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County advances housing work: DOLA grant executed, consultant RFPs, Ilium site prioritized
Summary
San Miguel County staff reported an executed Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) grant, active code-consulting and strategic planning work, a posted housing-specialist job, and a focus on the county-owned Ilium property as the fastest near-term site for county-led housing development.
Deputy Director Jared Biggs updated commissioners on affordable-housing work Jan. 22, reporting that the county received an executed grant from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs and is advancing several pre-grant reporting steps.
“we did receive our executed grant from Dola,” Biggs said, and staff are moving forward on required pre-award reporting. Christina Lambert is posting a job description for a county housing specialist, Biggs said, and county staff are preparing a request for proposals for code consultants to evaluate the land-use code with an eye toward making affordable housing easier to build.
Biggs said the consultant work will include assessment of the county’s Community Housing (CH) zoning district but will be broader: consultants will be asked to identify code tools and procedural changes that could accelerate affordable housing and to recommend options appropriate for a small, resort-area county.
He said EPS (the housing needs consultant) will present at a February 10 intergovernmental meeting hosted by the town of Mountain Village; the full housing-needs assessment will follow. Biggs said staff are reconciling data sources with EPS and aim to present more complete numbers after that meeting.
Biggs told the board the county’s work is prioritizing the Ilium property because it is the fastest track for county development, while other county parcels face longer lead times tied to wastewater provision and well adjudication. He said the county has submitted a wastewater permitting application at the Pathfinder site to obtain design limits needed for system design: “We actually have to pull a permit as if we had a plant in order to get our limits so we can design then to those limits,” Biggs said.
Biggs and staff also reported meetings with KEO Studios and consultant Jim Kehoe to update development time frames; he said the county expects to bring similar lot-line and PUD amendment paperwork for Ilium within roughly the next month to month-and-a-half.
Commissioners asked whether the code-consulting exercise will include infrastructure constraints (water, sewer, roads). Biggs said consultants will “nod to” infrastructure limits and identify code measures that might speed development once infrastructure is addressed.
