Grand County officials revise HDHO draft to ease lending hurdles and broaden eligibility

Grand County Planning Commission Chair Tony Mancuso opened a joint workshop April 28 to review proposed changes to Land Use Code 4.7, the county—s High Density Housing Overlay (HDHO), saying he would call the meeting to order and turn discussion over to staff.

The draft revisions focus on two aims flagged repeatedly by the county task force: making HDHO units easier to finance and widening the pool of residents eligible to live in HDHO housing. County staff framed the package as an attempt to preserve the overlay—s goal of primary-residence workforce housing while removing language that lenders have identified as a barrier to conventional mortgages.

"There's bound to be mistakes because I'm human," said Christine Simcox, the staff presenter, as she introduced the revised language and described the draft as the product of recent task-force meetings and stakeholder input. Simcox said the draft has not yet completed legal review and that staff would revise wording after further feedback.

Key changes and points discussed

- Definitions and local employment: The draft expands and clarifies definitions at 4.7.0.3 to explicitly include remote employment and several categories of "local employment" and "local businesses/organizations." Commissioners and task-force members discussed a proposed 75-mile local-area radius intended to cover the county while giving some guidance about where employers must be located to count as local. Staff said HOSU (the county housing authority) would have administrative discretion to apply those definitions in borderline cases.

- Residency and work-time thresholds: The draft retains a primary-residential-occupancy standard of nine months out of any 12-month period but would reduce a prior look-back…