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Thursday, January 12, 2022
Updating the Telluride Affordable Housing Guidelines was again the focus of the Telluride Housing Authority Subcommittee during its rescheduled regular meeting Wednesday morning at Rebekah Hall.
“The Guidelines are to be reviewed every two years by the Telluride Housing Authority (‘THA’) Subcommittee (‘Subcommittee’). Since the April 3, 2018 adoption of major changes to the Guidelines only AMI updates and time sensitive amendments to the Guidelines have been addressed by the Subcommittee and THA Board. The Subcommittee directed staff to initiate the review at its January 19, 2022 meeting,” town assistant attorney Allie Slaten wrote in her staff memo, which also recapped and outlined the progress to day and projected timeline for upcoming regular meetings necessary for adoption in early-to-mid-2023.
Wednesday’s meeting focused on Part 2 (Housing Mitigation Program), Part 3 (Town Constructed Ownership Program) and Part 4 (Employee Dwelling Units Program) of the guidelines, as Slaten provided minor edits and suggestions for the subcommittee to consider and discuss, where necessary.
“The biennial review provides the opportunity to identify desirable and sometimes necessary changes to the Guidelines. After review the Subcommittee will send recommendations to the THA Board for consideration at a public meeting,” her memo read. “The attached redline proposes edits that may be based on legal concerns, while others are intended to make the Guidelines more accessible by removing legalese and using more concise language, or to highlight topics for consideration by the Subcommittee. Ministerial or clerical edits not reflected in the redline include changes in capitalization (e.g. Household vs. household), addition of numerical references (e.g. ‘two (2)’ vs. ‘2’), replacement of the word ‘shall’ by ‘must’ to lessen the legalese, and use or omission of acronyms (e.g. THA vs. Telluride Housing Authority). Although some comments and edits may be written as definitive, all are intended only as points of discussion.”
Also during Wednesday’s meeting, San Miguel Regional Housing Authority (SMRHA) Manager Courtney McEleney introduced new administrative coordinator Emily Pierson.
“I'm so very excited to introduce Emily. Emily started last Wednesday, and he's already off to a great start, has lots of projects that she's working on, she said. “ … Emily comes from the Town of Mountain Village most recently, and we're just so excited for her to be a part of our small but mighty team.”
During McEleney’s brief SMRHA update at the beginning of the meeting, subcommittee member Geneva Shaunette asked for an on the regional affordable-housing map that local governmental officials have previously discussed and agreed would be a valuable tool moving forward.
“We've been talking a lot, both internally and with the other municipalities, about coming up with this map, or chart, which can be turned into a map. And I was wondering where we are on that,” she said.
San Miguel County Assistant Manager James Van Hooser presented the first draft of such a map during a Nov. 7 intergovernmental meeting last year.
“The idea for an affordable housing map came out of our last IG meeting back in August, and after that discussion the BOCC (Board of County Commissioners) specifically tasked county staff with heading up that project and in getting a map put together for the unincorporated areas of San Miguel County. We also went ahead and did Norwood because it was a fairly simple add to that list. We've also been in discussion with Town of Telluride and Mountain Village to assist with making maps for those communities should they want to have them and release them,” Van Hooser said during the November meeting.
Town staff assured Shaunette that pertinent information has since been shared with Van Hooser and the county for inclusion on the map.