![]() A stepped-up use of a federal low-income housing tax credit program may spur the construction of needed affordable housing. So says the New York-based Corporation for Supportive Housing, which in a report is saying that the country is in current need of more than 1.1 million units of such housing. That housing, the group maintains, also decreases a “high utilization of emergency services and public systems,” while “improving longterm health and well being for vulnerable individuals and families.” Those living in such housing units are typically people with incomes defined as being at or below 30 percent of area median income. The Corporation for Supportive Housing points in particular to the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program, which was launched in 1986 and is designed to finance both the construction and rehabilitation of new and existing housing units. The incentives in the program are geared especially for both investors and private developers taking on low-income housing projects. As applied, the program provides those investors and developers with a reduction in their federal tax liability in exchange for taking on affordable rental housing projects. All tax credits earned under the program can only be awarded only after those investors and developers provide detailed plans for the projects they are taking on. Those plans are typically submitted to a state’s housing authority, which annually receives a certain amount of federal tax credits for the program, typically in the tens of millions of dollars. In an interview with the magazine Apartment Finance Today, Robert Friant, Corporation for Supportive Housing spokesperson, asserted that in order for the incentives program to realize its full potential, “states need to reserve designated amounts of tax credit allocations specifically to create quality supportive housing.” By Garry Boulard
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![]() Some 63 miles of new fencing made up of concrete-filled steel poles is set for construction along the Arizona-Mexico border. As proposed by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, the structure would replace current fencing which the department has deemed out of date and in poor condition. The new fencing will be at least 18 to 30 feet in height, and will stretch from Pima to Cochise counties. An announcement released by Paul Enriquez with the U.S. Border Patrol said the project will also include “the improvement or construction of roads, installation of lighting, and installation of other detection technology.” Planning for the project follows on the heels of an earlier announcement from the CBP regarding the imminent replacement of just under 7 miles of a bollard border near Yuma. That project will replace current pedestrian fencing and vehicle barriers there. The 63-mile project will go up in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, which runs along the border with Mexico. The project has sparked the opposition of the Sierra Club, which says new fencing could prove detrimental to the area’s ecosystem. In a statement, Dan Mills, representing the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter Borderlands Program, said the construction of additional walls in the area “will further harm endangered species like the Sonoran pronghorn and Mexican gray wolf.” The CBP has announced it will accept public comments on the project until July 5. By Garry Boulard ![]() The Pikes Peak Regional Building Department has announced that it wants to build a new facility for processing building permits, among other things, in growing El Paso County. That county is currently not just the second largest county in Colorado, but also the fastest-growing county in the state, with a population that has jumped from 516,000 two decades ago to nearly 714,000 today. In response, the department wants to build a new facility in the northern Colorado Springs area. The building department is part of a unique government agency created more than fifty years ago through an agreement between El Paso County and the City of Colorado Springs. The department, based in Colorado Springs, is governed by the Regional Building Commission and focuses on design, construction, and the quality of materials used for all new building projects in both the county and city. Because of the rapid growth of the county, a new Pikes Peak Regional Building Department would serve as a satellite office providing all the same services for contractors as does the main office, including an inspections division, and a plan review and permits office. Exactly where the new facility will be built has not yet been announced. Funding for the structure is expected to come out of the unprecedentedly large amount of revenue the department received due to an upsurge in building permits in the last two years. By Garry Boulard ![]() The wild price ride experienced by the nation’s lumber industry last year is not expected to be repeated for the duration of this year, say experts. In fact, statistics indicate that the overall picture has now stabilized. “After climbing 0.5 percent in March, prices paid for softwood lumber decreased 1.4 percent over the prior month,” the latest Producer Price Index just released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. The report additionally notes that “while the PPI for softwood lumber has fallen 12.6 percent over the last 12 months, 95 percent