Faced with a booming population lured to the Western Slope by the promise of the expanding energy industry, Mesa County is looking at a shortage of affordable housing.
One developer says he has the solution.
“All I am asking the government to do is make things reasonable for me. Get out of my way,” said Steven Kesler, president of the Housing and Building Association of Northwestern Colorado.
Government red tape, according to Kesler, has stagnated the affordable-housing market.
“There’s no apartments, there’s no motels, there’s no rental houses. Anything that is on the market is rented immediately,” he said. “There are just not enough (housing) units.”
The issue affects the entire northwest swath of Colorado, and locally there is an effort afoot to bring together all the players and come up with some solutions.
Mesa County is considering joining a six-month, valley-wide study being pitched by the Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce, the result of which would be the preparation of a comprehensive housing strategy. It would be a collaborative effort by Leland Consulting Group, RRC and James Coil Research and Consulting, and it would be funded jointly by the chamber and all the county municipalities.
But solutions are what’s needed, stakeholders say.
“It astounds me, quite frankly, that we don’t have more Front Range developers knocking on our door right now saying, ‘We get it. You need high-density housing,’” said Jon Peacock, Mesa County administrator.
A recent study of northwest Colorado’s energy boom forecasts “the most rapid growth will occur in the rural areas of western Garfield, Rio Blanco and Moffat counties, though Mesa County will gain the most total residents.” The study, “Northwest Colorado Socioeconomic Analysis and Forecast,” was prepared by BBC Research & Consulting for the Associated Governments of Northwest Colorado.
“I fully believe there needs to be large-scale rental properties across the region,” said Aron Diaz, executive director of the Associated Governments of Northwest Colorado.
County Commissioner Janet Rowland said public investment in infrastructure is needed to accommodate the growth.
“The biggest issues are land and available sewer,” she said.
According to the BBC Research & Consulting study, the region will need $2.1 billion for the necessary infrastructure to serve the projected population of 416,949 people in the four-county area of Garfield, Mesa, Moffat and Rio Blanco counties.
“That is achievable with some forethought,” said Tim Sarmo, Palisade town manager. “We ought to be talking about some sort of federal loan guarantees. ... The problem is when those (projected growth) scenarios don’t play out, somebody is left holding the bag.”
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E-mail Le Roy Standish at lstandish@gjds.com.
