Longmont Council Candidates Q & A

What does ‘affordability’ mean to you in the context of housing?  And what do you perceive is the missing middle? How do you propose to address the missing middle housing both for sale and rent?

 

Longmont Ward II Candidates:

MATTHEW POPKIN
To me, housing affordability means three things:

1. Housing costs—including utilities and insurance—should be no more than 30% of a household’s income.
2. People should be able to afford the type of housing that fits their needs and families.
3. Residents should be able to live securely without one repair or job change threatening their quality of life.

Longmont’s housing market has changed dramatically. The 2023 Housing Needs Assessment revealed “an affordability shortage of 2,173 units for renters earning less than 50% of the area median income” and that “the median sale price of $611,421 is affordable to only 32% of Longmont households.” The challenge is real and backed by data.  “Missing middle” housing helps families move up as their needs evolve and allows older residents to downsize into more manageable homes. These housing types—townhomes, duplexes, accessory dwelling units (ADUs), carriage houses, and small apartment or condo clusters—provide flexible, attainable options for households of varying sizes.

 

Building equity is important, but maintaining a home is also more expensive than ever. My wife and I experienced this firsthand when we had to replace our sewer line within two years of moving in. Many Longmont residents, especially those between 25–35 and 55–70, are seeking housing that is flexible, affordable, and easier to maintain.  In my seven months on City Council, I have worked to expand housing options by:

1. Leading Longmont’s advocacy to reform the Construction Defects Law, including submitting written testimony, to help unlock more attached for-sale housing like condos.
2. Amending Longmont’s ADU policy to make it easier for local property owners to build ADUs.
3. Creating an “urban renewal innovation zone” to prioritize redevelopment near the first transit hub in lower downtown and other underused areas—reducing red tape and construction costs.
4. Opposing developments that fail to add variety to our housing stock while supporting projects that bring affordable for-sale, attainable rentals, senior housing, and Habitat for Humanity partnerships.

Looking ahead, I want to prioritize three efforts:

1. Transit-Oriented Development (TOD): Complete the 1st and Main Transit Station and enable new mixed-use housing that reduces car dependence and lowers overall living costs.
2. Further ADU Policy Reform: Remove policy and financial barriers—such as permit fees or financing hurdles—to enable more residents to add in-law suites, carriage houses, and above-garage units.
3. TrueNorth 2.0: Build on the City’s first TrueNorth project by identifying a site for a second phase that provides affordable and attainable single-family homes and townhomes for sale.

TERESA SIMPKINS:   Affordable housing is a loaded term in our local political climate. Some pro-development advocates are quick to label my constituents as “NIMBYs,” “uncaring,” or “selfish” when they oppose any housing development that includes any element of housing that is labeled “affordable” or “attainable.” Such labeling is lazy, unfair, and inaccurate. My Ward 2 neighbors uniformly support proven tactics to improve housing accessibility for lower-income individuals and families, such as Habitat for Humanity, incentives and loans for first-time homebuyers, and public/private partnerships like True North. What they (and I, on their behalf) oppose are high-density, rental-only, massive developments that offer no guarantee of continuing affordability and drastically alter the character and nature of the neighborhoods they are built in. 

 

 The Missing Middle in Longmont are not young professionals without apartments to rent; they are working class families seeking to buy an affordable home in which to raise their children and create their lives. We need to create more opportunities for them to do that. Families are the fabric of a community and when we stop creating the things that they need to thrive, the threads of our community will begin to fray. 

 

Pro-development advocates claim that the only way to create affordable housing is to build more, and our City has gone along with this assertion for too long. I am very interested in how we can make more of our existing housing stock affordable and keep it affordable so that individuals and families can put down roots here in Longmont without being priced out in just a few years. There so many viable options for us to explore and consider. We owe it to our lower-income residents and the future of our city to spend the time necessary to do this in a smart, thoughtful, and deliberate way.

