The Durango School District Board of Education passed a resolution during a meeting Tuesday to authorize negotiations and the potential purchase of units at two workforce housing developments.
The resolution came after weeks of discussion and several closed-door executive sessions away from the public eye.
No purchases have been made yet, and an official decision timeline has not been determined, Kristin Smith, school board president, said.
District Chief Operations Officer Chris Coleman said the goal is to bring refined recommendations on the developments to the board in June, or in August at the latest, depending on how negotiations go.
The first development, located at 1720 Florida Road and presented by Durango-based company Reynolds Ash + Associates, was first presented to the board by Coleman at a March work session.
Initial discussions in March involved the potential purchase of 17 townhome units with two and three bedrooms in the Florida Road development for around $8 million.
“There is not a desire to purchase 17 units at this time, so we are considering a mix to create some geographic diversity in the housing program portfolio,” Coleman said in an email to The Durango Herald Wednesday.
The second development, located at 364 East 32nd St., was discussed publicly for the first time at Tuesday’s work session.
The units, presented by developer Agave, cost between $575,000 and $600,000 each, Coleman said. The district is currently in the midst of price negotiations and have not settled on a number yet. The two bedroom, two bathroom townhomes do not offer garages or yards, but do have covered porches, Coleman said.
Smith and Coleman said it’s possible the district will purchase several units at one location and several at the other, rather than purchasing a large number of units at one single location.
“Geographic and unit type diversity are both things we desire for the program,” Coleman said. “However, we haven’t solidified that as the plan at this point.”
The board was drawn to the Florida Road and 32nd Street options because of their ideal locations, diverse unit types and amenities, Smith said.
The 35 workforce housing units the district purchased in September at the Lightner Creek Apartments only offer apartment-style living, which isn’t ideal for district employees with families or dogs, Erika Brown, school board vice president, said.
The two new options being considered would offer employees more space in townhome-style living settings.
Coleman said in mid-March that the district had about $8 million left in its budget for additional workforce housing after the $10 million Lightner Creek Apartments purchase.
The board previously considered a development in Three Springs that would have offered two- and three-bedroom units priced at a total of $2.65 million for the district; but the board opted to reconsider a potential deal after discussions arose surrounding developer debt and unreliable timelines.
“We backed away from that deal due to what appeared to be a continually evolving timeline with no hard dates,” Coleman said. “Unfortunately, the contractor had some issues that led to this. We opted to back away but left the door open to reconsider the project in the future if they complete it.”
The Lightner Creek units, which are intended to be move-in ready in the summer, are already almost entirely spoken for, and demand for workforce housing still exists among staff, Smith said.
The Lightner Creek purchase and any future workforce housing purchases will be paid for using the 2024 Investing in Our Schools Bond, which can only be used for physical infrastructure, property assets and capital projects Smith said.
Bond funds cannot be used for staff salaries, payroll or benefits.
Purchases generally must be made within four years of the bond issuance, Coleman said, but it’s possible to extend that timeline to five years if purchase plans are in place and defined.