Residential property developers in Glenwood Springs will no longer be required to provide a percentage of deed-restricted for-sale affordable housing units in their projects, Glenwood City Council decided on a 4-3 vote Thursday night.
“This has been the wrong policy since it was adopted, and it’s even more wrong now,” Councilor Todd Leahy, who has been a regular critic of the requirement, saying it serves to obstruct rather than promote affordable housing.
Mayor Michael Gamba, along with council members Kathryn Trauger and Steve Davis, have tended to agree with that assessment.
“It’s counter-intuitive,” Gamba said. “It only serves to penalize the people providing the product we are trying to get.”
At the same time, council also agreed that, following a housing needs assessment to be conducted by a group studying the possible formation of a regional housing authority, a broader city housing policy is needed.
Glenwood’s so-called inclusionary housing requirement was first adopted in 2001 as a way to maintain a stock of below-market, owner-occupied housing during a time of rapid growth and double-digit housing costs.
Read the full story
