Vail’s Affordable Housing stuck in the NO Zone

Written By Vail Sticky

UPDATE: 1/3/23 WEST MIDDLE CREEK HAS BEEN REZONED!

On January 3rd in the year of our lord 2023…

Ordinance 25 of 2022 passed unanimously without modification or objection. That means it’s official - The Town of Vail has officially rezoned West Middle Creek for housing and childcare. 231 days elapsed from council’s direction to “proceed immediately” with rezoning.

A win is a win, even in overtime.

 

West Middle Creek Timeline

  • 9/18/2018: West Middle Creek Development Feasibility Study

  • 5/13/2022: In a letter to Vail Resorts dated May 13th the Town of Vail stated in regards to West Middle Creek “The rezoning process is to begin immediately and will be completed by September 1, 2022.”

  • 5/17/2022: Town Manager asked the council if they would like staff to “proceed immediately” with preparing a rezoning application. Vail Town Council voted unanimously (7-0) to do so. Watch the video replay of the vote (28 minutes in).

  • 7/11/2022: Item tabled in P.E.C. to 8/8/2022

  • 8/8/2022: Item tabled in P.E.C. to 9/12/2022

  • 9/12/2022 Item tabled in P.E.C. to 9/26/2022

  • 9/26/2022 Item tabled in P.E.C. to 10/24/2022

  • 10/24/2022: Staff is working to provide the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) that the P.E.C. requested…so the rezoning recommendation has been postponed again until 12/12/2022

  • 12/12/2022: PEC has officially forwarded their recommendation of APPROVAL to the Town Council to rezone West Middle Creek for affordable housing and a childcare facility. 209 days. YAY!

  • 12/20/2022: The Vail Town Council has APPROVED the rezoning of West Middle Creek for affordable housing and a childcare facility.

  • 1/3/2023: Ordinance 25 of 2022 passed unanimously without modification or objection on it’s second reading. That means it’s official - The Vail Town Council has officially approved the rezoning of West Middle Creek for housing and childcare. 231 days elapsed from council’s direction to “proceed immediately” with preparing a rezoning application. A win is a win, even in overtime.

A brief contextual history…

At the 9/26/2022 P.E.C. meeting staff recommended that the commission forward a recommendation of approval to the Town Council to rezone the 3 parcels that encompass West Middle Creek to allow for not only housing, but also an early childcare facility. The Commission opted to punt the recommendation on rezoning down the field until a preliminary analysis can be completed. It is unclear what information they found to be lacking from the 43 page West Middle Creek Development Preliminary Feasibility Study and Analysis that was completed in 2018.

The P.E.C. is has come under fire for their decision to re-zone Booth Heights for housing - which has paved the way for a condemnation action to stop housing from being built. Based on the discussion the commission is afraid West Middle Creek may share some sort of yet undiscovered environmental significance on par with the critical winter range for Bighorn Sheep that exists in Booth Heights. West Middle Creek is sandwiched squarely in line with 3 other high-density affordable housing developments that have been found to be environmentally acceptable: Middle Creek, Solar Vail, and The Residences at Main Vail.

(Note: Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s maps illustrating wildlife habitat overlays are publicly available and provide an excellent resource for folks interested in the intersections of development planning and the environment.)

Staff went to great lengths to explain that the environmental assessment the commission requested could not adequately assess environmental impacts at the zoning phase, and would only be relevant in the context of a development plan. A development plan for the site does not yet exist - because the Town of Vail hopes to find a private developer that will want to partner with them on this project.

It would be extremely unusual for a developer to invest the time and resources to create a development plan for a project on land that isn’t zoned for development. A private developer wouldn’t commission a environmental impact report at the zoning phase which would only be able to broadly speculate as to how the environment might be impacted by some form of development that would fall under the category of “housing” and “general use”.

The foresight to include a childcare facility is particularly impactful for a community struggling with both staffing and locations to support childcare for families in town. The Children’s Garden of Learning was relocated to a temporary location at the Lionshead parking structure in order to make way for an affordable housing development - the Residences at Main Vail.

The Residences at Main Vail project was nearly killed by the Design Review Board and only saved on appeal to the previous council which voted 5-2 to overturn it on 8/3/2021. Whatever plans may be in store for West Middle Creek, it seems as though their success will be similarly dependent upon the support of a Town Council willing to shepherd them through a contentious approval process.

Why this actions matters

The next Planning and Environmental Commission is 10/26/22 which rezoning of West Middle Creek is expected to be delayed to 12/12/2022. The next Vail Town Council Meeting is scheduled for 11/1/22. If the schedule holds, over the course of approximately 209 days the Town of Vail will have:

  • Purchased (12?) properties for deed restricted resale or Town of Vail staff (hard to keep track of this - check out this page for TOV housing initiatives.)

