Planning Commission Seeks Affordable housing

MEGHAN WITT – LIFESTYLE & BEAUTY EDITOR

Planning Commission approves rezoning land that will be used for affordable housing.

At the April 13 meeting of the Grand Junction Planning commission, members met over zoom to discuss rezoning 21.53 acres of industrial land to residential property. Senergy Builders submitted the rezoning request to rezone 21.53 acres from an L-1, an industrial zone district, to an R-5, a residential zone.

The 21.53-acre property is located at 853 21 ½ Road. The people involved in this meeting included Keith Ehlers, George Gatseos, Kenneth Scissors, Christian Reece, Vice-Chair all members of the city planning committee, and Lance gloss, senior planner for Senergy Builders. Gloss advocated on behalf of the Senergy Builders; in her presentation, she outlines the company’s motives behind rezoning the property and explained that the residential land would help alleviate some of the pressure for affordable housing in the city. This request is a component of a more extensive set of development requests classified as the Brookfield project.

The standard to rezone property required by the city mandates that requests need to fall within the vision and goals of the 2020 One Grand Junction Comprehensive Plan. The plan seeks to maintain a balance between population growth and its burden on the housing market and the need to continuously grow and support the local economy. In the end, Vice-Chair Christian Reece, moved to approve the measure, and all members of the planning committee in attendance voted in favor of the rezoning. The new R-5 zone provides the city with the opportunity of more affordable housing, a stated goal of the planning commission and something they believe the City of Grand Junction needs.

The biggest take away from the planning meeting was the distinction the committee members made in balancing the importance of affordable housing and maintain land that has the potential to expand the economy and contribute to local infrastructure in the future. Vice-Chair Christian Reece highlighted that the approval and rezoning doesn’t mean that L-1 Zones have any less value than R-5 zones.

For the meeting agenda click here