Dear Loveland City Council and Loveland Planning Commission, and Affordable Housing Commission,

Loveland is facing an affordable housing crisis. We need more rental and for-sale housing to meet the demand, and housing can only be generated through community partnerships and the approval of new projects that generate more housing units: a mix of for-sale market-rate housing, rental units, and qualified deed-restricted housing.

While community growth is challenging, we simply cannot escape our housing crisis without building a more diverse variety of units. This necessitates the inclusion of smaller homes in greater density. 

People who work in Loveland must be able to afford to live here. Still, for the past several years, teachers, firefighters, police officers, grocery store clerks, and many other workers have been priced out of the local market. Research from 2021 shows that 77% of Loveland’s workforce drives into our community daily from more affordable areas. Generating more workforce housing for the missing middle is critical to solving Loveland’s housing crisis.

In order to make meaningful change, some neighborhoods must change slightly, and some open, vacant, undeveloped land must be developed. We should acknowledge the necessity of change by supporting ambitious new private and non-profit projects to solve the crisis. 

We call on Loveland City Council and commissions to approve projects that meet and/or address a combination of the following criteria:

• Qualified Housing Partnerships: Developments that include a partnership, clear letter of intent, or plan driven by one of the City’s preferred affordable housing vendors: Loveland Housing Authority or Habitat for Humanity. These entities are informed and driven by our qualified housing needs.

• Diversified Housing Stock: Developments that pledge to adopt the new Unified Development Code incentives to generate partnerships toward qualified housing and incorporates three or more housing types into the development, or PUDs that accomplish the same goals. We must support the private sector’s generation of townhomes, duplexes, urban cottages, and condos that will meet the needs of middle-income workers in Loveland.

• Missing Middle Housing Creation: Developments whose plans have 20% of total units serving 100% AMI or below. State of Colorado data reveals that virtually any new housing unit helps alleviate the housing crisis. Units that can be purchased by those earning at or below 100% of the Area Median Income (AMI) in the open market are considered naturally-occurring affordable housing. These naturally-occurring affordable units can meet Loveland’s state-driven task to generate 3% more affordable housing a year, as outlined in Proposition 123. Meeting this goal ensures Loveland will draw additional state funding into our community. 

These criteria have been developed by the Loveland Affordable Housing Task Force, a group that comprises non-profit Loveland Housing Authority Leaders, private-sector industry leaders, community members, and government officials who have worked tirelessly over the past three years to create policies that will generate more housing to ease our crisis.

As a member of the Loveland community, I ask the City Council, Planning Commission, and Affordable Housing Commission to take these criteria into consideration as you review all housing projects. If a project meets the majority of the above criteria, please support it. As elected and appointed officials, the community looks to you to make decisions that improve the community as a whole. Knowing some of these developments can be controversial, we ask you as our representatives to look beyond a few neighbors in council chambers that are resistant to changes and remember there are thousands of Lovelanders seeking housing. We look to you as our leaders to solve our housing crisis by doing what is best for the community as a whole.

Time and time again, Lovelanders say housing affordability is our greatest challenge. Let’s ensure housing creators know Loveland is open to creating the housing we need - and lead the way by voting to make strategic housing growth a reality.