A lack of housing stock at all levels of the market is the biggest concern for resident-led focus groups looking to update the city’s comprehensive plan.
The fancy name for the plan is Imagine Greeley, and despite five separate focus areas for those focus groups, residents during a Greeley City Council work session repeatedly said it all circles back to housing.
“Greeley just has a severe shortage,” said Kris Pickett, who presented on housing access for the board. “We’re losing residents in our community due to a lack of inventory.”
It was the biggest potential change to the city’s comprehensive plan that was adopted in 2009. Community Development Director Brad Mueller said there wasn’t an issue with housing then. And during the recession, there were other issues to worry about.
Today, housing prices continue to set records, rising more than 11 percent compared with this time last year.
Picket was one of four residents invited to present their focus group findings to the council. Other areas of focus were growth and city form, economic health and diversification, and livability.
The other area, public capital and operations planning, will get underway soon.
The groups met a number of times to brainstorm ideas and a vision for the future of Greeley.
Each of the residents talked glowingly of the setup, saying their focus groups featured folks from diverse backgrounds with a variety of ideas.
Louisa Andersen, who talked about economic health and diversity, stressed a two-pronged approach for east and west Greeley. Andersen said city officials should consider more creative and mixed zoning possibilities, and she said her group recommends more corridor development, including the Greeley Mall, East 8th Street and the railroad area north of town.
Still, like the others, Andersen said housing was a hot topic.
“Our conversations almost always went back to housing,” Andersen said.
Ron Edgerton, who presented on livability, said his group focused on increased parks, culture and recreation opportunities, as well as historic preservation.
But Edgerton had something to say on housing, as well.
“We encourage building affordable housing throughout the city, including west Greeley,” Edgerton said.
Julie Jensen, who presented on growth and city form, stressed the need for well-managed growth.
Pickett is a civil engineer, and he said there are issues with housing for all price ranges – from a step above homeless to high-end shoppers.
Throughout the group’s work, Pickett said, they took stock of the number of homes for sale. It hovered around 100, when a typical Greeley market, according to Realtors, would be 400.
Mayor Tom Norton asked for solutions.
“What are the impediments to housing?” Norton said.
One might be the costs of development. The Greeley Planning Commission early Tuesday afternoon approved a 400-plus-home housing development in west Greeley, but the feeling around Colorado is that those kinds of standalone projects will dry up soon.
Instead, more cities are looking to metropolitan taxing districts, which allow developers to levy a tax on future residents to pay upfront development and infrastructure costs.
The tool gets a bad rap, because taxes can be twice as high – or more – compared to houses that aren’t in a metro district. But they’ve proven to be a boon for smaller communities, including Johnstown, which looks poised to add more later this year.
Greeley officials will have their most in-depth discussion on metro districts during an Aug. 8 work session, Mueller said.
– Tyler Silvy covers government and politics for The Greeley Tribune. Reach him at tsilvy@greeleytribune.com. Connect with him at Facebook.com/TylerSilvy or @TylerSilvy on Twitter.
