Town Hall
Special Town Council Meeting Summary
On Tuesday, September 20th, the Town Council convened a special meeting to determine whether the Town should partner with Switchpoint to build and manage rental properties on a parcel the town owns on Trapper Circle. The meeting was called quickly with a concern that funding was available now that might not be after October 1. This turned out to be moot as there was no way to meet an October 1 deadline.
The Town had previously sent out an RFP (a formal document that an entity issues to procure proposals from appropriate providers for a desired project), for both the Red Hawk project and to develop the Trapper Circle parcel. They received two offers and chose Mountain Country Home Solutions. The RFP tied the two projects together. No RFP was ever sent out just for Red Hawk or just for Trapper Circle.
Both the Red Hawk and Trapper Circle projects aim to provide workforce housing. The Red Hawk project, which was attempted first, has run into snag after snag so getting the units on Trapper Circle has been delayed. In talking to Mountain Country Home Solutions, the Town decided to sever Trapper Circle from Mountain Country and try to find another developer. No RFP was issued to find an interested provider for Trapper Circle by itself but the Mayor made several calls and eventually spoke to Switchpoint who was willing to take on the project which consists of building units to rent to workforce, managing them, and being deeded the land. Switchpoint will do whatever is required in the contract Springdale would sign with them for the “duration of the contract.”
This allows Springdale to get workforce housing without having to be in the landlord business and allows Switchpoint to acquire valuable Springdale land as well as the rental incomes from the homes.
Several residents expressed concern that Switchpoint is largely experienced in providing homes for the homeless and lacks the expertise for this project. If they did send out an RFP, Switchpoint could submit a proposal and be potentially chosen. One citizen stated that had Trapper Circle been severed from the Red Hawk project, he would have submitted a proposal but did not want to get into the Red Hawk part of it. He also stated that he had built a casita for under $75,000.00 so if you multiply that by the potential units (10), he could see it coming in at under a million - an attractive cost/profit ratio.
The Springdalians who showed up seemed to be in favor of slowing down and sending out another RFP for Trapper Circle only. The Mayor responded that one had been sent out with minimal response. But the only RFP that had been sent out was for Red Hawk and Trapper Circle combined.
The Mayor and Randy Aton were the most vocal about wanting to proceed without sending out another RFP pointing out that even if they voted to go with Switchpoint, there were still several steps to go and the Town could back out at any juncture of that process until the contract was signed. Also, we have waited long enough to get going on Trapper Circle and provide workforce housing.
The Switchpoint representative responded to citizen concerns by stating that Switchpoint had, several years ago, started providing workforce housing and they were perfectly capable of doing so. He also also said that building something was building something. Also, workforce housing projects are simpler than homeless housing ones as there won’t be the mental health issues that usually accompany homeless housing projects.
The Mayor and Randy Aton were the most verbal in not wanting the delay of sending out an RFP. The council voted 4 to 1 to proceed with Switchpoint, with Pat Campbell being the no vote.