Over the last few decades, Edgewater leaders have had the opportunity to take action to ensure that this community has affordable housing options for those working in our local businesses, schools and other public sector organizations. Over the last decade home prices and rental rates in Edgewater have more than doubled. Action was not taken to expand affordable housing with the redevelopment of 20th and Depew. Affordable housing was not part of the plan to develop the land at 29th and Kendall.
At the Edgewater City Council meeting last evening, City Manager Dan Maples announced that the deal to purchase the former Edgewater Municipal Building at 2401 Sheridan Boulevard had fallen through. At the same meeting, Diana Higuera from Rocky Mountain Welcome Center mentioned that one of the roadblocks to welcoming Afghan new arrivals into the Denver area is the lack of affordable housing.
It is time for Edgewater City Council members to think strategically about the usage of the City-owned property at 2401 Sheridan Boulevard. Could this property be redeveloped through partnerships into a small affordable housing complex? Now is the time for creative solutions to affordable housing instead of pushing the responsibility for affordable housing to other municipalities.
As Edgewater leaders look to the future, and the next comprehensive plan for our community, I believe it is important to ensure affordable housing through strategic zoning policies and creative usage of City-owned properties. It’s worth a conversation over whether we need another restaurant at 24th and Sheridan or if we can be truly progressive as a community and create more affordable housing on this important corner.
Joel has been a resident of Edgewater, Colorado with his family since 2012. He is the Executive Director of local education nonprofit Edgewater Collective and Editor of the Edgewater Echo.
Joel,
Your ideas are nice and even a good idea, yet I only see each of us happy to see our personal property values rise. And not having concern for new, poor, arrivals. I don’t know how to get out of this selfish position.
I think affordable housing might be the best option for this spot, but I would not want the building to be too tall, so as to block the views of others.
AS a former mayor of Edgewater, I worry about the community as a whole and how the community reacts to the terrible housing gap. The astronomical price of housing must be causing an arena of the “Haves, and Havenots.”
So you are right on when you say it’s time for council to be creative in their approach to “community”. The ERA was begun in part, to welcome young families to Edgewater, to revive the community feeling. Perhaps you have thrown down the gauntlet to encourage some out of the box thinking at the council level. Maybe the best agenda item for retreat session.
Hi Joel,
I love this idea. There are non-profit organizations with affordable housing models where they own the ground but sell the single family homes which allows them to keep the home affordable into the future. The city lot could house a few row townhomes. Maybe the city should open an RFP process to sell the lot to an affordable housing non-profit.
To those who worry about how it will impact our home values – this model sells homes to people who can afford to buy them at a lower cost than market. It’s not a homeless shelter. It’s right on Sheridan and would ultimately be a very small number of units.
The alternative is likely to be an market rate apartment complex – with even more new residents and cars who aren’t as invested in their community as homeowners would be.