5:30PM GURA Board Meeting @ City Hall
Foothills Regional Housing Authority will attend the GURA meeting to discuss acquiring more property in the central neighborhood. They have have built two large affordable housing projects in that neighborhood in recent years, and want to build a third.
This time, their target is the former Golden Motel, located at 24th and Ford Streets, directly across the street from their 2022 project, the Flats on Ford. That followed their 2012 project, Lewis Court. All three are within 500 feet of each other.
Foothills Regional Housing Authority is asking GURA and the City to contribute $500,000 toward the $2.7 million purchase price. They will, at first, keep the current tenants in place, and their longer-term plan is to redevelop the property. Learn more….
The Housing Authority has been working with city staff on this purchase for some time, but kept it very quiet. The January 23rd City Council meeting included an Executive Session (no cameras, no public present) with the stated purpose: “to discuss the potential purchase, acquisition or transfer of two real property interests, one related to affordable housing and the other related to open space/trails and to determine positions on matters that may be subject to negotiations, developing strategy for negotiations, and instructing negotiators regarding the subject properties. ”
I don’t know which neighborhoods are getting open space/trails, but the central neighborhood is once again the designated low-income area.
Tonight’s meeting memo says, “It is an appropriate use of GURA funding to improve the Central Neighborhoods URA, similar to last year’s bike/ped investment adjacent to Golden High School; such GURA support is also very consistent with GURA’s prior actions in the other URA’s.”
Note: GURA has not funded affordable housing in the other Urban Renewal Areas. In fact, they specifically decided that the Parfet/Briarwood neighborhood was too expensive for affordable housing.
The memo goes on to say, “affordable housing should be integrated into the fabric of Golden’s existing neighborhoods.”
Again, that statement seems to apply only to the central neighborhoods. The last time the Housing Authority integrated a project into an existing neighborhood (other than the central neighborhoods), was forty-one years ago, in 1983 (Canyon Gate Apartments).
Discussions have been happening outside of the public view, as indicated in tonight’s meeting memo:
“Doe [sic] to timing constraints, the Development Committee, staff, the City, and the project team began conversations to provide more specifics and detail to the proposal, and more recently began working on a draft agreement per Development Committee direction”
Staff has scheduled an executive session at the conclusion of tonight’s GURA meeting, so they can continue to discuss the issue away from public scrutiny:
“The March 11, 2024 GURA board discussion is intended as a full presentation of the project and an opportunity for board members to seek clarification and provide direction. Staff is very supportive of the project. An optional executive session is included on the published meeting agenda, in the event that the board feels it should meet in that confidential format to provide direction to staff negotiators.“
If you want to submit comments on this project, be at City Hall at 5:30, at the beginning of the GURA meeting. You can email the GURA commissioners by addressing a note to Robin Fleischmann: rfleischmann@cityofgolden.net.
You can also send email to City Council at CouncilComments@cityofgolden.net.