 

Longmont At Large Candidates:

STEVEN ALTSCHULER

"Affordability" is definitely a catch-all phrase. There are many times that a persons best option is to rent, be it for 6 months or 3 years, while they are unsure what the immediate future holds for them. Whenever possible, I'd like to see people be able to buy a starter home or an inexpensive condo and get into the real estate market as soon as possible to start building long term wealth. Since condo's are not being built due to the Liability laws, I'd like to see City Council help promote apartment conversions. The apartments already have their own addresses and separate utility billing, making for a simple conversion. Buying a 2 bedroom 1 bath conversion would cost no more than renting and the buyer would have a room to rent for income, a tax write- off and an investment. Plus, the city would get more in property tax on condo's than on a large apartment building. It's what we can a win-win.

ALEXANDER KALKHOFER
To me affordability means a home that a local worker can actually carry month to month (including utilities and transportation) all without being priced out of the city they serve.  I want to add more of the homes people are asking for along transit corridors, townhomes, condos, duplexes, and small for sale apartments. That way first‑time buyers, families, and downsizing neighbors have real, attainable options close to jobs and services.  I’ll focus approvals where transit and infrastructure are ready, keeping growth aligned with mobility and safety investments rather than pushing sprawl.  

 

JOHN LEMBKER
It is illegal to build anything but single-family homes on large lots in 65% of Longmont. There are a handful of areas where you can build townhouses or mid-rise apartments. I attempted to build duplexes myself. I learned from just attempting to get started that the types of homes that were traditionally affordable are illegal or impossible to build in Longmont.  Affordability is that a house is provided as shelter to the person living in it below 30% of their income. Right now we have a mismatch in supply and demand by price-point. There is too much housing a price points that people can't afford in Longmont.

 

Here is a quote from the city's analysis of our housing situation: "Longmont’s workforce faces considerable affordability challenges, which could push workers to seek housing elsewhere and/or make it increasingly difficult for employers to attract workers and for the City to attract employers. Fewer than half of all industries have average wages high enough to afford the median rent in Longmont and no industries have average wages high enough to afford the median sale price (even if they have 1.5 workers per household)."

 

This tells me either incomes need to go up dramatically for a lot of people, the cost of shelter needs to fall for a lot of people for housing to be affordable, or a combination of both.

JAKE MARSING:  
For me, housing affordability means that the people who make our community work — teachers, nurses, first responders, young families, and small business employees — can afford to live in the same city where they work. It’s not just about subsidized housing, and it’s not just about luxury development. True affordability is about stability and opportunity for the middle-income households that are increasingly priced out of Longmont.

 

The “missing middle” refers to the kinds of housing options that used to exist between subsidized rentals and high-end single-family homes, but which have largely disappeared from the market. These are townhomes, duplexes, condos, small multiplexes, and entry-level single-family homes that working families could once afford to buy or rent. Without them, people are forced either into long commutes from outside the city or into housing that stretches their budgets to the breaking point.

As a candidate, my core commitment is to workforce and for-sale housing. We need to create pathways for working families to build equity, not just pay rent forever. That means using our zoning and development policies to encourage smaller-scale, attainable for-sale housing, supporting mixed-use and infill projects where appropriate, and making sure the City is an active partner in lowering barriers like permitting delays and excessive fees. On the rental side, we need to support housing providers who are willing to bring missing-middle units online and ensure that the economics of doing so actually pencil out.

If elected, I will push for a balanced approach that adds to our housing supply across the spectrum, but with a clear focus on rebuilding the missing middle and expanding opportunities for homeownership for the families who form the backbone of Longmont’s workforce.

 

CRYSTAL PRIETO
To me, affordability means people can live in Longmont without spending most of their paycheck on housing and still cover basics like food, childcare, and healthcare. The “missing middle” is that gap between single-family homes and big apartment complexes, like duplexes, townhomes, and small rentals, which we don’t have enough of here. I’d push to update zoning so these homes are easier to build, partner with nonprofits to keep some affordable long-term, and make sure growth comes with the services families need. That way, we create more real options for working families to stay in Longmont.

 

RIEGAN SAGE:  
Affordability to me means that not only are you able to pay your rent or mortgage, you have enough to patronize the businesses in your city as well. When housing becomes unaffordable, the number of unhoused people also rises. So we must continue to build and to support the developers who want to build here by making our processes transparent, our policies easy to understand and our decision-making equitable.

