{"id":2453960,"date":"2020-01-31T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-31T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=320175"},"modified":"2020-01-31T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-31T07:00:00","slug":"aspen-area-electeds-see-need-for-negotiations-with-family-facing-evictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspen-area-electeds-see-need-for-negotiations-with-family-facing-evictions\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen-area electeds see need for negotiations with family facing evictions"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Lee Mulcahy and his mother, Sandy Mulcahy, outside the Aspen Municipal Court in June 2018.<\/strong>
Jason Auslander \/ The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Some elected officials representing the city of Aspen and Pitkin County said they support negotiating with embattled affordable-housing resident Lee Mulcahy, who is facing eviction from his Burlingame Ranch home.<\/p>\n

Pitkin County Manager Jon Peacock said this week that he has talked to Mulcahy in the past month about what the deed restriction affords him when he lists the million-dollar property.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing has been agreed to,\u201d Peacock said. \u201cMy sense is that we are far apart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mulcahy bought the lot at 53 Forge Road from the city for $150,000 in October 2006, and the city provided a subsidy of $189,500, plus waiving tap and building permit fees.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unknown how much equity he has in the house he built with his family but he has a maximum resale price of $995,000, according to the deed restriction on the property.<\/p>\n

Mulcahy has lost his four-year legal battle with APCHA in Pitkin County District Court and the Colorado Court of Appeals. The courts upheld APCHA\u2019s position that Mulcahy was found out of compliance for not proving that he works in Pitkin County the required 1,500 hours a year.<\/p>\n

Both the Colorado Supreme Court<\/a> and the U.S. Supreme Court declined<\/a> to hear his case.<\/p>\n

As the case went through litigation, Mulcahy and his mother, who lives with him, said they would not leave the house and believe they will have to be forcefully removed.<\/p>\n

Peacock said his involvement has been an attempt to ease tensions between the Mulcahys and local governments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe initiated a conversation with Lee and Sandy to see if there was a way to de-escalate an increasing escalated situation,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were looking for a third rail here to see what\u2019s fair to the public and to Lee before we go remove another person from their home.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s never harmful to sit down and have a conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Acting separately are Aspen-Pitkin County Housing Authority board chair John Ward and County Commissioner Kelly McNicolas Kury, who serves on the APCHA board as an alternate.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve been in talks with Mulcahy about a settlement and finding a peaceful resolution.<\/p>\n

As a neighbor of the Mulcahys in the city-developed Burlingame affordable housing subdivision across from Buttermilk, McNicholas Kury said she is approaching the situation in a sensitive manner.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sensitive to the emotional nature of Lee and his mom,\u201d she said. \u201cAs an elected official, I take the eviction of someone from their home as a serious matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

So does Ward, who acted on his own but in a capacity as APCHA\u2019s board chair, in negotiating with Mulcahy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought we could get a resolution for the good of Aspen and the housing program to not have a standoff,\u201d Ward said. \u201cMy hope was to get to a number that he would capitulate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ward said he thought about the precedent-setting aspect of negotiating with someone who has been found in violation of APCHA\u2019s rules but felt that the Mulcahy eviction is a unique situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely that is a concern, but it\u2019s a one-time case and this was one last-ditch effort to get him out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

At Tuesday\u2019s Aspen City Council meeting during public comment, Mulcahy said in the spirit of negotiating, similar single-family homes in the second phase of Burlingame employee-housing development sold for $1.3 million, suggesting his should, too.<\/p>\n

He referenced the Fifth Amendment and that private property taken for public use without just compensation is a violation of due process.<\/p>\n

Peacock said he and others are looking at the deed restriction on the property to see what\u2019s allowable and equitable.<\/p>\n

Pitkin County Commissioner George Newman, who is the county representative on the APCHA board, acknowledged that the appreciation and purchase price of Mulcahy\u2019s home have been the topic of the discussion among county and housing program officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been some conversations back and forth to diffuse a problem situation,\u201d he said, adding the government isn\u2019t \u201cgiving away the farm on this \u2026 we want a peaceful resolution without denigrating the program so we are exploring every opportunity. It\u2019s worth a try.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aspen Mayor Torre said he was unaware of the ongoing conversations with Mulcahy and only knew that APCHA\u2019s purchase of the property was being worked on.<\/p>\n

Pitkin County Commissioner Patti Clapper said a previous idea that was floated to resolve the situation was to physically relocate the house but that effort was short-lived.<\/p>\n

Relocating the house was an idea suggested by City Manager Sara Ott last summer, according to an email she wrote to APCHA Executive Director Mike Kosdroksy on Jan. 22.<\/p>\n

\u201cRemember the last time I tried to come to you and (APCHA attorney Tom Smith) first regarding relocation of the house as an option?\u201d she wrote suggesting that if there is another way to appease the Mulcahys, she\u2019s been directed by Aspen City Council to pursue it. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t an open respectful discussion of concerns and options from my perspective. It was a hard no. A member of your board felt there was another way \u2014 I wasn\u2019t going to stop him from explaining his position to others. \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Clapper said she has been briefed on the recent talks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI support some sort of negotiating with the Mulcahys,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have to make sure that there\u2019s equity for both sides and I\u2019m not sure that\u2019s possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

csackariason@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lee Mulcahy and his mother, Sandy Mulcahy, outside the Aspen Municipal Court in June 2018.Jason Auslander \/ The Aspen Times Some elected officials representing the city of Aspen and Pitkin County said they support negotiating with embattled affordable-housing resident Lee Mulcahy, who is facing eviction from his Burlingame Ranch home. Pitkin County Manager Jon Peacock […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2453960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 18:04:47","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2453960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453960\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2453960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2453960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2453960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}