Affordable housing project in Colorado mountain town raises concerns over how affordable it really is

There's some in Fraser calling foul on the St. Louis Landing (formerly the Victoria Village), which the city has promised will bring roughly 200 affordable homes to the rural community that's in desperate need of help with that very problem.

The city was able to purchase the land in 2022, thanks to public funding options like grants, and has since bid out the project and has just recently broken ground. Mayor Brian Cerkvenik said the project can't come fast enough. 

"This should at least make a dent in what we need, and we need it now," Cerkvenik explained. "We needed it two years ago. So the faster we can get it built, the better."

Initial projections for the project included homes targeted for workers making between 30%-80% annual median income (AMI), with the possibility of deed restrictions in most buildings, and the potential for the costs of the townhomes in the plan to reach between 80% to 120% AMI. 

Now, the new plan is for the first batch of homes built to be rentals, and start at that 80% to 120% AMI. That change feels drastic to local business owner Megan Luther, who was excited for the addition of more places for her people, like her employees, to be able to afford. 

"They're buried," Luther said, exasperated. "They're buried with housing costs, high costs of a lot of other things in our area, just being a resort town." 

She believes the changes to the plan make this affordable housing... not all that affordable. 

"We have people in this community who can build market-rate housing. If we're going to have taxpayer-funded projects, especially when they were promised that the things it was supposed to be affordable- do that!"

Town Manager Michael Brack and Mayor Cerkvenik said Luther's view does not account for the cost of the project, which they said is a direct connection to how much they expect the homes to cost to live in. 

Building on the property, which Brack said is mostly wetlands, will take significant urban development, including civic infrastructure, roads, sewage, electricity, and the inclusion of a child care center (which is expected to be able to care for 75 kids once fully staffed) in the first phase. That phase will include two buildings, with almost 100 units between them. Brack said the cost of this first move should be dramatically more than the next two phases, for the other half of the homes, and because the next phases will be cheaper to build with existing infrastructure, the cost of living in those buildings should reflect that. Still, the first phase is the hardest pill to swallow. 

"It is a big lift, but the goal of this is to provide for affordable housing, make it as affordable as possible," Brack said. 

"We do see this as being affordable. I think there's just perceptions and misunderstandings about what phase one actually entails."

Cerkvenik agreed that affordable is a matter of perspective, and 80%-120% AMI is still far better than the current market rate, which he said renters are paying close to $1,500-$1,800 a month. 

"This project will put those rents at around $1,000. So it's dramatically lower than what the market standard is."

A collection of citizens in Fraser has voiced their opposition to the current plan through a written letter.