After several months of public comment and letters of protest, the Estes Park Housing Authority is reconsidering how deed restrictions associated with properties it manages are structured.
The decision was made on Aug. 13 and followed discussions facilitated between EPHA and three Vista Ridge deed-restricted homeowners by the Town of Estes Park’s Restorative Justice department.
When a deed-restricted condominium in the Vista Ridge complex is purchased, the buyer must qualify at 80% area median income and receives a non-serviceable second mortgage from EPHA for around $50,000 which lowers the purchase price and the amount that must be financed.
When this buyer becomes a seller, the formula for setting the sales price requires getting an appraisal based on comparable deed-restricted properties then taking off half the appreciation to set the sales price, Moulton explained.
However, those restrictions have come under fire after several homeowners in the Vista Ridge subdivision objected to how maximum resale values are established. Through the facilitated conversations, EPHA representatives agreed to look at considering using a market-value appraisal before cutting half the appreciation value.
The deed-restricted covenants for that subdivision were created more than 20 years ago, said Eric Blackhurst, chair of the EPHA board of directors. He said this may be a good time to refine the deed-restriction policies going forward, as well. The board directed staff to investigate this matter further.
In other EPHA news, Scott Moulton, executive director asked the board their opinion on citizen initiatives, slated for a resident vote on Nov. 4. Two questions regarding rezoning and variances from the current Estes Park Development Code, which is 20 years old and currently being rewritten, will be up for voter approval.
“I’m totally against those resolutions passing,” said Jim Jameson, EPHA board member and practicing Texas attorney. “In my humble legal opinion, it’s unconstitutional. It’ll never hold up. It’s a waste of time, a waste of effort. But we need to speak up to let our position be known,” he said.
Board president Eric Blackhurst said the community was asked to approve a similar citizen-initiated ballot measure in 1998. That proposal would have limited Estes Park’s growth to one percent per year.
“That one percent a year would have meant about 26 homes could be built in Estes Park when at that time, builders were building in the neighborhood of about 50 units per year,” he said.
“That particular initiative was defeated by 75 percent of the voters,” Blackhurst continued, “and I am definitely opposed to both of these ballot initiatives that have been brought forward.”
The board agreed with this position, except for Julia Dailey who was undecided, and will consider a resolution against the initiatives prepared by staff for the next board meeting. Phil Frank has resigned from the board, reported Moulton, so he was not present to participate in the discussion.
The EPHA proceeded with a motion that authorized “about $90,000,” to renovate and reconfigure the former event space at Fall River Village to headquarter the EPHA offices.
Currently housed in offices at the U.S. Bank building downtown, EPHA staff increases have caused the work space to become difficult operationally, said Moulton in a previous interview with the Estes Valley Voice.
Moulton presented slides with renditions of furniture that will need to be added to existing office equipment, such as portable partitions, to complete the renovation. These images also included floor plans of the future offices. There is an opportunity to use furniture that was included in the Fall River Village units before they were converted to rental workforce housing, Moulton said.
Pete Levine, EPHA’s real estate development director, reported on several projects:
- At 179 Stanley Circle, the matter of a previously unknown sewer line that intersects the property with no easement caused the design to be put on hold, he said. It was resolved at the Estes Park Sanitation District meeting on Tuesday that 12 feet on one side and eight feet on the other side of the line is an acceptable solution to the district’s 20-foot easement requirement. EPHA is acting as the developer for this project, which is planned for Town of Estes Park employee housing.
- A Class III survey, designed to identify cultural resources on undeveloped land on the proposed Fish Hatchery development, is 75 percent complete. So far, nothing has come up to make the property ineligible to build on, he reported.
- An amended planned unit development and preliminary subdivision document to convert the upper-level townhomes for sale at Fall River Village were submitted at the end of July, said Levine. These types of submittals generally take three to four weeks to review, he said.
The next EPHA meeting will be on Sept. 10 at 8:30 a.m. in the George Hix board room of the U.S. Bank building.