 

We also need to build differently. Not everyone needs a five-bedroom home, especially as birth rates are in sharp decline. Much of our population is aging into retirement and beyond. Building smaller homes both for rental and for sale is crucial to the future of Longmont. If we are to maintain our character as a city and not grow into a sprawling bedroom community, we need smaller individual homes, townhomes, duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes that integrate into neighborhoods and serve the needs of our population.

 

I also support direct incentives for individual homeowners who want to add an ADU to their property, as this increases availability of housing without fundamentally altering the character of a neighborhood.

 

 

Longmont has seen an increase in new multi-family construction recently, and vacancy rates are rising. How would you approach future growth to ensure we don’t overbuild, while still meeting the community’s long‑term housing needs and keeping homes attainable?

 

Longmont Ward II Candidates:

MATTHEW POPKIN   
I’m running for my first full term to continue serving Ward 2 on City Council by proactively—rather than reactively—managing Longmont’s growth. That means prioritizing redevelopment in our older industrial areas and brownfields, rather than pushing sprawl that strains infrastructure and erodes the character of our existing neighborhoods. To ensure we grow thoughtfully while keeping housing attainable, I would pursue two key strategies:

 

Advance Urban Renewal Planning:As Chair of Longmont’s Urban Renewal Authority (LURA), I’ve helped accelerate redevelopment of underutilized, often blighted sites. LURA has already reactivated the Village at the Peaks and is now focused on the Sugar Mill area, lower downtown at 1st and Main, the River District, and parts of North Main Street. Redeveloping these sites:

1. Cleans up legacy properties
2. Leverages existing infrastructure like roads, utilities, and trails
3. Concentrates growth near established businesses, boosting local foot traffic
   
   

Since early summer, I’ve also been working with the Vice Chair and LURA’s Executive Director to share this work with community and business groups. Prioritizing these areas relieves pressure on our neighborhoods while unlocking new opportunities for Longmont’s future.

 

Revisit Our Comprehensive Land Use Plan: Next year, the City will begin updating Envision Longmont, our comprehensive land use plan that shapes zoning, housing, commercial development, parks, and more. This is an opportunity to reset priorities and align growth with the community’s long-term vision. Through this process, we can:

1. Take a clear, thorough assessment of community preferences
2. Adjust land-use priorities to meet future needs
   
   

These strategies build on the feedback I’ve heard from residents during my nearly three years on the Planning & Zoning Commission and since my appointment to City Council earlier this year. My focus is on ensuring that Longmont grows in a way that strengthens our neighborhoods, supports local businesses, and keeps homes attainable for families.

 

TERESA SIMPKINS
I have worked in government long enough to understand that development is the fastest and most lucrative way for municipalities to raise funds and draw new people who will generate tax revenue. Those funds are important to support the amenities we all want in our community. However, there are a lot of ways to generate those development dollars; they just require a little more work and a little more backbone that our current approach. 

 

Developers want to build on open land, and their goal is understandably to generate as much profit as possible by constructing high-density, many-storied, rental apartment buildings that continue to generate profit beyond the initial move-in. That is capitalism, and that is their business. Our business, however, is to serve the needs of the community, not of a handful of developers with no concern or care for our community. 

 

I am definitely not anti-growth; I am fully committed to “coordinated growth” where we

replace unfettered growth in the name of urban renewal or affordable housing with a thoughtful analysis of what our community really needs, what options are available to meet those needs, and how those solutions will improve or impact neighborhood character, transportation, access to jobs and services, and safety.  Cities must evolve and grow, but how they do that should be up to the people of that city. Cities should not be vanity projects for pro-developer advocates with political ambitions.

Longmont At Large Candidates:

STEVEN ALTSCHULER
Longmont needs to STOP BUILDING APARTMENTS! We have over 300 vacancies with almost 2,000 more units already approved for construction. ENOUGH! Current City Council has already reduced mandatory parking spaces for construction, which means we are going to see 100's of more cars parking on the streets. All current construction is severely lacking in driveways for entering and egress, making for terrible traffic jams as people leave for work and school, or come home later. Building "affordable" housing, or "subsidized" housing for Longmont citizens is fine, but we have become a low- income housing hub for every city in Boulder County. This is also why our traffic has gotten so bad, over 50% of those living in Longmont drive to Boulder, Erie and Louisville to work, every day! We need better and more successful businesses in Longmont to get those cars off the roads.

