Sen. Micheal Bennett and Rep. Joe Neguse joined state and local officials to celebrate the historic signing of the 50-year lease that allows Forest Service land to be used for community workforce housing.
The Dillon Work Center lease was signed Sept. 27, three days before the authority to sign the lease was set to expire. Proponents gathered at the Dillon Ranger District on Saturday, Oct. 21, to commemorate the signing.
This marks the first lease to be signed under the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018. The act intended to provide the Forest Service with the authority to enter long-term lease arrangements at qualifying administrative sites in exchange for cash or non-cash considerations.
Proponents look to move forward on a proposal to bring around 170 income-based rental units on a parcel northeast of the intersection of U.S. Highway 6 and Lake Dillon Drive.
Plans include long-term rental units of mixed configuration, a neighborhood community center, residential parking, public transit connections and upgraded infrastructure and utilities.
Development plans reserve 10 of the new workforce units for full-time Forest Service staff members, and up to 30 beds will be offered to seasonal workers.
Summit County Commissioners took the stage at the event to applaud the collaboration between officials behind the effort. Commissioner Tamara Pogue noted the commissioners had long placed emphasis on solving one of Summit County’s largest issues, housing, and this effort is a pivotal step in addressing that.
Rep. Neguse celebrated the efficiency within this collaboration, noting to the crowd that collaboration such as this is paramount in the current political climate.
“In light of all the dysfunction and the chaos in Washington, D.C., it is nice to be able to show the public, to show our community, to show the state, and to show the country that innovation and collaboration, ingenuity, the ability to build partnerships across different silos is alive and well,” Neguse said.
The Farm Bill lapses every five years. Congress has not passed a new one after the most recent iteration, passed in 2018, expired last week and remains in dysfunction as the House of Representatives continues to work to find a new speaker of the house.
It is unclear if the provision that allows for Forest Service land leases will be renewed as part of the legislation.
While representatives made this effort happen in the nick of time, they still have the Farm Bill to renew in Congress.
Rep. Neguse said that the effort is making headway in Congress, with it recently passing out of the Natural Resources Committee with unanimous bipartisan support.
Sen. Bennett mentioned there is a bit of a battle in the Senate over the Farm Bill, yet he hopes it passes by the end of the year. He noted some republicans are wanting to take some of the money in the bill for conservation and apply it to the commodity titles of the Farm Bill.
“We’re fighting very hard to maintain that conservation, because it’s critically important to the, to the west, and then to the Colorado River Basin, to make sure farmers and ranchers can be able to do what they need to,” Bennett said.
If they get over the finish line with the Farm Bill, Bennett feels it’s very likely that the provision that allows for Forest Service land leases will be renewed.
When it comes to the dysfunction in congress, Rep. Neguse said he’s hoping cooler heads will prevail in order to get the bill passed.
“There is a long list of important legislative priorities that I think the House must be taking up, and we’re unable to do that right now because of the chaos and dysfunction that, unfortunately, our colleagues on the other side of the aisle have brought,” Neguse said.
Sen. Bennett piggybacked off of Rep. Neguse’s comment saying he has served on the Agriculture Committee for 14 years now and historically there are not many partisan problems.
“Every five years we pass a farm bill and get the job done. We have our disagreements on the way, but we get it done,” Bennett said. “Now, I would say there are a handful of really extreme, right-wing politicians in the House calling into question everything that’s trying to be done.”