Superior has adopted its first-ever Housing Strategies plan, which is meant to create a framework that elected officials can use to manage, increase and diversify housing stock.

In 2021, the town received a $40,000 Innovation Housing Planning grant from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs. By accepting the grant, the town agreed to adopt a housing needs plan, as well as a way to implement the objectives in the plan. The town is currently working on an ordinance to allow accessory dwelling units, and the council is expected to review the ordinance this year. Accessory dwelling units generally are

Just because the council approves a new housing plan does not mean it approves of any project or development request, Councilmember Mike Foster said. The new plan is meant to be a framework for how the town should handle its future housing plans.

Planning and Building Director Lisa Ritchie said town staffers received more than 1,000 responses to resident surveys asking questions related to the plan. The plan draft was also available for review on the ShapeSuperior website.

Residents reported high costs, lack of diversity of housing and general lack of housing as some of the greatest perceived housing problems in Superior, Ritchie said. Some residents also said that the market should dictate what types of housing gets built rather than town policies. Some residents also had concerns that new affordable housing complexes could reduce property values for residents.(The town’s) housing inventory currently lacks diversity, Ritchie said. Superior mainly has single-family homes. Some residents said that the town needs more multi-family units, affordable housing and senior housing options. Ritchie also said incomes have not kept pace with the growing cost of homes in the town.

Principles in the new housing plan are meant to help the town maintain focus and adaptability as it pursues its housing goals, while remaining realistic and maintaining community values.

Some of the principles include being action-oriented, having incremental progress, getting the right project in the right place and supporting affordable housing developers when possible.

“We’re not going to solve this all at once, nor is one solution really going to answer it all,” Ritchie said.

The three objectives in the housing plan are to increase housing choices, support and promote local and regional affordable housing efforts and remove housing barriers for people who do encounter them. She said this includes adding more senior and affordable housing options, promoting housing for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and creating incentives programs to promote the creation of affordable units.

The council unanimously passed the plan Monday, with the condition of removing the mention of having a commercial or residential linkage fee to support the creation of affordable housing.

The council said that residents strongly stated that residents should not have to pay toward creating affordable units, and neither should local businesses.