  • Blocked the construction of 144 beds of workforce housing with a condemnation action (5/3/22).

  • Completed a Community Survey (6/7/22) in which residential housing was identified as the #1 community priority

  • Heard a Destination Stewardship Mid-Year Update (8/16/22) which disclosed “The undisputed top concern in the Vail Valley is resident housing”

  • Not rezoned West Middle Creek or the May Residence

The “win-win” that was widely touted in May to strike a deal with Broomfield to build housing somewhere other than Booth Heights doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. Given the history, it would be hard to sell the idea that the Town of Vail could deliver a smooth and expeditious rezoning and entitlement process for new affordable housing construction anywhere - even if the majority of the community wanted it.

The Residences at Main Vail made it through, but only with a contentious overturning of a Design Review Board decision at the 11th hour. Would it have made it through the process without the looming threat of housing being built in East Vail? The current council’s closing statements on 8/2/22 seem to indicate that the primary reason the Residences is currently rising out of the ground was a gesture towards an informal understanding that Booth Heights would be abandoned. If Broomfield took the action to trade Booth Heights for beds at the Residences they might have been a little closer to being able to house their staff, but at the expense of the rest of our community desperately in need of workforce housing that will benefit from having those beds available.

Despite a critical housing shortage, unprecedented demand, and land that could be buildable - Vail does not make it easy to develop affordable housing. Dragging out the entitlement process for development is expensive, financially and emotionally. Johannes Faessler succeeded in building housing for the Sonnenalp staff right next to West Middle Creek - it was later referred to as a brown (shit) stain during DRB deliberations over the Residences at Main Vail. Ouch.

Small micro aggressions, opposition actions, and appeals at every step add up - which is an effective tactic if you don’t want affordable housing to be built. Smoothing the path forward would help recruit private investment for affordable housing, but forward doesn’t seem to be a direction Vail is moving with the urgency required.

So what does it take to get new workforce housing built in Vail? A lot….but it can’t happen without rezoning.

The May Residence Zoning Delay

You can help expedite action.

The Town Council’s unanimous support, the community survey, and the mid-year destination stewardship results are not enough to expedite rezoning.

Town of Vail needs more encouragement to spur action on the creation of new residential workforce housing.

Speak up! Let’s get this moving!

Send a quick email by clicking the button below…

 

The Town of Vail acquired “The May Residence” at 5137 Black Gore Drive on July 30, 2021. On April 19th 2022 the Town Council Was presented with a staff recommendation to rezone the property from Two-family residential to Residential Cluster which would allow the town to build up to 4 deed restricted residential housing units on the property someday. It appears the Council decision to rezone was unanimous. (Watch the video replay on Facebook 52 minutes in).

The property currently has 3 housing units on it - one of those 3 existing units appears to be an illegal lock off, so although it has existed in real life for some time, it doesn’t technically count as existing. The May Residence is located 40 yards away from property that is already zoned Residential Cluster - the Cedar Point Townhomes.

Excerpt from Town of Vail’s Short Term Rental Survey (February 2022)

The Town has not proceeded with rezoning this property due to “pushback” from neighbors that are opposed to ‘changing the character of the neighborhood’. The identity of the neighbors and their arguments or actions in opposition are not readily available to the public - as this opposition is taking place in advance of a public hearing on the topic. One could theoretically make a request for this information by emailing the Town Clerk.

A reasonable person might assume that rezoning the parcel to match the same density that currently exists for full time residents would be exactly what is required to preserve the character of the neighborhood. The Town of Vail’s Short Term Rental Survey (February 2022) indicates that little pocket at the very end of East Vail is still mostly residential. There are several short term rentals in the immediate vicinity, a few of which advertise accommodations at densities that would be unlikely to be appreciated by neighbors - such as 9 guests in a 2 bedroom 1 bath lock-off.

  • On 8/22/22 rezoning was tabled in P.E.C. to 9/12/2022

  • On 9/6/22 a 5137 Black Gore Drive Rezoning Update was provided to the Town Council that advised the following:

    • “Due to a staff oversight, it has become apparent that the recommended Residential Cluster Zone District is not an appropriate zoning for the subject property. The Residential Cluster Zone District has a minimum lot size requirement of 15,000 square feet whereas the subject property is only 13,287 square feet. The Vail Town Code (Sec. 12-3-8 Zoning Changes; Town Property) requires that town property undergoing a rezoning must be in full compliance with the standards of the new zone district. Community Development will continue discussions with Housing and other departments on possible future zoning scenarios for this property”

  • On 9/12/22 the application to rezone the parcel was withdrawn from P.E.C.





References

Vail Sticky
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10-18-22 Vail Town Council Agenda Breakdown
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