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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2000 Aspen Area Community Housing PlanInterim Aspen Area Citizen Housing Plan July, 1998 Addendum B 64 Interim Aspen Area Citizen Housing Plan 65 Planning and providing for citizen housing in the Aspen area is necessary to create a balanced community representative of the various types of people that live, work and retire in the area. This interim plan is intended to serve as a framework and guide to local officials, staff members and private property owner/developers in the identification, purchase and development of citizen housing sites. To this end, part one of the interim plan establishes a set of Citizen Housing Philosophies and Criteria to assist in the evaluation of potential citizen housing sites. Three Philosophies and Criteria have been identified as the most important for the future acquisition and development of citizen housing: (1) location within an identified metro area; (2) proximity to available public mass transit; and (3) containable development. The remaining Philosophies and Criteria are identified by the letters A through K in no particular order of significance, but are to be considered along with the three priority Philosophies and Criteria. Part two of the interim plan, which will be enacted at a later date, will consider a variety of potential citizen housing sites in light of the Citizen Housing Philosophies and Criteria. The AACP set forth a goal of creating and preserving a certain number of citizen housing units by the year 2015. The progress with respect to that goal is presently ascertainable, so a plan that identifies sites that will allow the production of those units by the year 2015 is appropriate now. The purpose of the interim plan is to address citizen housing needs and opportunities, particularly in the context of sound land use planning and planned and available public transportation. This interim plan will be used to evaluate citizen housing opportunities and site-specific proposals while the Down Valley Comprehensive Plan (“DVCP”), the Aspen Area Community Plan (“AACP”) and the Woody Creek Master Plan are being amended, updated and adopted. The purpose of the interim plan is to establish Philosophies and Criteria to evaluate potential citizen housing development sites and actual development proposals. The intention is not to preclude the development of citizen housing outside of the metro areas if it is appropriate considering all of the Philosophies and Criteria. The interim plan addresses the Aspen metro area from a citizen housing and transportation perspective only. INTRODUCTION PURPOSE AFFECTED AREAS Interim Aspen Area Citizen Housing Plan 66 The interim plan is applicable to all site-specific applications that are pending at the time of final adoption of the plan and all applications filed thereafter. The interim plan is intended as a complement to and a tool to be used along with the other adopted plans. Consistency with other applicable plans should be considered along with this interim plan. 1984 White River National Forest Management Plan 1985 Highway 82 Corridor Plan 1987 Down Valley Comprehensive Plan 1991 Woody Creek Master Plan 1993 Aspen Area Community Plan 1996 Basalt 3 Mile Plan Aspen Area Community Plan Update Basalt Comprehensive Plan Carbondale Master Plan Down Valley Comprehensive Plan Update Pitkin County Strategic Plan Corridor Investment Study Snowmass Comprehensive Plan White River National Forest Update Woody Creek Master Plan Update APPLICABILITY EXISTING ADOPTED PLANS OTHER PENDING PLANS Interim Aspen Area Citizen Housing Plan 67 Affordable housing is a household paying less than 18-28% of its gross annual income for monthly housing costs. For owner occupied housing costs, the percentage would include, by month, mortgage payments, taxes, insurance and utilities. The purchase price of the home would also not exceed 2.7 times the household’s gross annual income. For renter occupied housing costs, this percentage would include monthly contract rent and utilities. Carrying capacity is a term borrowed from ecology that represents the upper limit of population growth that can be achieved in a particular area when individuals are introduced into that area. Carrying capacity is used in determining the potential of an area to absorb development. Specifically, the term includes, but is not limited to: (1) the level of land use, human activity, or development for a specific area that can be accommodated permanently without an irreversible change in the quality of air, water, land or plant and animal habitats; (2) the upper limits of development beyond which the quality of human life, health, welfare, safety, or community character within an area will be impaired; (3) the maximum level of development allowable under current zoning considering the carrying capacity of the land from a physical and character based perspective. Character means the distinct physical characteristics of a structure or area that set it apart from its surroundings and contribute to its individuality. Specifically with respect to structures, character means the density, height, coverage, setback, massing, fenestration, materials and scale of materials. With respect to an area, character means the nature of the area in terms of intensity of the use using the terms rural, suburban or urban. Citizen housing is any housing that is affordable housing or housing that is reasonably attainable for persons employed, or formerly employed retirees, in Pitkin County. Citizen housing includes deed restricted units as well as free market units, so long as such units are affordable housing. Compatible means capable of existing together without conflict or ill effects. Specifically with respect to structures, compatible means consistent with, harmonious with, similar to and/or enhances the mixture of complimentary