ST. GEORGE — Cradled by Zion National Park, Springdale has long struggled with affordable housing. But a new town partnership could move the issue forward for workforce housing opportunities.

Mayor Barbara Bruno told St. George News that Springdale is fortunate to be working with Mountain Country Home Solutions and through Community Land Trust to develop workforce housing.

“Mountain Country Home Solutions has 29 years of experience in projects such as ours,” Bruno said. “They plan to offer ownership and rental opportunities to people who work in the town of Springdale or Zion National Park. We look forward to welcoming the buyers and renters of those housing units into our community as full-time residents.”

Tom Dansie, community development director for the town, told St. George News that affordable housing has been an ongoing goal of the town’s general plan. 

“We want to provide more housing options in the town, particularly for the people working and making the town work, like the employees at the local businesses and national park rangers — the people working hard to make the community work,” Dansie said.

Springdale’s general plan states that it will have housing options, including low-density residential units, higher-density multifamily units in select locations and accessory dwelling units. Those options will allow the town to maintain housing for families of diverse incomes. 

The plan also states these housing options benefit local businesses by providing a larger labor pool. The housing options will help the town by having people work in local companies and contribute to the community by accessing attainable housing.

Dansie said the town has acquired several properties for housing targeted at local employees. The town has also acquired five vacant single-family lots to build single-family residences. Dansie confirmed that the town has acquired two already constructed homes and hopes to have these homes sold and occupied in the next month or so.

Dansie said the five vacant lots will take about a year to 18 months to construct. Then, the multifamily rentals will take about 18 months to two years to be ready for use. 

Rental properties will also be part of the mix. The property obtained in the central commercial zone will allow multifamily rental housing. Dansie said that the town plans to have 16-18 housing units targeted at employees of local businesses.

“We have partnered with a housing provider, Mountain Country Home Solutions and they’re going to help us develop, manage and administer these plots for employee workforce housing.”

Dansie said the five vacant lots and the two homes are all located in the Red Hawk subdivision. This area is close to downtown Springdale, west of state Route 9, behind Oscar’s Cafe.

“It has a really good central location near downtown,” Dansie said. “It’s very walkable to all the places in the town, so it’s just really perfect for folks who are working in the town.” 

The property is placed in the Southwest Community Land Trust, which allows those homes to remain affordable for employee housing “forever in perpetuity,” which means the land will remain with the Community Land Trust, but the home will transfer to the buyer, Dansie said.

“Whoever purchases these homes is only purchasing the improvements to the actual house; they are not paying the cost of the land, which greatly reduces the cost of the housing and makes it much more attainable for employees of local businesses,” Dansie said.

The land trust will be the organization that administers and operates that housing moving forward. Dansie added that the town would be removed from the administration of those lots. He said that this would prevent a future town council from going in and selling that land because it would be administered by the land trust. 

“We will have an agreement with the trust that says here are the parameters under which these homes are to be managed, administered and used,” Dansie said.

There will be a process for people to apply for housing. Dansie said there will be selection criteria to be fair in selecting who will be eligible to occupy these units.

“One of the ways that we feel it’s important to help build community is by having the people who are working in the community and providing the essential functions that make the community operate on a day-to-day basis,” Dansie said. 

The housing selection process will prioritize people who have worked in Springdale for longer periods of time. It will also prioritize people who are in what the town has identified as an essential service, such as schoolteachers, emerging emergency responders, and medical health care providers.

Dansie noted that the town is not trying to interfere with market forces that are in play but rather work within the market’s situation. 

“What we’re trying to do in Springdale is say, ‘Let’s build community,’” Dansie said. “How can we operate within those market forces to help build community by providing opportunities for members of the workforce to also live in the community? We feel that’s an important part of building community.”

Dansie added that every resort or gateway community in the West faces housing issues. He said town officials had studied other communities’ approaches to housing and that each place has its own challenges. Homes in a community land trust must be owner-occupied and the trust does not allow rooms in the home to be rented out.

To learn more about the Community Land Trust and Mountain Country Home Solutions, click here.

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