The next generation of the city of Aspen’s affordable housing plans is becoming clearer, and Aspen voters will be asked to affirm those plans with a $100 million bond and the renewal of two housing taxes at the ballot box in November.
Aspen City Council will provide direction on a number of points at a work session on Tuesday. But Chris Everson, the city’s affordable housing project manager since Jan. 28, has crafted a financing strategy he thinks will work, and it does not include building housing on three of the city’s four recent land acquisitions, including the BMC West site, right away.
During the past year, Aspen has spent approximately $31 million on land purchases for affordable housing: $18.25 million for the BMC West parcel, the current lumber yard at the ABC; $5.4 million for 488 Castle Creek Rd.; $3.6 million for 801 W. Main St.; and $4.1 million for 517 Park Circle.
Everson estimates the city will ask permission to issue a bond worth about $100 million for the next step in its housing plans. He has created a chart that lists 18 housing projects arranged according to priority. The projects that are assigned a high priority, and would be funded through the November bond election, are the completion of the second and third phases of Burlingame, construction of about 35 units at 488 Castle Creek Rd., and a project “to be determined,” which he is using as a place holder. City Council might request that another project be moved up to the high priority slot, he said.
Other projects, such as building a third story on the Marolt Ranch seasonal housing complex, the redevelopment of Truscott, 802 W. Main St., 517 Park Circle, Twin Ridge and BMC West are assigned medium priority status.
The $100 million would be used in part to repay the city for the $31 million in cash purchases it made over the last year, essentially amortizing the payment for all of that land over the longer term. The rest would leverage future real-estate transfer tax (RETT) collections, which the city expects to continue to climb in the future.
Voters will also be asked to extend the RETT, set to expire in 2024, to 2038. The RETT captures 1.5 percent of the value of every real estate transaction in the city and gives 0.5 percent to the Wheeler Opera House endowment and the remaining 1 percent to housing. Voters will also be asked to extend the city’s sales tax that funds housing and day care. That tax is set to expire in 2010.
Everson, who has an MBA from New York University and was a former investment banker on Wall Street before moving to Aspen in 2003, has developed complex financial models breaking down the numbers for all of this housing. He said it would not be feasible or smart to try to bond for all of the money required to do all of the projects on the city’s radar right now because so many unknown factors come into play in the long run.
With his analyst’s background and command of Microsoft Excel, Everson can crunch numbers with the best of them. But he said you also have to trust your gut to tell you how much housing and which type of housing would be appropriate for each individual site.
“It’s a balance,” he said.
Everson, 39, made the move west when he calculated that if he stayed in the New York region and bought a house in the suburbs, he would spend approximately four years of his life commuting before he retired.
When he moved to Aspen, he worked for the late Harley Baldwin on some downtown retail projects. After Baldwin’s death in 2005, he went to work for a local architect doing planning for high-end residential housing. He wasn’t looking for a new job, but his girlfriend saw the ad for the city job and recommended that he apply.
“I figured that this would be more rewarding,” Everson said.
curtis@aspendailynews.com