of that decline occurred in 2018.” Lumber prices exploded in the spring of 2018 in response to both new home construction and existing home renovations. The price of lumber, in fact, hit a historic high then at $659 per 1,000 board feet, surpassing previous recorded peaks of $500 in 2017 and $493 in 1993. But then came the fall, with prices late last year dropping to $300 per 1,000 board feet. Says Andrew Hecht, a commodities expert, in the website Seeking Alpha: “The fear of higher interest rates caused a slowdown in new home construction that resulted in a decline in demand for the wood that is an essential building block for infrastructure.” Earlier this year, the price climbed back to just over $450. Experts are now predicting a price stabilization and slight increase for the rest of the year heading into 2020. “Longer term, the stable U.S. housing market, both new starts and remodeling driven by resales, remains a key driver of lumber sales prices,” notes the website Market Watch. That publication also predicts that “high-yield pulp prices are expected to remain solid, albeit lower, for the remainder of 2019,” with a global market demand for pulp expected to remain above historic levels. By Garry Boulard ![]() Work may finally begin sometime next year on the construction of a controversial underground nuclear fuel storage facility in southeastern New Mexico. Under discussion for more than two years, the project will be built and operated by the Camden, New Jersey-based Holtec International, which specializes in dry cask storage systems. As proposed, it would go up on roughly 1,000 acres in Lea County and, upon completion, will be capable of storing nearly 8,700 metric tons of uranium in around fifty canisters. A significant roadblock to the project has been, at least for now, removed with a decision by the three-member Atomic Safety and Licensing Board to deny testimony from opponents of the project. Those opponents have expressed concerns about a number of issues, including the possibility of environmental contamination from the facility, container leakage, and the safety of transporting the spent fuel by railroad to the facility. In response to the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board’s decision, the Sierra Club, among other groups, has announced that it will appeal the ruling to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees the board and is ultimately responsible for licensing the facility. As proposed by Holtec, what is described as an interim facility would provide a place for the storage of nuclear waste in casks installed some 25 feet below ground. Because of what is supposed to be the temporary nature of the facility, those casks would theoretically be moved to a permanent storage location later. Where that permanent location will be remains one of the other questions surrounding the New Mexico project: a proposed storage facility in Nevada’s Yucca Mountain was cancelled in response to local opposition a decade ago. Altogether, the Sierra Club, along with several other groups, raised nearly fifty objections to the proposal, all of which were deemed inadmissible for the board’s evidentiary hearing. By Garry Boulard Plans are now in the works for the construction of a new Gila County Superior Court facility in Payson, Arizona that will measure around 10,000 square feet.
The building will house space for the Gila County assessor, recorder, treasurer, and school superintendent’s office, while also providing room for court jury trials. County officials have frequently complained that the current court facility at the intersection of Main Street and Arizona State Route 87 is too cramped and outdated. Members of the Gila County Board of Supervisors have given their approval to building the new court facility as part of a larger nearly $10 million package of capital improvements. Those improvements also include purchasing and updating a one-story, nearly 6,000 square foot building located at 112 W. Cedar Lane. That 30 year-old structure, according to county plans, will be re-purposed as a youth center, with space for a juvenile restoration and probation department. A Gila County project that will take place in the city of Globe will see the construction of a new $3 million animal control facility, as well as just over $1 million in jail improvements. When work will begin on the various projects has not yet been announced. By Garry Boulard ![]() An announcement is expected to be made sometime in September regarding where the big federal Bureau of Land Management will locate its new headquarters. Managing over 380,000 square miles of land in the dozen states making up the West, including national parks and monuments, the bureau has long said that it wanted to center its activities in the states where its policies have the most direct impact. What state will actually end up being the new home to the BLM is currently an unanswered question, although speculation has included Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. In a statement, Colorado Senator Cory Gardner lauded the announcement of the BLM’s plans to locate somewhere in the West, noting that it will mean that the “decision-makers can live amongst the people and land their rules and regulations effect.” An agency operating under the auspices of the U.S. Department of the Interior, the BLM also oversees many public lands that are rich in coal, natural gas, and oil. The BLM