Eagle County commissioners have approved Cornerstone Christian Center’s plans to expand its church and school facilities near Willits, ending a yearslong review process that included debate over affordable housing requirements.
The church and private Christian school, located along Highway 82, has sought rezoning to a Planned Unit Development since 2019 to gain more flexibility for future construction.
The approved plan calls for expanded school and daycare facilities, a larger worship area for Sunday services, a flex-use building with up to six multifamily units, outdoor improvements and a community building.
The approval followed years of back-and-forth over how the project would meet Eagle County’s affordable housing guidelines, which typically require mitigation in development applications. While the plan includes multifamily housing, Cornerstone declined to deed-restrict units as affordable, instead highlighting its community programs as a public benefit.
The plans would take effect as their budget allows, which is an undetermined timeline.
The Eagle Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved the application at their Monday meeting in El Jebel. The board’s decision will be formalized in a resolution on the consent agenda of a regular meeting before the BOCC within 90 days. The application is in substantial compliance with Eagle County codes and standards, the threshold for approval.
Commissioner Jeanne McQueeney said she can’t imagine that the housing plans in the application wouldn’t be deed restricted for staff and congregants, but that the application was compliant enough to approve.
“I think it would have been really easy to just be in compliance with the one affordable housing, deed-restricted unit,” she said. “Being in substantial compliance with the [comprehensive] plan based on all of this that you do for the community, I am also willing and ready to approve this application.”
The county and Cornerstone have gone back-and-forth on the application since initial meetings in 2019 and formal submission in 2022. The sticking point has been the county’s affordable housing guidelines, which require affordable-housing plans or offsets in development applications.
Initial calculations on required affordable-housing mitigation was over 20 units, given the planned 46,421 square feet of additional commercial space. After debate over the year-round or seasonal nature of teacher employment, the county agreed to require one affordable housing unit, as the school is only planned to expand by five students.
In August 2024, Cornerstone said it would not include an affordable housing plan, which led the county planning director to determine the application was incomplete. After an appeal, Cornerstone submitted a plan that highlighted community-facing programming like its sobriety support group, homelessness ministry, benevolence fund, food distribution during the COVID-19 pandemic as an alternative to the affordable housing requirement.
County staff then determined the application was complete and ready for review by the Roaring Fork Valley Regional Planning Commission and BOCC — but that the community benefit was not sufficient to meet the affordable housing guidelines.
Cornerstone Christian Center’s Pastor Jim Tarr, second from left, on Monday appeals to the Eagle Board of County Commissioners to approve Cornerstone’s land-use application to allow church and school facility expansion and updates. Josie Taris/Aspen Daily News
A November 2024 staff report from the county outlines the need for an affordable housing plan, even if staff deems it short of meeting mitigation criteria.
“While the Board can make subsequent determinations during substantive review of a land use application about whether recommended housing mitigation is satisfied by an application based on public benefits that a project may offer or other mitigation that meets the intent of the Affordable Housing Guidelines, no provision in the ECLUR or the Affordable Housing Guidelines authorizes the Board to exempt an applicant from the Affordable Housing Guidelines at the sufficiency stage of the review process,” it states.
The application includes plans for up to six multifamily units, but Cornerstone declined to deed restrict or otherwise make any of the units affordable in a formal manner. They contend that the cost to build an affordable unit is burdensome, estimating an affordable unit to cost $700,000.
Jon Fredericks of planning firm LANDWEST Colorado, which represents Cornerstone, said that the units would be intended for Cornerstone staff as part of a recruitment and retainment package.
Andrew Nussbaum, a partner with Colorado Springs-based law firm First & Fourteenth PLLC, represents Cornerstone and has maintained that the center is exempt from the housing guidelines for its burdensome nature through the federal law, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.
“We exist as a public benefit, as caring for the spiritual and material needs of the community here,” he said. “Federal law has struck that balance for you in so far as it says religious land use is a public benefit.”
Nussbaum said that the church’s approximate annual operating budget is $800,000. Pastor Jim Tarr said that Cornerstone has spent approximately $200,000 on the land-use application process.
Tarr and the Cornerstone team stressed the value of their programming as a community benefit. In June, the Roaring Fork Valley Regional Planning Commission, which advises the BOCC on land use items, voted 2-1 to recommend approval of the application. The commission found the application in substantial compliance with county review standards despite diverging opinions on the affordable housing plan.
At Monday’s meeting, Commissioner Matt Scherr asked about public use of the proposed gymnasium/auditorium space, which the application states could be utilized by “neighborhood groups, religious groups, philanthropic organizations, club organizations, sports organizations, etc.”
Tarr responded with frustration about the prolonged land-use process and perceived questioning of the use of facilities.
“We’ve hit obstacles time and time again, and we can show that we’ve had two meetings where all of these people were silenced and not given an opportunity to speak. And I felt like it happened again this evening,” he said. “I appreciate all of you, and we’ve had our difficulties, but at the end of the day, maybe it’s time to just recognize we still feel the pain of being labeled non-essential.”
After the meeting, Tarr emphasized that all are welcome in the Cornerstone community, but said that use of a future community or public building would be subject to parameters set by Cornerstone.
“Our desire is to fulfill the purpose we believe God has called us to,” Tarr said. “[To] host events that are consistent with our faith and values.”
Tarr did not provide specifics about which organizations might be included. In years past, Cornerstone leaders have taken public stances on political and social issues.
During the pandemic, Tarr criticized mask mandates on a conservative commentator’s social media page, and the Cornerstone Christian School challenged Eagle County over its indoor mask requirement for schools. At land-use meetings, church leaders also noted their use of outdoor worship and distancing practices in 2020.
The church has hosted events featuring U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Republican from Colorado, on multiple occasions before her recent move to eastern Colorado. In June 2022, it hosted David Barton, an evangelical pastor and activist who promotes integrating biblical principles into politics, as a guest speaker.
In an October 2024 letter to the county, Nussbaum objected to an initial 27-unit affordable housing requirement, citing cost concerns and the possibility of renting to members of the public outside of the Cornerstone community.
“[The affordable housing requirement] would also force Cornerstone to rent property to individuals hostile to its faith and beliefs,” the letter states. “Imposition of this affordable-housing requirement on Cornerstone would stop it from ever expanding its sanctuary or school, prohibiting its future expanded religious land use and effectively capping the reach of its ministry.”
Several members of the congregation attended Monday’s meeting in support of the application, highlighting the role of Cornerstone’s programs in their lives.
