{"id":14279,"date":"2016-10-09T17:19:51","date_gmt":"2016-10-09T17:19:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/?p=14279"},"modified":"2016-10-09T17:19:51","modified_gmt":"2016-10-09T17:19:51","slug":"1a-is-a-good-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2016\/10\/1a-is-a-good-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"1A is a good plan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Indira Gandhi stated, \u201cHave a bias toward action &#8211; let&#8217;s see something happen now. You can break that big plan into small steps and take the first step right away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s a near perfect quote regarding workforce housing in Eagle County. We\u2019ve studied the issue enough, we recognize the community need and the inherent benefits to our business community, and there is near universal agreement (95% based on a recent phone study) that affordable workforce housing is a need. And it\u2019s time to have a bias toward action.<\/p>\n<p>Ballot issue 1A provides an all-of-the-above approach and is a current, bird-in-the-hand solution to making something happen on the affordable housing issue. It\u2019s inherent on our community to have a take action and to take the steps needed to address this issue.<\/p>\n<p>First, the official ballot language states:<\/p>\n<p>SHALL EAGLE COUNTY\u2019S TAXES BE INCREASED $5,400,000 ANNUALLY COMMENCING IN 2017, AND BY WHATEVER ADDITIONAL AMOUNTS ARE RAISED ANNUALLY THEREAFTER FOR A PERIOD OF TWENTY YEARS, FROM A THREE TENTHS OF ONE PERCENT (.3%) SALES TAX WITHIN EAGLE COUNTY TO BE USED FOR HOUSING PURPOSES SUCH AS:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>PROVIDING AND IMPROVING THE QUALITY, AVAILABILITY, AND AFFORDABILITY OF HOUSING IN EAGLE COUNTY<\/li>\n<li>PROVIDING DOWN PAYMENT ASSISTANCE LOANS FOR HOME OWNERSHIP<\/li>\n<li>ACQUIRING LAND FOR FUTURE HOUSING UNITS AFFORDABLE TO THE WORKFORCE<\/li>\n<li>INVESTING IN PRIVATE\/PUBLIC PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE PROVISION OF WORKFORCE AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING<\/li>\n<li>RELATED HOUSING PROGRAMS AND SERVICES;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Clearly, and unmistakably, this $0.03 sales tax on every $10 purchase (exempting groceries) must be used for affordable housing. It can\u2019t be diverted to other uses.<\/p>\n<p>The board of county commissioners will determine exactly how this fund will be spent. The fact is final authority for a countywide sales tax is the elected officials; you may not like this governance model, but that is the statue. That said \u2013 it is important to note these decisions don\u2019t happen in a vacuum, as there will be a feedback from an advisory board. This model works well for transit and open space, and ensures representative input from entities and communities throughout the county.<\/p>\n<p>Critics claim there is no plan, or we need to wait for the perfect plan, or find fault with the ballot language, or (fill in the blank). But I\u2019ve yet to see any critics come to the table with a well thought out plan to address affordable workforce housing.<\/p>\n<p>These critics are assuming that voters won\u2019t research or will be easily misled with straw man arguments. I give our local voters more credit to research the issue, understand the impacts of a severe lack of workforce housing, realize there is a thoughtful plan in place, and to vote Yes on ballot issue 1A.<\/p>\n<p>Because despite the \u201cno taxes\u201d argument, or the \u201cthere\u2019s no plan\u201d argument, or the \u201ccome to us every time there is an opportunity to develop a plot of land\u201d argument, there is \u2013 in fact \u2013 a well thought out plan in place to utilize and maximize funds from 1A:<\/p>\n<p>First, new construction of deed restricted housing for owners. Miller Ranch is an example where public and private partners can make a difference. Incentives are needed for developers to build affordable units, and strategic land acquisition is required.<\/p>\n<p>Second, new construction of deed restricted housing for renters. Lake Creek Village Apartments is an example where long term leases to workforce, near jobs and transit, works. Again, public\/private partnerships are needed, strategic land acquisition is required, and incentives to build affordable units can make workforce rentals work in our rural resort economy.<\/p>\n<p>Third, better utilization of current stock of developed real estate. This can help improve the quality and affordability of housing in Eagle County by purchasing deed restrictions on existing property, or unit buy-downs to keep units affordable to year-round residents.<\/p>\n<p>Fourth, down payment assistance loans. We can leverage dollars to make housing purchases and monthly payments more affordable to the workforce.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t be fooled by the \u201cthere is no plan\u201d argument. The plan has been developed, fully vetted, and outlined with feedback and input from local municipal and special district partners, and by the county housing department (and is available at VoteYeson1A.com for those interested in knowing more).<\/p>\n<p>Besides, I\u2019m in agreement with George S. Patton, who said, \u201cA good plan executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week\u201d and a YES vote on issue 1A is a good first step toward executing a good, thoughtful plan. We can\u2019t afford to wait around for \u2018perfect\u2019 when we have the opportunity to implement a good plan now. Learn more at <a href=\"http:\/\/VoteYeson1A.com\">VoteYeson1A.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>Chris Romer is president &amp; CEO of Vail Valley Partnership, recently named \u201cChamber of the Year\u201d by the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives. Learn more at VailValleyPartnership.com and find additional information on Vail Valley Partnership\u2019s public policy positions at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/advocacy\/vvp-public-policy-positions\/\">https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/advocacy\/vvp-public-policy-positions\/<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Indira Gandhi stated, \u201cHave a bias toward action &#8211; let&#8217;s see something happen now. You can break that big plan&#8230;<br \/><a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2016\/10\/1a-is-a-good-plan\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[279],"class_list":["post-14279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-presidents-post","tag-workforce-housing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>1A is a good plan | Vail Valley