AURORA | Aurora City Council spent the bulk of its meeting Monday night talking affordable housing, ways to achieve it and what it means for the city and region. But those conversations didn’t come without politics and disagreement.
While the body unanimously approved a 10-month moratorium on processing mobile home park re-zoning applications and a task force to study the issue, members debated over whether the city should direct the state to act further on construction defect legislation.
Councilman Bob Roth, who said during the meeting he’s worked in construction for more than 30 years, carried the resolution that urges state lawmakers to create legislation that would require defect claims to go through an arbitration or mediation process before litigation.
Roth said home builders don’t build affordably-priced townhomes or condos in Aurora, or the Denver Metro region, because it’s too costly to obtain insurance in the case of a lawsuit, thus making the issue of construction defects one of affordable housing.
Last year, Gov. John Hickenlooper signed 1279, which requires the majority of condo or townhome complex to agree to legal action rather than just a majority of the HOA board when it comes to faulty construction.
That legislation was regarded by many as a first step in confronting issues with construction defects. Aspects, such as arbitration, were not addressed under HB1279, and haven’t been for a number of previous sessions. Councilwoman Nicole Johnston said Roth’s resolution was “framed as affordable housing.”
She said the resolution — which passed on a 6-4 vote with Johnston, Charlie Richardson, Allison Hiltz and Crystal Murillo in opposition — didn’t address consumer protection concerns she has, adding that it seems it may create a costly review process.
Johnston said she didn’t believe enough time has passed to see if HB1279 is achieving what lawmakers set out to achieve.
The resolution “encourages” state legislators, and specifically Aurora’s delegation, to adopt mediation laws. Though, it was noted in the council’s study session that a resolution this late in the session doesn’t allow for much to happen. Roth said he wanted to start the conversation nevertheless.
Murillo said she favored a more direct approach to the issue of affordable housing and doubted the effectiveness of a resolution.
“If we want to create dialogue, then we should do that,” she said.
Council was in agreeance on what to do with a moratorium on re-zoning mobile home parks, though. For the better part of the next year mobile home parks won’t be re-zoned while a task force made up of homeowners, park owners, industry officials and government leaders study how the parks and their potential closures impact the city.
Several residents of Denver Meadows Mobile Home Park, which has been in limbo for two years with the owner claiming he’s closing the park, and other parks turned out to voice their support of the moratorium.
“I’m very happy that Aurora is growing, but what is not growing is our salaries,” one woman, who spoke through a translator, said.
She told the council she’s worried her park will also eventually close and will have nowhere to go.
Another woman said she believed park closures with no city plan to follow would be disastrous for hundreds, if not thousands, of families.
“The question we ask ourselves is where are we going to go now?” she said. “We don’t have the economy and we don’t have another place to find a dignified home.”