Estes Park town staff met with local residents Sept. 5 in the first outreach effort connected with the planned Fish Hatchery workforce housing project.
The event allowed the Estes Park Housing Authority, which is partnering with the town to advance the enterprise, to gather information about local concerns.
“There is a concern about traffic for evacuations [and] . . . concerns about the river and the wildlife,” said Pete Levine, EPHA’s director of real estate development at a Sept. 11 housing authority meeting. “There’s also dark sky concerns as well, trying to make sure the light wasn’t going to be ruining stars and hitting back into the national park as well.”
Those worries are similar to objections raised during community discussions in 2022, when the town was engaged in discussions about the project with a previous proposed developer. At that time residents said they wanted a traffic light at U.S. Highway 34, improved access roads and more places at which access to the site could be had, better public transportation availability, more parking, and privacy protection at the property’s eastern edge.
Town and housing authority employees have begun examining the constraints at the property that may impact development, including those of a physical nature, according to a document provided to members of the EPHA board of directors, as well as the history of the site.
“We do not have a conceptual plan yet to show as we are still determining product types,” the document states.
The Fish Hatchery property is expected to accommodate a multi-family housing development. The Estes Park town board re-zoned 21.8 acres there in Oct. 2022 to allow that level of density.
Estes Park has $2 million available to do public outreach and design work connected to the venture. Those funds were obtained from Larimer County, which in turn acquired them under the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
The Fish Hatchery undertaking was, according to an EPHA is expected Request for Proposal made public in April, anticipated to provide about 190 workforce and/or affordable housing units aimed at “moderate and low income households.” Scott Moulton, EVHA’s executive director, said that the actual number of units to be included at the Fish Hatchery development has not yet been definitively determined and is at least somewhat likely to be less than 190 units.
“The rental portion of the development is intended to serve households with incomes ranging from 30%-120% of the Area Median Income,” the RFP states. “The For Sale portion of the development is intended to serve incomes up to 150% AMI.”
Units that are sold would carry a deed restriction requiring the homeowner to work within the boundaries of the Estes Valley School District for an average of at least 30 hours per week.
According to a slide presentation by EPHA staff at the Sept. 5 outreach meeting, the Estes Valley is likely to need about 2,700 more households by 2030. Moulton said that projection is based on U.S. Census data.
The estimate is consistent with information made public by EPHA.
“According to the 2023 Housing Needs Assessment,” said the organization’s 2024 Annual Housing Supply Plan, “the Estes Valley requires an additional 1,220 dwellings to meet existing demand, and an additional 1,500 dwellings by 2030 due to the retiring workforce and anticipated job growth.”
About 1,500 of the new households built in the EPHA service area must be new units. EPHA will not provide all of them. Instead, EPHA hopes to provide 550-700 housing units to the local workforce.
Not all of those would be newly constructed, Moulton said in a Sept. 18 interview with the Estes Valley Voice. Some would be made available by adapting existing structures to affordable or workforce housing purposes.
The variety of housing types at the Fish Hatchery plot will include apartments, cottage courts, duplexes, fourplexes, and single family homes. EPHA goal is to “[c]reate a dynamic and diverse neighborhood that provides a variety of housing options to suit the numerous needs of the Estes Park [w]orkforce while honoring the natural features of the property,” the slide presentation stated.
The Fish Hatchery project would be built adjacent to and north of the Fall River and south of Fall River Road / U.S. Highway 34. The site, part of a larger parcel of about 68 acres, was home to a hydroelectric facility from 1909. That facility was damaged in a 1982 flood and designated a historic site in 1988. The Fall River Hydroplant has been restored and is now a museum.
Estes Park unsuccessfully sought for two years to achieve a Fish Hatchery site development agreement with AmericaWest Housing Solutions, a Woodland Park-based developer.
Pel-Ona Architects & Urbanists was selected as the architect and land use planner for the revitalized project.
Levine also said at the EPHA meeting last week that Estes Park plans to begin work to complete a walking path to the Fish Hatchery plot next year.
Estes Park’s town government has set up an email address – fishhatchery@estes.org – at which residents and others can request information and updates about the Fish Hatchery enterprise.
I’m a huge proponent of affordable housing, particularly in Estes Park. However, I would like to know why the highly qualified and talented architects and engineers that already exist in Estes Park were not chosen for this project? This is a local need with a local benefit, and that should have extended to the local professionals and employers of our town. I don’t suppose a local construction company will be considered?
Kevin,
Thank you for your questions regarding the Fish Hatchery project and the selection process for design and entitlement services. An RFP process was conducted, and we received nine responses. EPHA increased our anticipated three interviews, based on submitted RFPs, to four due to the number and quality of responses received.
Only one local architect was part of any submitted RFP, and that group was not selected for an interview.
Three major factors in the selection process were price, experience in Colorado mountain communities, and general approach to design and community engagement.
We anticipate a similar process when the project is nearing both horizontal and vertical construction, although we are quite far from that stage at this early point.
I hope this answers some of your questions. If you have any further inquiries, you may contact me directly at smoulton@estes.org (Scott Moulton – Executive Director, Estes Park Housing Authority) or plevine@estes.org (Pete Levine – Director of Real Estate Development, Estes Park Housing Authority).
Scott Moulton
Executive Director
Estes Park Housing Authority
P.O. Box 1200
363 E. Elkhorn Ave Ste. 101
Estes Park, CO 80517
970-591-2537 call or text
There is a HUGE need for affordable housing, but it needs to be more centrally located. Sustainable solutions require high-density housing near the core. Outlying development such as this Fish Hatchery project puts excessive burdens on infrastructure and sacrifices our precious open spaces. The last thing we need is MORE traffic on our roads, more commuters, more lost wildlife habitat. Four miles from downtown and shops, five miles from schools, six miles to Salud, no transit options – this site will oblige residents to drive many miles to accomplish their most basic tasks. I only hope that the 2025 Development Code update will better prioritize central infill and discourage outlying projects like this one.