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Board and staff discuss agricultural worker housing guidelines and OSMP residential portfolio
Summary
Trustees and staff discussed agricultural workforce housing guidelines, an RFP for farmstead tenants, and a later review of OSMP’s broader residential property portfolio; staff said demand is currently met but will likely grow and that an RFP opened Jan. 15 with a mandatory site visit Jan. 27.
Trustees asked staff on Jan. 15 about guidelines intended to support agricultural workers on Open Space and Mountain Parks (OSMP) properties and about the department’s residential property portfolio.
OSMP staff said that current housing supply meets present demand but that demand is expected to rise as longtime tenant-owners retire and the next generation of farm tenants lacks owned housing. Lauren Kolb (staff) said some residences could be rehabilitated, and other market-rate houses that OSMP owns could be converted to off-market housing for agricultural tenants. Staff noted coordination with Boulder County, which has its own leasing portfolio and may offer partnership opportunities.
Staff told trustees the detailed Request for Proposals (RFP) for farmstead tenants was released on Jan. 15, 2025; Heather Swanson (staff) said there is a mandatory site visit on Jan. 27 and the RFP process will close in mid-February. Trustees asked whether income verification would be required; staff said the guidelines propose no income verification for people whose income is exclusively from farm work on open space (to avoid excluding seasonal or part-time farm workers), while households with other income would follow standard affordable-housing income requirements.
Board members also asked about OSMP-owned residences that do not serve an open-space charter purpose. Staff said a later spring discussion will outline the residential inventory and identify a small number of houses that could be considered for disposal; such outsales would follow the city’s regular disposal process and would require both board and city council review before any sale.
No formal vote on housing or property disposal occurred at the meeting; staff said a separate conversation on the residential portfolio will be scheduled for later in the spring.
