OURAY COUNTY BRIEFS

OURAY – The Ouray County Commissioners accepted by resolution the regional housing plan that was drafted by the Regional Housing Authority and prepared by Rees Consulting last June as a guiding document in reaching the region’s affordable housing needs and goals.

The housing plan, completed June 22, outlines the specific housing needs of Ouray County and the municipalities that lie within the county.

The housing needs plan is broken into two categories. To catch up with the housing needs, there is currently a demand for 50 housing units. And to keep up with projected future growth in the region, the RHA anticipates 160 units should be online by 2015.

So a total of 210 housing units are needed by 2015 in both the catch-up and keep-up categories, according to the plan, with 55 percent of the units in Ridgway, 28 percent in Ouray and 17 percent in the unincorporated areas of Ouray County.

The housing authority had drafted 12 different strategies to reach the 210-unit goal by 2015. The strategies for 2009 include rehabilitation and weatherization of the current housing stock to make them more affordable to live in, annexation policies, and homeownership counseling and mortgage assistance programs.

The strategy outline for 2010 includes the working of development incentives, inclusionary zoning, commercial linkage, and residential linkage. By 2011, the plan outlines strategies including work on accessory dwelling units and an update of the housing needs assessment. Tax credit apartments with things like senior housing will be worked on in 2012 and use taxes will be the topic of 2015.

Commissioner Keith Meinert liked the way the approved resolution was worded for the housing plan, he said, because it “doesn’t commit us to anything or obligate us to any course of action but does lay out a rational that I would like to see us move forward with.”

Commissioner Heidi Albritton agreed by saying the plan is in the general direction she would like the county to move forward with.

Commissioners Approve Work Session Policy

On Monday, the Ouray County Commissioners unanimously approved a policy that outlines the conduct of county work sessions.

While regular county commissioner meetings, where official decisions are made, are regularly posted and its minutes recorded by state statute, work sessions have typically not been recorded because state law does not require it.

In the midst of a series of work sessions the commissioners had held on the possible residential mining claim regulations, three residents requested that the commissioners set standards for the work sessions and that they all be recorded.

The resolution passed on Monday in Ouray states that all work sessions will be posted at regular venues, persons who have within the last two years requested noticed of the meetings will receive notice. It also states that Ouray County will continue to endeavor to go above and beyond the state requirements for providing notice for work sessions, subject to staffing and budgetary limitations.

Staff will publish notice, on a case-by-case basis, of a work sessions in the newspaper of record, as well as notice that all work sessions conducted by the commissioners will be recorded, with tapes made available for 90 days after each work session. These recordings are not part of the official record, and will be made solely for the purpose of allowing citizen participation.

The commissioners will revise approved work-session policy in three months.

Ouray County Supports TNCC’s State Grant Application

The Ouray County Commissioners approved a letter by Commissioner Heidi Albritton to the Governor’s Energy Office in Support of The New Community Coalition’s application to receive Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant funding, which is designated for a community energy coordinator who will develop collaborative efforts to bring energy efficiency to the region.

As stated in the letter, the commissioners believe that TNCC has already established itself in San Miguel County and in the San Miguel Power Association service territory as a regional coordinator for energy efficiency programs and that if the nonprofit receives the GEO grant, it would be able to expand its programs to the municipalities in Ouray County.

“TNCC has already shown that it can function as a regional facilitator with GEO programs in past partnerships,” Albritton stated in the letter. “Their staff is well informed and is involved in many aspects of our community already. We are confident they will continue in that vein.”

TNCC currently works in collaboration with the towns of Mountain Village and Telluride, San Miguel County, and SMPA to develop a greener built environment, reduce the region’s carbon footprint, expand recycling programs, and increasing energy efficiency.

“They are definitely the right group to proceed forward with this,” Albritton said before the letter of support was unanimously approved at Monday’s commissioner meeting in Ouray.