Durango-based Sutter Homes is preparing to break ground this spring on 16 single-family homes about a mile west of downtown, on Rosemary Lane off U.S. Highway 160.
The development by developer Jake Lavin is called Rosemary Lane. The homes are solar, all-electric and will come with two-car garages, private yards and accessory dwelling units, said Paul Eckenrode of Sutter Homes.
The homes will be built in waves, with the first homes anticipated to be completed in the first quarter of 2024, he said. Multigenerational families are the target buyers.
“The idea is that homeowners can lock in almost no utility costs for the life of the home, take advantage of tax incentives adopted in the recent Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, and have the potential to generate revenue from the ADU to offset a mortgage payment by 30% or more,” said Mike Sutter, president of Sutter Homes, in a news release.
The homes are priced at about $550 per square foot. The price for one unit with a floor plan of 1,879 square feet will be around $1,035,000, he said. A second larger floor plan is 2,274 square feet and priced at $1,248,000. Both plans have three bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms. Counting ADU’s, which homeowners can choose to rent out, another bedroom and bathroom would be included with each home, he said.
“They’ll all have their own private yards,” Sutter said. “... There is a 1-acre nature preserve along Lightner Creek that has been retained. And so there will be kind of a little picnic area and private park for the homeowners of Rosemary Lane.”
Sidewalks are planned to be 6 feet wide, and on-street parking will be available in addition to garage and driveway parking, he said.
Local contractor SilverPick Contracting completed paving of the Rosemary Lane neighborhood last fall after 15 months of utility and street work, the release says.
“We had to adapt to COVID-related impacts on the supply chain and an unusually wet summer, but everyone stuck with it and enjoyed working so close to town in a beautiful setting,” said Jaaron Mankins, president of SilverPick.
The city’s planning commission approved the Rosemary Lane proposal in June 2020. Back then, the 16 housing units were intended to be townhomes that are physically attached to one another, rather than free-standing single-family homes. They were also planned to be cheaper. Lavin, the developer, said in a June 2020 interview he estimated the homes would cost $300 per square foot, totaling between $540,000 and $640,000 depending on the size of the unit.
In July 2020, the project was planned to have studio apartments for rent included with the townhomes, but that did not fall in line with the city’s fair share program, which requires a developer to either make 16% of homes built be affordable to low-income residents or pay a fee in lieu of affordable units.
Dan Armentano, city planner, said the developer opted to pay the fee in lieu ($146,432) of building affordable units. The fair share program’s fees change yearly based on a complicated formula that factors in market rates, but they’ve been going up since 2020, he said.
cburney@durangoherald.com
