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EDSTONE R •E •V•I •E •W
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VOLUME 23, NUMBER 12
LYONS, COLORADO
RESIDENT / OCCUPANT PRSRT STD ECRWSS US POSTAGE PAID LYONS, CO PERMIT No 2053 $.50
JANUARY 18 / FEBRUARY 15, 2023
B •R •I •E •F •S Church services LYONS – The Lyons Community Church at 350 Main St. on the corner of 4th and Main St., offers United Methodist Church services every Sunday at 10 a.m. and Catholic Mass every Saturday evening at 5:30 p.m. All are welcome to attend the services. For more information, contact the church at 303-823-6245.
Winter Wonderland Concerts LYONS – The Town of Lyons is happy to present the Winter Wonderland Concert series again this winter. Mark your calendars now, so you don’t miss any of these three family-friendly events at LaVern Johnson Park near the Ice Rink (weather permitting) from 2 to 4 p.m. The local lineup of artists is: January 21 – Jesse Garland February 25 – Dechen Hawk March 25 – Ian Brighton
Free skate rentals during concert in park LYONS – Sponsored by Lyons Community Foundation and the Town of Lyons, hot chocolate and other goodies will be available, benefitting local non-profit organizations. The town website also has the hours for recreational skating and hockey skating along with the times the skate rentals will be open. Typically rentals are available on weekends.
Information on plowing priority in Lyons LYONS – All State Highways (SH-66, SH-7 and US-36) within the town limits of Lyons are maintained and plowed by Colorado Department of Transportation as the weather dictates. Routes maintained by the town are: Primary Routes: arterial streets with access to important locations such as Town Hall, business district or schools are plowed with two inches of snow or more. There are also five hills in town which have a tendency to become difficult to pass and they are treated along with primary routes. Secondary Routes: residential streets with average or low traffic are plowed with four inches or more. Alleyways are plowed when there is six inches or more of snow. Continue A&E on Page 7
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Running Start, photograph by Jane Selverstone. A sandhill crane prepares for takeoff at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in southern New Mexico.
Town board looks at developers’ plans to revamp old property for affordable housing By Susan de Castro McCann Editor Redstone Review LYONS – The Lyons Town Board recently unanimously approved an ordinance, on second reading, to create a PUD-R (Planned Unit Development) Overlay zoning district for the property at 317 Evans St. which was zoned R-1. The property at 317 Evans has several buildings on it that form a mixture of six dwelling units. The new developers want to rebuild and turn the complex into nine units. The former zoning, R-1, is a low-density zoning designation and does not allow for duplexes or multiple units, so the rezoning was necessary for the new construction and expanded units. The developers, Leigh Williams and Matt McMullen, presented drawings of a possible plan for some new or remodeled rental units at the 317 Evans site. The developers said they would ask the town to pave the alley, saying that it would improve and add to the parking. The PUD-R allows the developers more options on the site. The developers asked the board to change the number of required parking spaces for the expanded development. The required number of parking spaces would be 13.25 for 9 units; Williams asked the board to allow them to only have 10 parking spaces and the board approved that number with an amendment to the ordinance before the final vote. The property is actually two lots and it originally had two homes on it back in the 1920s according to Town Planner Dave Kimmett, who presented the developers’
plan to the town board. The town board at that time allowed the owner to have six units on the two lots. Kimmett pointed out that this new small affordable housing complex would be privately owned and would not be using government funding, which prompted some board members to ask what regulations would be created to make sure that people could income qualify for affordable housing and how would these regulations stay in place over a long period of time. Town Attorney Brandon Dittman told the board during the public hearing for the Major Development final PUD Plan review that requirements for affordable housing qualifications are usually set up in the Development Plan Agreement to insure that the units remain as affordable housing for the tenants over the long term. “That document acts as a covenant to keep those units affordable,” said Dittman. “We are going to be asking for that and we expect the developer to agree to that.” After the Jan. 9 town board meeting affordable housing requirements for the 317 Evans became part of the Development Plan Agreement. Then Leigh Williams told the board that the residents at the 317 Evans location that would be displaced due to rebuilding the housing project would be able to return to that same location and their rent would stay the same for a period of 10 years with cost of living increases. Williams also wanted the new incoming residents to pay rents up to 120 percent of the Area Medium Income (AMI). But some board members objected. Kimmett told the board that the AMI for
Boulder County is right around $100,000 for the household. Trustee Jocelyn Farrell said she wanted the rents for the new tenants at the new affordable housing complex to be capped at up to 100 percent of the AMI. Although the board was unanimous in its approval of the affordable housing project, not everyone in the community is on board and one group, the Ecology Advisory Board, has some concerns about the project. The EAB was not able to express its concerns to the town board because the EAB did not have enough time to review the documents and therefore was late in getting their comments in. The Ecology Board will meet on Wed. Jan. 18 (after this issue of Redstone comes out) and will issue a statement concerning the affordable housing project at 317 Evans St. The EAB chair, Greg Lowell, said that based on the comments he has been receiving, he believes the EAB will be requesting major changes to the project to make it more resilient to future floods. They plan to issue their statement to the town board some time this week. Floods are something many people in Lyons know a lot about based on the major flood of 2013, which Lyons only fully recovered from last year. Lowell said the property at 317 Evans is partially in the floodway and floodplain. It is immediately adjacent to the St. Vrain River, which requires protection from many potential contaminants. Lowell said the EAB wants the town board to consider that after the 2013 flood the riparian corridor along the river was damaged and in need of major changes to make it more resilient to future floods in Lyons. Because of its proximity to the St. Vrain River, Lowell said the board has several concerns such as contaminants from cars and other things if there is a flood, and a number of other issues.