Archive for Tuesday, May 3, 2005
Christopher Mraz: Housing hope
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I am having a hard time figuring out whether our City Council is for or against providing affordable housing to the residents of Steamboat Springs. They certainly like to pay lip service to affordable housing; Kathy Connell said that helping people find affordable housing is "practical and noble," and that their goal should be "to create affordable housing. The government should be seeing a net gain in affordable homes."
And yet, City Council's actions paint a different picture. Time and again, our City Council has done little or nothing to promote or create affordable housing. And presently, nothing has changed.
The proposal for the Overlook subdivision next to West Acres and West End Village would be a perfect opportunity for the council to be "noble" and put its money where its mouth is.
That parcel is one of the last pieces of land specifically zoned for mobile-home use (i.e., affordable housing) within the city limits, and yet the council is ready to allow a change of use, and even build a new road, to allow for 122 single-family lots, 15 duplex lots, two commercial lots (not providing any type of housing) and, oh yeah, five mobile-home lots. How noble.
This piece of land could be the last opportunity for true affordable housing in Steamboat Springs. Let's hope in this case that council's actions do not speak louder than words.
Christopher Mraz
Steamboat Springs
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