Garfield County commissioners on Monday approved an urban renewal authority plan that will help fund public infrastructure improvements adjacent to a redevelopment that will transform the dilapidated Parachute Inn into a mixed-use project offering housing units and additional commercial space.
”We’re excited about the potential and the project,” Travis Elliott, Parachute town manager, told commissioners. “It’s a transformative project that’s at the gateway of the Town of Parachute’s commercial core.”
The project will redevelop land between County Road 215 and Green Street in Parachute, transforming the old Parachute Inn into housing and creating new public infrastructure around the development, including in a vacant 4-acre lot west of the site.
Around 3,100 square feet of the development will be sold on the free market as condominiums. A portion of the area will also be dedicated to affordable housing and transformed into 68 rental apartment units, primarily one bedroom and studio units with eight two-bedroom units.
The draft Mountain View Plaza Redevelopment Urban Renewal Plan, impact report and intergovernmental agreement were presented to commissioners on Monday by Elliott and Vinnie Tomasulo, community and economic development director, on behalf of the Parachute Renewal Partnership.
The presented plan will help Parachute fund public infrastructure improvements adjacent to the project through tax increment financing (TIF), which captures increases in property and other taxes due to new development.
“In our dealings with them, what the town determined is that there might be a great opportunity for the town to partner with (Headwaters Housing Partners) in building in some infrastructure that would actually aid that whole area, over and above what would have been required just by the developer,” Tomasulo said. “Luckily we had a very good relationship with the developer. They were agreeable to that.”
Most of the funding for the infrastructure changes, which will cost around $1.4 million, is anticipated to come from a Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) More Housing Now and Land Use Initiative grant. The initiative supports local governments trying to increase opportunities for affordable housing developments by lowering the cost to upgrade, upsize and create needed infrastructure.
The grant can be used to make improvements to publicly owned streetscapes and infrastructure, such as sewers, sidewalks and accessibility improvements. If awarded, it would cover 75% of the estimated cost of the public infrastructure improvements, according to Tomasulo.
“The More Housing Now grant would go to support both public infrastructure improvements that the town would be doing complimentary to the project improvements as well as the public infrastructure improvements that are directly the responsibility and adjacent to the project,” Adam Roy, principal partner of Headwaters Housing Partners, said.
“It’s all public improvements, but some of those the project would be responsible for, with or without the grant,” he added. “The other is additional public improvements the town is pursuing that the grant would provide funding for.”
If the grant is awarded, Parachute and Headwaters will each need to contribute $170,000 for a total of $350,000, or 25%, of the $1.4 million overall cost.
Money collected through TIF would help Parachute pay its half of the match.