Letters to the Editor

County’s ‘help’ will hurt
As I understand the issues, the problem is that we don’t have enough affordable workforce housing now, and we fear a widening gap in the future. To address this problem, the county could pass laws that incent developers to build the desired categories of housing. This could be done in the form of density allowances for developers, as well as future property tax benefits for owners, which would effectively lower the ongoing cost of ownership. An additional advantage would be a shortened period of governmental review for such projects, effectively reducing the capital cost and the business risk of the projects. Developers could then analyze the market, determine the economics, and proceed with projects they judged to be profitable.

This approach would integrate the benefits of a market-based approach with government incentives. Developers also could use their market analysis to determine the mix of rental versus ownership units to build.

Instead, the commissioners have created a system with relatively limited choice for developers. It reduces the impact of market mechanisms by offering choices based on a fairly rigid approach to the appropriate mix of affordable to market-price housing.

People who understand markets know that these ratios are not rigid, but change over time. The new guidelines don’t seem to do much about any perceived existing shortage, as they are tied to new construction. Perversely, if the added cost of the new guidelines inhibit new construction, some new demand will need to be satisfied from the existing housing stock, further driving prices up and contributing to an even greater shortage of affordable housing. The system provides revenues for the county to acquire more affordable housing, based on transfer taxes. The irony is that these transfer taxes may not materialize if the guidelines inhibit development. This means that development and transfer taxes are positively correlated, when the county’s revenue portfolio needs more negative correlation with development.

Since these guidelines don’t solve the problem, there will be political pressure to change them, and the results of the recent Eagle mayoral election may signal to developers that they should wait for new commissioners to create new guidelines that properly address the issues. This very reaction would exacerbate the current shortage.

Chris Hynes, Edwards

Airport name suggestion
After months of research that included surveys, focus groups and informal conversations, I recommend that the Eagle County Airport be renamed Rocky Mountain International Airport.

Where do I go to collect my $40,000 consulting fee?

Lars Walberg, Eagle

Hall for Vail rec board
As a resident of the Vail Valley for over 30 years and a father of four, the health and direction of the recreational opportunities available to the citizens of Vail is of keen interest to me and my family.

Michelle Hall is a person of uncommon foresight who can balance to the needs of families in Vail with the inevitable growth of the valley. If you are looking for a person with strength of character and the ability to bring conflicting interests together for the benefit of the residents of Vail, Michelle is your candidate.

Mathew Bayley

Rep. Bruce had it right
This is in regards to Rep. Bruce’s remark that we don’t need another 5,000 illiterate peasants in Colorado. The speaker cut him off and ordered him off the podium.

Well, what he said was the correct description of the people that the House was debating bringing into Colorado to be farm workers. I guess by the response by many House members including the minority leader, that must mean that those people were just too illiterate and perhaps ignorant to understand the meaning of the word illiterate!
Could that have been the major cause of the misunderstanding?

Of course they may have been unable to understand what a peasant is.

Bill Kiker, Beaver Creek

Reason to wean from meat
It’s been the leading story in major newspapers and TV news programs for the past week. More than 100 million people are being driven deeper into poverty by a “silent tsunami” of rising food prices, according to World Food Program Executive Director Josette Sheeran. A dozen countries have experienced food riots and strikes.

Prices for basic food staples such as rice, wheat, corn and soybeans have skyrocketed in recent months. They are driven by rising fuel and fertilizer prices, diversion of corn to produce biofuels, drought in key food-producing countries, soil depletion through overgrazing and growing demand for meat in China and other developing nations.

The resulting hunger afflicts nearly one billion people, mostly women and children. It kills an astonishing 24,000 per day. It’s not just a problem for strangers in faraway lands. It affects millions of Americans, and some U.S. stores are already rationing food.

The good news is that even a small shift toward a plant-based diet in the United States and other developed countries would free up enough land, water and fuel to feed everyone. More than 80 percent of U.S. agricultural land grows animal feed. A plant-based diet requires only 16 to 20 percent of the resources of the standard American diet (SAD).

Every one of us can start abating the scourge of world hunger today, by reducing our consumption of meat and other animal products and by supporting food distribution agencies. (For more information, see www.thehungersite.org.)

Vincent Yates, Vail