Wheat Ridge backs regional housing-credit agreement, moves to retire dormant authority

Wheat Ridge City Council on Monday backed pursuing a regional agreement to share affordable-housing credits under Colorado’s Proposition 123 and supported retiring the city’s dormant housing authority.

The council also supported assigning Wheat Ridge’s statutory right of first offer and right of first refusal for qualifying multifamily properties to Foothills Regional Housing through the program’s Dec. 31, 2029, sunset date. The actions are documented in the Sept. 21 study-session recording.

Proposed agreement would share housing-unit credits

The proposed credit-sharing group includes Jefferson County, Edgewater, Arvada, Westminster, Lakewood and Wheat Ridge, city staff said. The jurisdictions would share credit for affordable units and submit a good-faith-effort waiver, which staff said could help them remain eligible for Proposition 123 funding if they fall short of their commitments.

Each jurisdiction would need to approve and execute the intergovernmental agreement and accompanying memorandum of understanding, submit the waiver and file its second-cycle commitment by Nov. 1. The agreement had not been executed as of the study session.

Under Colorado’s guidance for the 2027-2029 Proposition 123 cycle, jurisdictions that jointly fund an affordable-housing unit may count a share based on their percentage of the total funding. An agreement can allocate the credit differently. The regional-collaboration changes take effect Jan. 1, 2027.

Wheat Ridge staff said the arrangement was being developed because state law did not specify how jurisdictions should share credit for projects involving multiple public partners. The city has 43 verified eligible units toward its first-cycle goal of 218, staff said. Without the waiver, a jurisdiction that misses its first-cycle goal could be ineligible for a year and unable to receive Proposition 123 grant funding in 2027, staff said.

Wheat Ridge’s proposed second-cycle commitment is 112 units. The target is based on the average annual number of residential units represented by building permits issued during the prior three years, multiplied by the county’s job-growth factor and the three-year commitment period, according to staff and the state’s filing methodology.

Council requested twice-yearly updates on the city’s housing work.

City would retire dormant housing authority

Council also supported retiring the Wheat Ridge Housing Authority, which staff said has been formally dormant since 2018. Created in 2001, the authority never developed or operated housing in the traditional housing-authority role, staff said. The city now has dedicated housing staff, a housing fund and regional partnerships, including with Foothills Regional Housing.