The Garfield County Commissioners voted 2-1 on Tuesday to allocate $3.9 million of the county’s 2024 Private Activity Bond to a proposed affordable housing development named Glenwood Gardens. The project will need just over $20 million in private activity bond capacity, which would come from the Colorado Housing Finance Authority. Commissioners Tom Jankovsky and Mike Samson supported the motion, while Commissioner John Martin opposed.

The development, spearheaded by Kansas-based Cohen-Esrey Development Group, is planned for U.S. Highway 6, nestled between the Glenwood Springs Elks Lodge and Six Canyon Apartments. Originally proposed as a 131-unit project, the plan has been scaled back to 80 units to reduce its impact on the local infrastructure and better meet local housing needs.

“This is a very simple request for a very complicated project so we can get as complicated or as simple as you guys are interested in getting in the weeds,” Cohen-Esrey spokesperson Nick Emenhiser said, explaining that the redesign aims to avoid the need for variances during the entitlement process. He addressed issues such as traffic and parking demand.

The project focuses on serving families and low-income residents, with 55 of the 80 units designed as three-bedroom apartments. 

“This year, the Glenwood Garden redevelopment project has been redesigned significantly,” Emenhiser said. “This reduces the development intensity on the site, reduces traffic, reduces parking demand and helps sort of focus the project more toward local housing need rather than regional housing need.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Emenhiser noted the project’s emphasis on providing housing for “extremely” low income levels, with some units designated for 20% and 30% of the area median income.

The roughly $46-million project relies partly on the focused allocation of the county’s IRS-allocated bonding capacity. 

Despite the approval, the project’s future hinges on a competitive tax credit round. 

“It was a good early showing of support from the county level. We still have a competitive tax credit round out of us which will truly decide whether this project is able to move forward,” Emenhiser told the Post Independent.

Commissioner Martin, who voted against the proposal, expressed concerns about the ongoing transformation of the neighborhood into a densely populated area. 

“I just hate to see projects that are displacing hotels and gardens and then impacting the entire neighborhood,” Martin said, voicing worries about overbuilding and its effects on the community, specifically in West Glenwood. “That neighboorhood is overwhelmed right now, and this is going to be something else.”