Several housing decisions to come before the Lyons Planning Commission this year

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Published in the March 14, 2019,  edition of the Lyons Recorder. 

COMMENTARY: What’s the future of affordable housing in Lyons?)

Several housing decisions to come before the Planning Commission this year

by Amy Reinholds

The Lyons Planning and Community Development Commission (PCDC) expects as many as a dozen public hearings the rest of 2019, including the development plan for 29 rental homes in multifamily affordable housing that Summit Housing Group proposes on Tract A of Lyons Valley Park Filing 8.

The PCDC and Town Planner Paul Glasgow reviewed priorities for the year at a March 11 workshop meeting, and they incorporated direction from the Lyons Board of Trustees meeting a week earlier.

Summit is under contract with Keith Bell to purchase land in the Lyons Valley Park subdivision, intending to build 11 single family homes on already platted lots and 29 homes in duplex and triplex buildings on Lyons Valley Park Tract A of Filing 8 (about 4 acres) – all rental homes affordable for people who earn 60 percent of the area median or less. The development plan for the 29 multifamily units on Lyons Valley Park Tract A is expected to be submitted within a month. It will go through the site development process with PCDC, and that process will include public input before both the PCDC and the trustees.

In the fall, a commercial Planned Unit Development (PUD) process is expected to begin for a portion of the eastern corridor land that Paul Tamburello is under contract to purchase from the Town of Lyons. About two years ago, the Town of Lyons purchased the former Longmont water treatment plant land east of U.S. 36 from the City of Longmont to use a portion of it as a permanent home for the town’s flood-destroyed public works building and to sell remaining available parcels to buyers who want to pursue uses described in the Lyons Primary Planning Area Master Plan. The town put out the request for proposals for prospective buyers with development plans in the fall of 2017. At that time, the Greens partnership (consisting of Tamburello, Donna Merten, and Thistle Community Housing) proposed purchasing all the land that Lyons is selling, on both the north and south sides of the highway (4.3 acres at 4651 Ute Hwy and 3.28 acres at 4652 Ute Hwy) for a mixed-use development that includes an innovative food agriculture business, a commercial kitchen, and affordable rental homes.

Tamburello told the trustees last week that he is still in discussion with Thistle. Affordable rental homes could still be a possibility on some of the land he plans to purchase, but Tamburello is expected to bring forward a PUD application for commercial development first. He reported that the Green Goo company is interested in a new headquarters at the location.

Other items on the PCDC’s list that could affect affordable housing include some revisions to the Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) ordinance, which is intended to encourage more lower-cost (but still market-rate) long-term rentals in town.

Under current town code, all ADUs, including carriage houses, basement and garage apartments, and tiny homes on wheels, must be used for long-term rentals (defined as lease periods of 31 days or longer), which is meant to increase the number of rentals available for long-term tenants and employees of local businesses. See the town code at www.townoflyons.com/566/Accessory-Dwelling-Units. Trustee Jocelyn Farrell has proposed those minimum lease periods for ADUs be three months or longer, maybe even six months or longer.

The PCDC is also expected to take up preliminary work for a town-wide Lyons Comprehensive Plan in 2020, an update from the 2010 Comprehensive Plan, which you can read at www.townoflyons.com/DocumentCenter/View/155/2010-Comprehensive-Plan-PDF. A Comprehensive Plan is intended to capture broad community input about goals for land use, growth, housing, transportation, economic development, natural resources, and other issues, gathered over a year of community workshops, surveys, and public meetings.

For all the public hearings that the commission holds, public input is included, and then the PCDC commissioners vote on a recommendation to the Lyons Board of Trustees. Then the trustees also hold public hearings where the members of the public can comment, and they make a final decision.

All PCDC meetings are open to the public. The next meeting is April 8 at 7 p.m. in the Lyons Depot Conference room. Check the calendar at www.townoflyons.com/calendar.aspx for any changes or updates in meeting dates and times.

Lyons lost about 76 to 94 destroyed homes in the 2013 flood. In March 2015, a proposal for using part of Bohn Park to build subsidized, affordable Boulder County Housing Authority rentals and some Habitat for Humanity for-sale affordable homes (a total of 50-70 homes) was rejected in a town vote, 614 to 498. However, $4 million of federal Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery funds were still set aside for affordable housing in Lyons, and the State Housing Board voted in February to approve Summit Housing Group’s application for those funds for building 11 single family homes and 29 homes in multifamily buildings on land the company plans to buy in Lyons Valley Park. Until Summit’s proposal, few concepts for subsidized affordable rentals were pursued. The only post-flood, permanently affordable housing actually in the construction phase is at 112 Park Street where Habitat for Humanity of the St. Vrain Valley is building three duplexes (a total of six, for-sale homes) on six residential lots.

This column is a commentary (opinion column) in the Lyons Recorder. For a history, you can read previous columns from both Lyons-area newspapers at lyonscoloradonews.wordpress.com. If you have any questions, comments, or complaints about this column, please contact me directly at areinholds @hotmail.com.