architectural styles, either of an individual structure of the character of the surrounding structures. DEFINITIONS AFFORDABLE HOUSING CARRYING CAPACITY CHARACTER CITIZEN HOUSING COMPATIBLE Interim Aspen Area Citizen Housing Plan 68 Containable development means development that will not fundamentally change or be incompatible with the character of a neighborhood or area. Containable development is also development that does not promote sprawl and which can be confined (or held) within its area. A fundamental change in character means that the citizen housing development proposed is likely to result in a change in the character of an area so fundamental that its classification as rural, suburban or urban will change. For example, a citizen housing project that transforms an area from rural to suburban, rural to urban or suburban to urban classification, would result in a fundamental change in character of the area. Infrastructure means public facilities and urban services, such as sewage- disposal systems, water-supply systems, other utility systems and roads. The metro area is defined for each jurisdiction as follows: ·The Aspen metro area is: the eastern property boundary of the Preserve Subdivision on Independence Pass, northwest to Brush Creek Road where it intersects with Highway 82. The Aspen metro area covers the valley floor between those two points and is inclusive of the West Buttermilk Subdivision, Maroon Creek Ranch Subdivision and the private portion of Smuggler Mountain, to the Red Mountain ridge line down to Slaughterhouse Bridge, where the boundary coincides with Roaring Fork River until it intersects with Aspen Consolidated Sanitation District and Wally Mills property lines and heads northwest until it intersects with Brush Creek Road. ·The Basalt metro area is: the “urban growth boundary” delineated in the 1996 Basalt Three Mile Plan, adopted by Basalt, or any Master Plan or siting criteria adopted by the Town of Basalt that supercedes or supplements this plan. ·The Snowmass metro area is: the annexation boundary that will be established as part of the pending Snowmass Master Plan. Public facilities and urban services are amenities provided typically only to urban development, including but not limited to: civic facilities, publicly- owned community parks, arterial and collector road facilities, police protection, emergency services, health services, recreation facilities and services, schools; and publicly and privately-owned potable water, sanitary sewer, solid waste, stormwater management, and mass transit facilities that provide services to the public. CONTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE IN CHARACTER INFRASTRUCTURE METRO AREA PUBLIC FACILITIES AND URBAN SERVICES Interim Aspen Area Citizen Housing Plan 69 Rural means country-like or agricultural. Rural areas are generally characterized by lower density residential development and agricultural uses. Sprawl is the continuous, haphazard, uncoordinated development outside of an urban area that does not provide or properly plan for concentration of more intense uses and the efficient and economical provision of public facilities and urban services. Sprawl development tends to promote additional development, especially in connection with the provision of public facilities and urban services. Suburban means a predominantly low-density residential area located immediately outside of and physically and socio-economically associated with an urban area, municipality or a city. Urban means of, relating to, characteristic of, or constituting a municipality or city. Urban areas are generally characterized by moderate and higher density residential development, commercial development and industrial development. Urban land means land inside and adjacent to municipalities or cities that is served by public facilities and urban services and is intensively developed. RURAL SPRAWL SUBURBAN URBAN LAND Interim Aspen Area Citizen Housing Plan 70 The AACP established an upper limit to the desired population of the Aspen Metro Area of 30,000 people by the year 2015. (The 30,000 person cap included full-time residents, second home owners and tourists at peak season around Christmas-time.) The AACP also established the community goal of housing 60% of the working residents upvalley of Aspen Village by the year 2015. The AACP further stated that the majority of future residential and commercial growth should be community oriented with the residential sector being made up of a mixture of economic levels. In order to reach the 60% goal, the AACP recommended four primary actions: §The AACP identified a housing shortfall that called for the creation of approximately 450 new deed restricted employee housing units within the Aspen Metro Area and 200 units outside of the metro area upvalley of Aspen Village; §The AACP called for 750 units of free market housing currently occupied by working residents to be preserved within the Aspen Metro Area; §The AACP identified the need for 200 occupied ADUs in the City of Aspen; and §The AACP proscribed mitigation for commercial, lodge and residential growth to keep in step with the 60% goal. Aspen and Pitkin County are currently updating the AACP. The two main purposes of the Basalt Three Mile Plan were: (1) to provide guidance in the Town’s consideration of future growth and development and establishment of Urban Growth Boundaries; and (2) to help coordinate the actions of Pitkin, Eagle and Garfield Counties regarding growth and development in the three-mile area. The four underlying concepts used in creating the plan included: creation and conservation of sense of community; social, economic and environmental sustainability; livability of the community and quality of life for residents; and quality in man made and natural environments. The Plan recommends policies that establish CITIZEN HOUSING Existing Plans AACP Basalt Three Mile Plan