Boulder swallows 201 defeat; seeks new affordable housing solutions

BOULDER ? The recent failure of ballot issue 201, a raise in sales taxes to support affordable housing in the city of Boulder, has left city officials, developers and others wondering what direction Boulder now should take to support affordable housing.

The ballot question, which asked voters to raise the city sales tax rate by the equivalent of nine cents on every $100 purchase and asked whether builders of commercial properties should pay an extra $1.25 per square foot in excise taxes, was defeated by a narrow margin.

Ideas for possible solutions to the affordable housing dilemma include attempting to pass the sales tax again, making affordable housing a countywide issue, having the city contribute more money to affordable housing, creating mixed-use, higher-density developments within the city and partnering non-profit organizations such as Habitat For Humanity and Thistle Community Housing with developers.

Clair Beckmann, a member of the Housing Implementation and Funding Task Force, which supported 201, said affordable housing, along with transportation, is an issue the city will grapple with for many years to come. However the city addresses affordable housing in the future, Beckmann said there are no easy answers. “The task force knew going into it there’s no magic pill,” she said.

The idea of large employers providing housing like they do at major ski resorts has been tossed around by the city. “There has been talk of the university even providing faculty housing,” Beckmann said.

John Pollack, director of housing for the city of Boulder, said the defeat of 201 definitely was a setback for the city. “The fact the ballot measure was defeated shows the public was not quite willing to support adding another tool to the toolbox,” he said. “Tax increase is a difficult thing. It is commendable that 20,000 people said yes.”

Even though the measure was defeated, Pollack said the city will continue to do what it can to support affordable housing using the resources it has. “I am optimistic we can secure a significant amount of affordable housing,” he said.

The city of Boulder has between $2.5 million and $3 million a year to spend on affordable housing. Had the sales tax passed, that amount would have doubled, Pollack said.

In the meantime, the city and county are reviewing their comprehensive plan to make more affordable housing possible, and an ordinance for inclusionary zoning, passed by city council a year ago, requires developers of new residential property in Boulder to provide affordable housing in 20 percent of their developments. Under the ordinance, the developer also can opt to provide housing units at a different location, land or cash-in-lieu, Pollack said.

To help them fulfill inclusionary requirements, some developers have been partnering with non-profit organizations such as Habitat For Humanity and Thistle Community Housing. “There have been some partnerships before, but the level of partnership is escalating,” Pollack said.

Such partnerships benefit both the non-profits and the developers. “We want to let everybody do what they do best,” he said.

Thistle Community Housing has been talking to developers about the possibility of building some of its affordable housing units, said Aaron Miripol, executive director of Thistle. “We should have contracts within the next four months,” he said.

Habitat For Humanity, which also has been talking with developers, has an agreement with Wonderland Hill Development to build four of the units in the developer’s new co-housing unit in Boulder, said Jim Leach, president of Wonderland Hill Development.

Habitat For Humanity’s goal of providing affordable housing works well with the concept of co-housing, he said. “One of the goals of co-housing is to integrate people economically,” he said.

Tom Agnew, executive director of Habitat For Humanity, said he feels both his organization and Wonderland Hill Development will learn from the partnership. “We do some things, like our method of selecting families and sweat equity, that Wonderland Hill would like to know about.”

Agnew added Habitat For Humanity’s slogan, “Habitat Builds Community By Building Houses,” fits in perfectly with co-housing’s concept of creating a community.

Agnew said working with for-profit developers may become a trend for Habitat For Humanity, particularly because the high cost of land in Boulder County is making it more and more difficult for Habitat For Humanity to build homes any other way. “Late last week, a person had a small parcel of land. He wanted $1.8 million for a little over 4.42 acres.”

To help offset high land prices, some communities, including Kansas City, Kan.; Omaha, Neb.; and South Bend, Ind., provide Habitat For Humanity with residential lots, sell them to the organization for $600 or provide a combination of both, Agnew said. Because this is not the case in Boulder, Habitat has to come up with more creative means of building homes here.

The co-housing unit in Boulder will be located on the land that once was the Holiday drive-in theater, just south of Lee Hill Road between Broadway and U.S. 36. Leach said one third of the units will be affordable housing.

With the help of Habitat For Humanity, Leach said the co-housing development will be able to have units that are lower than the city’s definition of affordable housing.

Prices of the affordable housing units at the development will range from $100,000 to $400,000. “We are shooting for housing for families who make under $25,000 a year,” Leach said, “Usually, the families have children.” To help families, Habitat For Humanity offers additional resources such as interest-free or low-interest loans.

Wonderland Hill Development still is working out the details of the project with Habitat For Humanity. “The volunteers from Habitat For Humanity may build four units or work on all the houses and get credit for the four,” Leach said.

Although partnerships between non-profits and developers help address affordable housing needs in Boulder, the partnerships alone are not a solution, Miripol said. “It is not a panacea,” he said. “It is a piece, just as 201 was. Now we have a void there.”

Although the ballot initiative did not pass, it remains important for the city to contribute money to affordable housing. “Without local money, you can’t leverage state and federal money,” Miripol said.

Recently, an individual from Boulder, Brian Underhill, donated $60,000 to Thistle. Underhill purchased a home in Boulder 10 years ago for $180,000 and sold it recently for $670,000. Underhill said he donated 10 percent of the sale of his house to Thistle because he would like to help families who work in Boulder but can no longer afford to live here.

To address affordable housing, Miripol also believes in mixed-use development, or putting affordable housing units in commercial areas, and in increased density in Boulder. “The sacred cow of density has to be addressed,” he said, adding existing neighborhoods need to look at increasing their density.

Miripol said affordable housing also can be put in other cities in Boulder County such as Longmont and Lafayette. “I’d like to see more of a regional approach. Affordable housing is also an issue in Longmont and Lafayette and in the entire front range. What one community does and another community does not do offset each other,” he said.

Bruce Dierking, a member of the Housing Implementation and Funding Task Force, agreed that affordable housing should become a regional issue. Affordable housing in Boulder is more expensive than it is in cities like Longmont, Erie and Broomfield, Dierking said. “We have to move beyond looking at affordable housing as within Boulder city limits and look at it as regional,” he said.

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