EAST Alamosa will see a new housing development. The Alamosa County Commissioners unanimously approved the construction of a multi-family complex that will have six buildings and 32 units built on two tracts of land on McKinney Avenue.
The developer is Louis Lukondi, who pitched the project as providing new housing options to help employers with their own hiring needs and got support on that point from local businesses and housing advocates.
“This is not cheap, cheap housing. This is a high-quality project,” Lukondi said.
This was the second time Alamosa County Commissioners took up the proposed development off Highway 17 across from the Rio Grande Farm Park and Alamosa Ranch. It denied the development on a 2-1 vote last October after hearing concerns from East Alamosa residents about the development upsetting the characteristics of the area.
Several East Alamosa residents again spoke in opposition, citing concerns about the construction of an apartment complex in an area filled with single-family homes. They raised issues with East Alamosa Water and Sanitation District and whether it could accommodate additional dwelling units and were worried that the housing development was too large for East Alamosa to swallow.
The county commissioners approved the development on the condition that Alamosa County would not issue a certificate of occupancy until East Alamosa Water and Sanitation District completes replacement of a sewage lift station. That project is scheduled for 2023, according to correspondence from East Alamosa Water and Sanitation to Alamosa County.
Dawn Melgares, executive director of the San Luis Valley Housing Coalition, said the Lukondi development would help address the lack of housing options for middle income workers in Alamosa and the San Luis Valley.
Lukondi participated in the SLV Housing Coalition’s 2021 Housing Needs Assessment report, Melgares said, and used the data to address a gap in middle income housing.
“I wish my kitchen looked like his apartments do,” Melgares said in complimenting the quality of housing developments she’s seen Lukondi complete.
Lukondi made adjustments to the landscape design in response to commissioners’ concerns from the first public hearing but otherwise the project is largely the same as the one denied last year.
The project meets all of the county’s land use regulations. As such, county commissioners said there was little they could do but approve the development.
The development will be on two tracts of land with three single-story buildings with an access driveway and parking on each tract. The complex will have a total of 58 parking spaces.
Each tract will have three single story apartment buildings with an access driveway and parking.
