“Show what it’s like to have a home.”
Vague as it might be, that was the direction photographer Daniel Bayer and I settled on before he made his way to Eagle to meet the Carlton family, to gather images for our story published this week by freelancer Andrew Travers, about the efforts of a new regional housing coalition to advance solutions to a housing crisis that seems to be on the tip of everyone’s tongue.
One specific solution, and the reason Aspen Journalism was in touch with the Carltons, is the notion of establishing a buydown program for Roaring Fork and Colorado River valley working locals. Eagle County already has a similar program in place and the Carltons are among the 32 homeowners who have participated since 2021. Roughly, the program provides a down-payment subsidy to homebuyers shopping on the free market who would be priced out without the support. In exchange, the buyer agrees to a deed restriction that would keep the home affordable and in local hands when they sell.
This could be a game changer in how affordable housing gets done in our community. For close to 50 years, Aspen and Pitkin County have had a robust housing program that has resulted in more than 3,200 deed-restricted units. For most of that time, Basalt, Carbondale and Glenwood Springs offered a free-market relief valve, where valley residents could find housing within their budgets as more of Aspen’s private housing stock sold to investors, retirees and second-home owners.
But market conditions of the last four years have made those once-affordable downvalley communities much less so for working residents. This lies at the core of many of the socioeconomic shifts and challenges we are all grappling with.
So with $3 million in expected funding from the state, the West Mountain Regional Housing Coalition is preparing to launch a pilot buydown program later this year. Many details are still to be worked out, but this appears to be one of the most significant developments in local affordable housing policy we’ve seen in some time. Just ask the Carltons. With kids age 2 and 4 and a job in early childhood education, Sara Carlton told Travers that the family had been renting in Avon and Edwards and was considering leaving Colorado if they couldn’t find the safe harbor that home ownership offered them. But now they have it and, indeed, as you can see through the photographer’s lens, it is what having a home looks like.
Also this week from Aspen Journalism, Water Desk Editor Heather Sackett looked into a long-pending water court case involving Colorado Springs Utilities, which is seeking to keep alive conditional water rights tied to three small reservoirs that would be built near the headwaters of the Blue River above Breckenridge. It’s a reminder that the populous urban areas of the Front Range would not be able to support the populations they have, or accommodate the future growth many are predicting, without water siphoned off the top of the Western Slope — and that taking that water has environmental impact. Much of the concern around the reservoir proposals involves their siting in potential endangered species habitat, that one of them might flood sensitive wetlands known as fens and that two would require new roads through the forest.
And don’t miss this week’s Data Dashboard which marks a milestone. With last weekend’s storm that dumped more than a foot of heavy snow on Aspen and Snowmass ski areas, the basin-wide snowpack measurement in the Roaring Fork basin topped the average seasonal peak, which typically occurs in mid April. That means with a month of accumulations to go, we may see one of the best snowpacks in recent memory when it’s all said and done. And that couldn’t come at a better time, with Lake Powell dropping further into record-low territory before the runoff starts.
Thank you for reading, and supporting, Aspen Journalism.
With gratitude,
– Curtis Wackerle
Editor and executive director
Nonprofit coalition aims to buy down homes to create affordable housing
Roaring Fork Valley workers, priced out of the free market, would get a boost to buy
By Andrew Travers | March 14, 2023
The group would give homeowners cash to help make the purchase — $100,000 or more, coalition members estimate — in exchange for placing a deed restriction on the properties at purchase to keep them occupied by local people who intend to live there full time.
Colorado Springs seeks to keep water rights tied to dams, reservoirs
Water court process for diligence filing enters eighth year
By Heather Sackett | March 11, 2023
Colorado Springs Utilities has been mired in water court since 2015, fighting for its conditional water rights, which date to 1952 and are tied to three proposed reservoirs
Data dashboard: Roaring Fork basin snowpack exceeds median peak following weekend storm
McClure Pass topped its average seasonal peak on Feb. 14
By Laurine Lassalle | March 16, 2023
• Snowpack in the Roaring Fork basin reached 124.5% of average on March 12 or 138% of median with 19.3 inches of snow-water equivalent, according to NOAA.
• Lake Powell’s water elevation was down to 3,520.5 feet on March 12, or 4.5 feet below target elevation.
Tracking the Curve
Eagle County has reported 25 new COVID-19 cases since last week. Garfield County has added 13 cases, while Pitkin County has recorded two cases since March 8.
By Laurine Lassalle
March 16, 2023
Eagle County has reported 25 new COVID-19 cases since last week. Garfield County has added 13 cases, while Pitkin County has recorded two cases since March 8.
Our nonprofit mission is to produce investigative journalism for people who care about Aspen, the Roaring Fork Valley, and the upper Colorado River basin.
