HomeMy WebLinkAboutWes Gardner_31-DEC-25Hi John,
My name is Wes Gardner and I live at 9171 Highway 82 in unincorporated Garfield County. I
own 1/2 of an 82 acre parcel along with Mike and Micki Jeronimus, adjacent to the HRF
proposed development.
I am a Colorado native, who has spent much of my life, enjoying the pristine Roaring Fork
Valley. I have a son and three granddaughters that also live in the valley. We love our
community and consider ourselves to be very fortunate to live here and pride ourselves on
being involved.
I am also part of a group of people who are trying to help bring affordable workforce
housing to Colorado. We are combining philanthropic partners with proposition 123 funds
and Churches with excess ground to bring truly affordable for sale houses to our
communities. As a result, I have learned a lot about nonprofits, such as Habitat For
Humanity, Rural Homes Colorado, The Telluride project, and of course LIHTC funding and
land banking.
I want to share my concerns with you about the lack of specifics and some problematic
fundamentals to HRF’s model. I would like to make sure there are absolute specifications
that will lead to both for sale and rentals that meet the prevailing wages of those who need
these homes.
I won’t go into any specifics on this email but want to make sure our voices are heard and
that the end products are truly affordable in perpetuity!
In general, I think this development is way too big and riddled with so many problems such
as the impact to traffic and safety to our community and its Wildlife. Evacuation in the
event of an emergency such as wildfires.
The proposed 120 room hotel should not even be considered on the south end of the
property if at all.
I’m not anti development and I’m not one for yes to affordable housing but not in my
backyard either. What I am is a thoughtful member of the community who loves the rule
aspect and wants to see it remain intact with sensible development, and planning
consistent with the 2030 plan and Article 8.
Lastly, This development will create so many more jobs and thus the need for even more
affordable housing then they are proposing. Unfortunately, it is not possible to build your
way out of an affordable housing crisis. More on that in our next conversation.
Please let me know that you received this email and what would be the best way for me and
my team to give our input on the affordable housing piece of this project.
Wishing you and your family a very happy new year!
Wes
Wes Gardner
The Bridge Network
Cell: 303-888-2971