 

ALEXANDER KALKHOFER
I will watch vacancy, absorption, and permits closely so we don’t overbuild one product type while missing the mark on for‑sale options that households want.  If rentals are softening in some submarkets, I’ll shift attention to the undersupplied for‑sale “missing middle,” and I’ll use the recent state construction‑defect reforms as a springboard to bring builders back into the condo and townhome market here.

 

JOHN LEMBKE
Do you have a specific vacancy rate? The market equilibrium from the research I have done is 5%. The last figure someone gave to me is that Longmont is between 2 and 3% which would tell me the market is still too tight and needs more housing. We have to do a few things, 

1. Reduce the input costs of building houses and maintaining them. I would do this with a Land Value Tax. Our current property tax scheme punishes efficient use of land. 
2. I would like to make some of the fixed costs like the water hookup more graduated. As an example, right now, there is only one fee level for a single-family home and one level for a multifamily regardless of the number of bedrooms. It should be less for a 1 bedroom than a 4-bedroom house.
3. Give renters more purchasing power, the most efficient method is usually called a reverse income tax. The city would need to subsidize the incomes of the lowest income residents.
4. Make it legal to build houses that cost less.
   1. ADUs - which we did
   2. Duplexes / triplexes / quadplexes by right
   3. Single staircase apartment buildings
   4. Starter size homes.
   5. Smaller setback requirements on each lot.

 

JAKE MARSING
Longmont has seen a surge in multi-family construction in recent years, and with vacancy rates starting to rise, I think it’s time to be more intentional about how we grow. My goal is not to stop new housing (we still need it) but to make sure we’re building the right kinds of housing that meet our community’s long-term needs.

Right now, most of the new construction is large rental apartment complexes. Those projects have a place in the market, but they don’t address our biggest gap: attainable for-sale housing and true missing middle options. Teachers, nurses, and young families in Longmont need a pathway to ownership and stability. That’s why I believe we should look at flipping the incentives in the Inclusionary Housing Ordinance (IHO) so that developers are rewarded for producing more for-sale units instead of defaulting to rental apartments.

At the same time, I think we need to slow the pace of very large multi-unit projects until we’ve built a more balanced pipeline. That doesn’t mean shutting the door on multifamily housing altogether, it means making sure we’re not flooding the market with one type of product while ignoring others that are desperately needed. Future growth should focus on incentivizing the housing our community actually needs: smaller-scale for-sale homes, townhomes, condos, and mixed-use projects that create attainable options for working families. If we align our policies and incentives with those goals, we can keep homes attainable without overbuilding in ways that distort the market.

 

CRYSTAL PRIETO
We’ve seen a lot of new multi-family buildings go up, and with vacancies rising, I think the key is smart, balanced growth. That means focusing on the types of housing we actually need, like missing middle options and homes families can afford, while also making sure growth comes with childcare, transit, and services to support it. It’s not about building as much as possible, it’s about building the right housing at the right pace, so Longmont stays attainable and livable.

 

RIEGAN SAGE   
Over and over again the biggest complaint I’ve heard from longtime residents is that there are too many apartments. Continuing to build alongside growing vacancy rates should induce questioning: what are we building, for whom, where, and how can we do this better?

 

My campaign slogan is  “Make Longmont the best place to live and a great place to visit.” One way we can reduce rising vacancy rates is by continuing to improve our quality of life, making Longmont a desirable destination, and offering for-purchase homes as opposed to expensive rental units. 

 

To create a more walkable city, deter traffic, and support our businesses, building residences above commercial space could be an elegant solution. We need to think creatively and avoid pitfalls that we’ve witnessed elsewhere. New developments can integrate a mix of condos, townhomes, fourplexes and free-standing homes as well as limited commercial spaces to create hubs and foster community. We don’t want to be Boulder; we don’t want to be Broomfield. We want to keep growing, but in a way that honors Longmont’s uniqueness—and without cutting out the working- and middle-class people that give Longmont its character. And we do this incrementally so that we can pivot if necessary.