Working Fusion at Mill Street has become one of the most fulfilling endeavors of my life, and I am forever grateful for the introduction to Shelley Jensen by my friends, James McMurray and Andrea Barker, formerly of HB&A in Colorado Springs. Shelley, an absolute titan for the Pikes Peak Region, set out to create a tiny home village in the Mill Street Neighborhood, just south of downtown. She had been collaborating with HB&A on the visioning and master planning process, where a site plan was developed. However, they encountered a significant hurdle with the City’s zoning and entitlement process.
James and Andrea asked if I’d be willing to discuss the project and the entitlement process with Shelley. I was thrilled to meet Shelley because of what I understood about her mission, but to be honest, what really hooked me was my fascination with Tiny Homes. My wife, daughters, and I had watched several HGTV shows about them, and something about these homes felt so cool and exciting. That was the initial draw for me.
Of course, as I got to know Shelley and learned more about her vision—not just for Working Fusion at Mill Street but also for how this concept could be a significant part of the solution for homelessness and mental health—I was all in.
At the time, I was working at Altitude Land Consultants, and I was referred to Shelley because of the reputation I had built over the past decade for navigating Colorado Springs’ zoning code and successfully getting complex zoning projects across the finish line. It’s the challenging developments that make this profession so rewarding. We thrive on taking projects that might seem like long shots and helping clients make sense of them within the zoning code. The beauty of these projects is that while they don’t fit neatly into the conventional framework, they often produce something unique and cherished over time.
For Working Fusion, the goal was to develop eighteen (18) tiny homes on a site where five deteriorating houses stood. These homes were slated for demolition by the landowner, and Shelley saw an opportunity to execute her vision here, albeit under a long-term land lease scenario. Because of the lease, the homes had to be built on chassis rather than permanent foundations. However, the zoning code only permitted homes on chassis in Mobile Home Parks, which wasn’t aligned with Shelley’s vision.
There is a perception that comes along with Mobile Home Parks – one that is not the dignified place envisioned and that Working Fusion has become. As she often says, these homes needed to be a place people would want to live, not just somewhere they had to live. The We Fortify nonprofit, which Shelley created and leads today, refuses to settle for anything less than providing a place where young adults—affectionately referred to as the “kids”—could thrive.
This is where the Planned Unit Development (PUD) zoning classification became key. (Today, the PUD is now zoned as PDZ. Read up on the differences here.) We worked with the City of Colorado Springs to develop customized zoning standards for Working Fusion, which included five-foot building setbacks from adjacent streets and property lines, allowing homes to be on chassis, and providing on-street parking. By making use of an excessively wide street to the south, we created angled parking, doubling the available parking and slowing down traffic to more appropriate residential speeds.
As of summer 2024, Working Fusion is fully built out and has become an integral part of the Mill Street Neighborhood. However, what’s more important than the development’s success is the impact the We Fortify Non-Profit has had in housing over thirty individuals, aged 18 to 25, who had experienced significant trauma, including homelessness. Several residents have since “graduated” from Working Fusion, securing living wage jobs and moving into homes of their own.
We invite you to explore more about We Fortify, its future villages, and how you can be part of the solution in your community by visiting wefortify.org. And, if you are so inclined, join us at the 2nd Annual Gala Not Gala on November 16th! Get Tickets!