Last week county commissioners discussed the proposed Homestead East and West annexation that would take approximately 50 acres of land from San Miguel County and put it into the Town of Norwood, basically doubling the size of the town.
Landowner/developer Daniel Tucker is applying to the town for annexation. His application has not yet been certified, and Tucker has been asked to provide a more comprehensive impact analysis of the project. 
San Miguel County is only a referral agency in the process, as the Town of Norwood will make the final decision, but County Planning Director Mike Rozycki had some requests for information to be included in the analysis. Rozycki said that the availability of water was the foremost issue.
“It’s the big one,” said Rozycki.
The Norwood Water Commission supplied Tucker with a confirmation of current water availability for 175 taps. Not good enough — Rozycki said that the county would like to see an “analysis and demonstration that the commission has a legally and physically adequate water supply to serve the proposed development.” The commission would need to show that providing water service to the project would not adversely affect existing residents currently served by the water system.
“This whole thing depends on having adequate water,” agreed Tucker. “They are looking at the water capacity at the plant right now.”
According to Tim Lippert, the director of Norwood’s Public Works Department, an engineer is updating the old water reports produced in 2000.
“Our engineer is rehashing the numbers and will be sending a document to the water commission board members,” said Lippert. “This report is targeted for treated water. It doesn’t address raw water supply.”
Lippert said that the treatment plant is only through the first phase of planned upgrades, and that the town still doesn’t have a design for the second phase.
“It’s kind of early in the game,” he said. “We’re working with some unknown numbers.”
Another concern raised at the county meeting was the raw water supply — some of the town’s water is leased from the Farmer’s Water group. It is unclear how that leased water might affect future water taps or water service such as that requested by Tucker.
“I don’t know the legality of (the leased water), but it concerned me,” said Norwood Trustee Michelle Haynes.
County officials also raised questions about the capacity of the Norwood Sanitation District, the potential impacts to the school district, the increased need for public transportation and the affordable housing included in the development.
Tucker said that the Sanitation District was consulted about its capacity, that discussions with the school superintendent Dave Cruise were positive, and that his development is conceived with the idea of affordability.
“This whole project is affordable housing,” said Tucker. “There’s no housing in it that’s not affordable. And it’s un-subsidized, which means the government isn’t having to contribute.”
Commissioner Elaine Fischer has a long history with the regional housing authority and affordable housing issues in the community. She expressed concern that without deed restrictions like price caps, housing that is affordable for its first owner could be out-of-reach for subsequent owners.
“This really isn’t ‘affordable housing,’” said Fischer. “This is really a free market development, that’s less (costly) than the one in Telluride.”
Tucker said that his definition of affordable housing is different, and that without government subsidies it would be unfair to impose deed restrictions.
“For me, affordable is what a couple or a single person in San Miguel County need to afford their house. That to me is affordable. A deed restriction, to me, is giving somebody a house in one hand but taking away the value on the other hand,” said Tucker.
Fischer also suggested that the new development could, as other subdivisions like Aldasoro and Lawson Hill do, buy into public transportation by contributing a percentage of their sales.
“To go toward transportation, which is only getting more and more expensive,” said Fischer. “I don’t think that’s a farfetched notion.”
Commissioner Art Goodtimes said he supported Tucker’s plan in general.
“What he’s providing is … it’s workforce housing that allows people to build equity. I think trying to tack on subsidized housing to a project like this could make it less feasible,” he said. “It’s a delicate balance. Right now, I think this project is a great one.”
The county will provide more formal feedback when Tucker’s petition for annexation is certified by the Town of Norwood.