The city of Rifle passed another emergency ordinance Wednesday, May 7, to support Habitat for Humanity’s plan to build a modular housing factory on the Western Slope.

The move updates a previous ordinance passed in January, when the City Council first agreed to serve as a conduit for up to $25 million in private activity bonds to help fund the 65,000-square-foot facility. The factory is expected to produce modular housing units for communities across western Colorado.

Rifle City Attorney Jim Neu explained the need for the new ordinance during Tuesday’s regular council meeting, citing instability in national bond markets that delayed the original plan.

“The bond markets have since been quite shaken up, as we’ve all seen on the news,” said Jim Neu, city attorney. “Things were put on hold for a while, and luckily they are calming down, and Habitat’s team put together something that might work in today’s market.”

The overall plan, Neu said, has not changed, but the numbers have: In January, the amount was $25 million in bonds. In May, that number increased to $28 million. 

Due to recent market fluctuations, the interest rate on the bonds and the total amount has changed, but the city of Rifle still will not be responsible if any part of the bonds falls through. Only the financial numbers have changed. 

“The city is still not required to pay back the bonds,” Neu said. “It doesn’t affect our credit rating…the entire bond is collateralized by the facility that will be constructed.” 

Because of how drastically the market is changing, Neu said, this is an emergency ordinance that will only be read once and will require a supermajority of council votes, this time with no councilors missing, as councilor Clint Hostettler was absent last time this issue came before City Council. 

After Neu’s explanation, Hostettler moved to approve the new monetary amounts and was seconded by councilor Alicia Gresley. The ordinance was approved unanimously. 

After passing the ordinance, former president for Habitat for Humanity Gail Schwartz addressed the council. 

“I’d like to introduce our new CEO, Darla Callaway, and I’m an advisor to Habitat,” Schwartz said. “It’s been a remarkable process to be in the midst of this…we have about five institutions interested in investing that are being courted.”

Schwartz thanked the city for its continued partnership.

“I just want to say hello tonight, and thank you. Gail has been sharing the incredible support from the city of making this happen,” Callaway said. “I cannot wait to get this underway, and to be back in front of you with some really, really significant updates in the future.”