New state bill to ‘streamline’ Roaring Fork Valley modular home construction

New Colorado state legislation will reduce the requirements for modular home construction.

The state’s plumbing and electrical boards as well as its fire suppression administration will not have jurisdiction over modular homes — preconstructed units — should the bill pass. Now through the house, Gov. Jared Polis will decide whether to sign SB 2 into law and make the construction process more efficient.

The bill would help modular home development — in particular on the local level.

“I think it will definitely streamline production,” said Gail Schwartz, president of the local Habitat for Humanity branch, which is in the process of constructing a modular production facility in Rifle. 

“It has really been a great effort, I think, on the part of the legislature to move modular construction along,” she added. 

The facility, expected to open in the summer of 2026, will have the capacity to produce 200 modular houses per year, she said. Preconstructed homes built at the facility will cost $160 per-square-foot to build — 5% of the $3,000 per-square-foot cost to build on site in Aspen. Every building the facility constructs will have a net-zero carbon footprint. 

The facility will help quell a seemingly endless rise in local housing costs, with a median cost of a Pitkin County single-family home listed at $8.7 million as of March 2025, up from $7.2 million last year, Schwartz estimated. She added that, including the site costs and vertical costs, constructing a 1,000 square foot modular home would cost about $250,000, excluding the price of the land on which it’s installed.

The construction of the site will create 64 jobs, according to her. One-hundred students per year will also be trained and certified in the trades through the site.

She said the homes will help those making equal to or less than the area median income from Rifle to Aspen. The 2024 area median income in Pitkin County was $97,800 for a single-person household, according to the Colorado Department of Local Fairs. 

“We have a real housing crisis,” she said. “Most importantly, we have a social-justice crisis. We have an issue that people are living in very compromised situations.” 

Habitat for Humanity has collaborated with other local entities to build 75 homes between Rifle and Aspen to date. Recently, they collaborated with other local entities to build 27 homes behind Basalt High School and are in the process of building six homes in Glenwood Springs and 20 in Rifle. 

In the near future, Habitat for Humanity will partner with the Aspen School District to build employee housing at the Stott’s Mill site in Basalt. The nonprofit is working with the regional fire department to develop townhouses in El Jebel, as well as with the town of Basalt to build condos behind the Rugby Field, among other local projects.

Habitat for Humanity doesn’t currently have agreements with Aspen, Pitkin County, or Snowmass but hopes to build partnerships in the future. 

“This is the only way we’re going to be able to address the housing problems in Aspen and Snowmass,” Schwartz said. 

Aspen City Council member Sam Rose said he’s open to partnering with the nonprofit. 

“I think we’d be excited to work with Habitat for Humanity if we found an opportunity where it made sense for us,” Rose said. 

“We are going to need more housing, and modular seems to be the most cost-efficient way to build it,” Council member John Doyle said.

Skyler Stark-Ragsdale can be reached at 970-429-9152 or email him at sstark-ragsdale@aspentimes.com.