Partnership<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2016\/10\/1a-is-a-good-plan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"1A is a good plan | Vail Valley Partnership\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Indira Gandhi stated, \u201cHave a bias toward action &#8211; let&#8217;s see something happen now. You can break that big plan...Read More\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2016\/10\/1a-is-a-good-plan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Vail Valley Partnership\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/VailValleyPartnership\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-10-09T17:19:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cromer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cromer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2016\/10\/1a-is-a-good-plan\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2016\/10\/1a-is-a-good-plan\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cromer\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6f86a25e095eadcc8d42187244f23d2f\"},\"headline\":\"1A is a good plan\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-10-09T17:19:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2016\/10\/1a-is-a-good-plan\/\"},\"wordCount\":823,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"workforce housing\"],\"articleSection\":[\"President's Post\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2016\/10\/1a-is-a-good-plan\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2016\/10\/1a-is-a-good-plan\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2016\/10\/1a-is-a-good-plan\/\",\"name\":\"1A is a good plan | Vail Valley Partnership\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-10-09T17:19:51+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2016\/10\/1a-is-a-good-plan\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2016\/10\/1a-is-a-good-plan\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2016\/10\/1a-is-a-good-plan\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"1A is a good plan\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/\",\"name\":\"Vail Valley Partnership\",\"description\":\"Support. Unite. Lead.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Vail Valley Partnership\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/fa-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/06\/vvp-logo-login.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/fa-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/06\/vvp-logo-login.png\",\"width\":320,\"height\":157,\"caption\":\"Vail Valley Partnership\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/VailValleyPartnership\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/VVPartnership\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/vvpartnership1\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6f86a25e095eadcc8d42187244f23d2f\",\"name\":\"cromer\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/138a478ad792fc99e47232774514774078bbae93b7378c512d04f46913c59cfd?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/138a478ad792fc99e47232774514774078bbae93b7378c512d04f46913c59cfd?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cromer\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/author\/cromer\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"1A is a good plan | Vail Valley Partnership","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2016\/10\/1a-is-a-good-plan\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"1A is a good plan | Vail Valley Partnership","og_description":"Indira Gandhi stated, \u201cHave a bias toward action &#8211; let&#8217;s see something happen now. You can break that big plan...Read More","og_url":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2016\/10\/1a-is-a-good-plan\/","og_site_name":"Vail Valley Partnership","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/VailValleyPartnership","article_published_time":"2016-10-09T17:19:51+00:00","author":"cromer","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cromer","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2016\/10\/1a-is-a-good-plan\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2016\/10\/1a-is-a-good-plan\/"},"author":{"name":"cromer","@id":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6f86a25e095eadcc8d42187244f23d2f"},"headline":"1A is a good plan","datePublished":"2016-10-09T17:19:51+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2016\/10\/1a-is-a-good-plan\/"},"wordCount":823,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#organization"},"keywords":["workforce housing"],"articleSection":["President's Post"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2016\/10\/1a-is-a-good-plan\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2016\/10\/1a-is-a-good-plan\/","url":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2016\/10\/1a-is-a-good-plan\/","name":"1A is a good plan | Vail Valley Partnership","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-10-09T17:19:51+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2016\/10\/1a-is-a-good-plan\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2016\/10\/1a-is-a-good-plan\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2016\/10\/1a-is-a-good-plan\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"1A is a good plan"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/","name":"Vail Valley Partnership","description":"Support. Unite. Lead.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#organization","name":"Vail Valley Partnership","url":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/fa-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/06\/vvp-logo-login.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/fa-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/06\/vvp-logo-login.png","width":320,"height":157,"caption":"Vail Valley Partnership"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/VailValleyPartnership","https:\/\/x.com\/VVPartnership","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/vvpartnership1"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6f86a25e095eadcc8d42187244f23d2f","name":"cromer","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/138a478ad792fc99e47232774514774078bbae93b7378c512d04f46913c59cfd?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/138a478ad792fc99e47232774514774078bbae93b7378c512d04f46913c59cfd?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cromer"},"url":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/author\/cromer\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14279"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14280,"href":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14279\/revisions\/14280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}