Whassup? The ultimate Land Use lunacy!
BOULDER COUNTY DENIES HOME IMPROVEMENTS TO LOW INCOME RESIDENTS
The debate is a constant source of frustration – how do you provide affordable housing in Boulder County? There’s no shortage of people who want to live here and that fact has sent property values soaring. It’s one of Boulder County’s biggest challenges and you would expect that the County Commissioners would applaud individuals who volunteer to provide, and even upgrade, low income housing. Instead, however, the County often sets up insurmountable and seemingly illogical obstacles to people whose hearts are in the right place. One tactic is to designate a structure “non-conforming” – which is often a deliberately disguised attempt to eliminate a certain type of use altogether. By denying owners the right to improve such buildings, the County brings about their obsolescence, and, ultimately, their demise – leaving renters with the difficult task of finding affordable housing in a dwindling low income market.
THE EL VADO STORY
Tara Parks grew up in Colorado and was raised to believe that it’s important to give back to your community and enrich the lives of others. She hoped to do that by purchasing an old historic property and updating it to provide comfortable, safe, affordable housing. Her efforts have evolved into an unbelievably frustrating saga. It reads like one of those acts-of-kindness stories you only hear about where the punch line is “no good deed goes unpunished.”
In 1992, Tara, an architect, and her husband Jim, a designer, jumped at the chance to buy El Vado, a vintage motel complex on five acres in Boulder Canyon. It was built back in the 1930’s at the historic crossroads of Magnolia and Sugarloaf in Boulder Canyon, literally “El Vado”. It originally served as a motel and convenience store, until in 1975, it was converted to nine apartments. El Vado is now home to13 people from all walks of life, including a counselor, a waiter and a carpenter. The Parks’ saw this as a chance to live in the mountains themselves, while also giving low income Boulder County residents the opportunity to enjoy the same beautiful foothills environment. But, while the surroundings may be spectacular, the buildings at El Vado are definitely not in their prime. The wiring and plumbing, wall insulation, paint and low ceilings are all in need of major updating. Tara and Jim prepared to borrow money with the intention of fixing up the old place – bringing it up to proper health and safety standards and making the cold, drafty units more energy-efficient. They drew up a plan which included improvements but did not add square footage.
Because El Vado was designated a “non-conforming use” – in this case, a multi-family dwelling which is no longer permitted in the mountains -- the owner does not have a right to modify it. Just to bring it up to code, the Parks had to apply for a Special Use Review, a process which costs many thousands of dollars. Before approval, the Commissioners must find that the changes will benefit the community. Tara and Jim were sure they would have no problem since they were looking to improve the living conditions in a complex that had been providing affordable housing for decades. They took the necessary steps, and spent more than $12,000 in the process. They submitted their final proposal and looked forward to the last step - presenting their plan to the Boulder County Commissioners. Commissioner Paul Danish and the Boulder Housing Authority gave them a big thumbs up, applauding them for rehabilitating existing structures as encouraged in the Boulder County Comprehensive Plan.
But Commissioners Ron Stewart and Jana Mendez voted down Tara and Jim’s plan. Tara and Jim were dumbfounded. What possible harm could there be in improving substandard apartments that will continue to exist as affordable housing into the future? The proposal would better the lives of the residents of El Vado, and harm no one in the community. How could the Commissioners justify making these people live in poor conditions unnecessarily?
Commissioner Ron Stewart accused the Parks’ of having evil intentions: “ Just because the units are small, doesn’t mean the Parks’ won’t gouge the tenants for every penny they can.” Gouge the tenants? The Parks use HUD’s guidelines for affordability to set the rents. In fact, the $450-$750 rents for El Vado (utilities included) are well under HUD guidelines. The Commissioners, however, declared that the “handful” of rental units did not serve “a significant socioeconomic need within the county.” They offered the Parks only one option: They would allow renovation only if Tara and Jim would add a clause to their deed keeping the apartments permanently affordable – with Boulder County deciding what “affordable” means. To make matters worse, the County had no definition of “affordable”. The problem for the Parks was obvious: they would be the ones gouged if the County set the rents unreasonably low, or arbitrarily redefined the term “affordability” in the future. Left to the whims of the Commissioners’ discretion, the issue would be a moving target with an unknown and unknowable resting place.
The tenants who live at El Vado say the Parks have been a godsend. They have nothing but praise for Tara and Jim. The tenants, along with several long time neighbors, spoke in favor of the Parks’ proposal, and offered testimony at the hearing. Nonetheless, the residents of El Vado are condemned to live in substandard housing, despite the Parks’ efforts to improve their conditions.
It will be another long, cold winter in El Vado.
WHAT CAN BE DONE?
Because of this case, and others like it, the Land Use Coalition has established a legislative committee to study statewide legislation aimed at protecting individual landowners from the loss of the use of their property through arbitrary application of local land use regulations and the designation of non-conforming uses.
The Land Use Coalition believes that elected officials should be held accountable for their actions. If you have comments about these issues that you would like to forward to the Boulder County Commissioners, you can reach Ron Stewart, Paul Danish, or Jana Mendez at (303) 441-3500.
The Land Use Coalition is a diverse, non-partisan, grassroots organization dedicated to open space, wildlife preservation and reasonable land use regulations while protecting citizens and their property rights in Boulder County. The LUC has influenced important statewide land use legislation and helped shape local land use regulations. The LUC is neither pro-development nor pro-growth.
This space was paid for by citizen donations to the Real People, Real Stories Committee of the Land Use Coalition in an effort to inform the public about the impact of land use issues on real people in the community. The story is printed with the permission of the landowner who has verified the facts to be true.
Do you have a story you'd like to tell? We invite and encourage your participation and support. For more information, call (303) 666-7903 or visit our website at http://landusecoalition.org.
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For more information contact the Land Use Coalition at info@landusecoalition.org or call 303-666-7903.
Last updated January 24, 2002.
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