Originally Posted by
glademaster
W
Reason #1: Rampant, toxic NIMBYism.
Reason #2: Ironically titled "Community Development" departments populated by anti-development control freaks who run roughshod over the rights of property owners and who seem to think it is their directive to minimize opportunities for self-determination within their jurisdictions (i.e. only being in favor of deed restricted development and palatial estates, while rabidly dismissing proposals for mid-range free market housing development).
Reason #3: Onerous, burdensome Land Use and Zoning codes which make the possibility of mid-range free market development on any scale about as likely as North Korea sending someone to the moon. For example, there are several counties in the Colorado High Country, where the most recently adopted land use codes explicitly ban the creation of any new residential lots smaller than 5 acres. You can consolidate small lots into 5+ acre parcels, but new subdivisions aren't really an option in many places. You can't buy 500 acres of sagebrush 15-20 miles north of Silverthorne and turn it into 400 single family lots.
Reason #4: The high cost of construction in many mountain communities.
4A: Materials costs are higher, as outlined above by GB. We regularly see remodel projects with valuations in the $400-750/square foot range.
4B: Many mountain communities have strict requirements w/r/t Zoning and Engineering regulations, which contribute to ballooning project costs for seemingly simple projects (i.e. You go to put a new paver patio in your backyard, and need to hire a Civil Engineer to produce a Grading and Drainage report for you, and depending upon changes to your pervious/impervious ratio, you may need to add a drywell or some sort of onsite detention/treatment. Or in the case of a new development, perhaps the project goes through 4 or 5 or 6 rounds of review before it's approved, every round requiring revisions by your design team. That's cost overrun city before you even get a shovel in the dirt).
4C: The permit review process is often slow, and very expensive. Yes, that's the cost of doing business, but how many people in this thread have gone to pull a permit to remodel their kitchen, and had the process take 6 months, cost $20,000 and require a survey? In the case of larger projects, fees due to the municipality can run into the seven figures pretty easily.
I'm of the opinion that there is demand for mid-range free market housing on the periphery of many of Colorado's ski towns, and that it is the expense, time and general onerousness of the review process for those projects, that plays a large part in killing them. It's easier for big construction firms to build deed restricted projects where they often receive waivers for a lot of the fees associated with the review process, may receive priority review, and generally have their hands held through the process from permit application to CO, or for more specialized guys to build $5,000,000 SFR's at a rate of one every 2-3 years.
There needs to be more free market development, and more development friendly policies, or the people who provide essential services to these communities will drift away until you really are left with towns like Benny describes, full of millionaires and skids, with nary anyone in between. And yes, with it will come some strip malls, chain stores and things that aren't perfectly in sync with a bucolic mountain town, but they are things that make areas livable. Colorado is growing, and you aren't going to put a stop to that, so there needs to be intelligent growth, not just tree huggers and those who have already bought in screaming "NO!"