move to the West is not universally supported. A non-profit group called the Public Lands Foundation, which advocates in favor of preserving public lands, has issued a statement saying the move is unnecessary, arguing that the vast majority of the BLM’s staff is already working in the agency’s state offices in the West. “The perception that most BLM decisions are made in the Washington office, far removed from local communities, local interests, and the States, is simply not based on the facts,” the group asserts. It is thought that a new BLM headquarters it will cost nearly $14 million to build. By Garry Boulard ![]() For more than a year now, officials with the City of Thornton, Colorado have been talking about building a $450 million pumping facility and underground water pipeline. That 75 mile-long project, upon completion, would move water through 48-inch diameter pipelines from the Poudre River on the western side of Fort Collins to the Larimer-Weld county line before taking a turn due south, heading for Thornton. Thornton officials have said that the project, which would take an estimated 14 months to complete, is needed to provide water for a city whose population has increased from 55,000 some two decades ago to nearly 137,000 today. Members of the Larimer County Board of Commission, however, have expressed doubts about the project and several times put off making a decision on it one way or the other. Two different proposed routes for the pipeline have met with criticism, especially from county residents concerned about the potential environmental impact of the project and the fact that it would have to slice through a certain amount of private property. Three months ago the Larimer Board, maintaining that the City of Thornton had failed to address those issues, unanimously declared its opposition to the project. Now Thornton is petitioning the Larimer County District Court to overturn the commission vote. In a statement, a Thornton spokesperson said the city was taking the action in order to “represent the interest and property rights of their constituents.” The Thornton suit additionally contends that in rejecting the pipeline project, the Larimer County Commission exceeded its jurisdiction and acted in an “arbitrary and capricious manner and outside of their authority.” It is not known when the county court will issue a ruling in the matter. By Garry Boulard ![]() Dona Ana County is set to target some $4.1 million in state funding to rebuild the main runway at a Santa Teresa airport. Members of the New Mexico State Legislature this spring voted in favor of state funding for the project, which is expected to cost a total of nearly $10 million to complete. That funding, as part of a larger capital outlay bill, was subsequently approved by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. The project at the Dona Ana County International Jetport, located at 8014 Airport Road, will allow the airport to handle larger and heavier airplanes. The project has already secured just over $5.6 million in county funding. Members of the Dona Ana County Commission originally approved funding for the rebuilt runway in late 2016. Altogether, Dona Ana is receiving just over $68 million in state funding approved by the legislature and governor for a variety of capital improvement projects. The City of Las Cruces is getting $2 million for the design of a five-story downtown parking garage that will house some 400 parking spaces. Additional funding includes $2.4 million for two long-discussed flood control projects in the East Mesa and Hatch community; and $3.4 million for improvements to the South Central Wastewater Treatment Plan in the community of Vado, as well as sewer extension work in the Sleepy Farms community. An additional $525,000 will go for the construction of a sports complex at the Delores Wright Memorial Park in the city of Chaparral, with another $500,000 set for improvements to a fire station in the Dona Ana village. By Garry Boulard ![]() The signals regarding the possibility of the federal fuel tax being increased in order to fund a $2 trillion infrastructure plan recently discussed by President Trump and Democratic leaders in Congress remain unclear. That infrastructure plan addresses needed upgrades to the nation’s roads, bridges, and airports, and would additionally fund the installation of rural broadband networks. New York Congressman Chris Collins, who is regarded as an ally of the President, has announced that he is in favor of seeing the current 18.4 cents per gallon gasoline tax doubled in order to pay for infrastructure projects. “If you don’t want to pay the gas fee, you don’t have to drive,” Collins recently told The Hill newspaper. Other Republicans in the House have been less enthusiastic, particularly among the roughly thirty-two members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, which has previously stated its opposition to any increase. While some members of the larger Republican caucus have said that they even though they want to renew the Highway Trust Fund, which pays for all federal infrastructure projects, they think the $2 trillion figure unofficially proposed by Trump may be too large. It is thought that the President and Congressional leaders may meet sometime in mid-May with the goal of putting forward a more specific infrastructure spending proposal. By Garry Boulard |
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