fire Protection District requested a fire-flow of about 1,750 gpm for two hours, which contributed to the roughly 200,000‑gallon portion of the proposed ~280,000‑gallon storage tank (the remainder sized for normal consumption). - Site design and architecture: staff showed unit types (condo-style multifamily near the river, townhome-style hillside units, duplexes and detached single-family types) and said architectural development is about 70% complete for vertical work while civil and construction drawings remain farther along. Unit sizes in the current design range from about 520 square feet to roughly 1,600 square feet. Staff said the board previously directed a mix that includes one-bedroom units; that change was incorporated into the design. - Mobile-home park: the county operates the Phillips mobile-home park on county land and charges lot rent (staff said $430 per month). Staff said Social Communities has been contracted to provide tenant engagement, complete lease signings and support relocation planning; staff reported that Social Communities had secured eight additional lease signatures. County staff said the park includes long-term tenants, a mix of mobile homes and travel trailers and a resident property manager, Hiram Noyes. Staff reported two different counts in the meeting text — 34 occupied lots in one presentation and 37 in another — and said the county will confirm the exact, current occupancy count in subsequent materials. - Relocation and policy work: staff said Riverside-facing units in the floodplain are known to tenants to be at risk and that relocation will be offered when water service is discontinued; the county is still developing the relocation policy and will return to the board with options. Staff also emphasized state and federal tenant-protection rules that will govern relocation benefits and timing.

Funding approach and next steps Staff emphasized that they are budgeting for utility work from county sources rather than relying on state/federal grants that previously appeared likely. Fielding said: "we have tracked down every grant we possibly can, and then they all disappeared ... so 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, knowing that when we go to vertical construction, it'll be very different." Staff asked the board whether to proceed with the proposed utility capital projects at the current design level and whether staff may continue partnership and funding conversations to build capital stacks for vertical development.

Board members asked for further detail on location-and-extent entitlements, site layout that addresses structure separation and fire and acoustic separation, how property-cost reimbursements would be calculated if parts of the parcel were conveyed, and the degree to which HOA-like monthly fees could make homes unaffordable. Several commissioners said they were prepared to move forward with the utility capital projects because of health-and-safety obligations to existing residents, but asked staff to return with clearer cost splits between parcels, clearer relocation policy options, and firm partnership proposals before committing to vertical funding.

Ending: staff said they will continue permitting and design work, refine a final funding plan, prepare relocation policy options for the mobile-home park, and pursue partnership letters of interest for vertical housing. They indicated they will return to the board for entitlements (location and extent) and for any supplemental appropriations needed to implement the program.