The situation regarding the proposed South 5th Street bridge and the connection road leding onto and through the Springs Partners vacant 27 acres, south of the Springs Resort, has changed somewhat since the evening of September 17, 2015, when I warned the Pagosa Springs Town Council they would likely be facing a lawsuit if they took the advice of their attorney, Bob Cole, and met behind closed doors with Springs Partners Matt Mees and Bill Dawson.
Since that evening, the Town — in response to Colorado Open Records Act requests from the Daily Post and the Pagosa Springs SUN — has released some of the communications that took place over the past year between the Town staff and the Springs Partners. The Town Council also scheduled a public hearing last March at which we heard arguments for and against the proposed taxpayer-funded bridge project — a $7 million public investment that would serve essentially one private property. At that March meeting, most of the Council spoke in favor of the general idea, while most of the public spoke in opposition.
Since that public hearing, three of the Council members — Clint Alley, Kathie Lattin and CK Patel — have resigned for personal reasons before fulfilling their terms of office. Ms. Lattin’s seat remains vacant; local activist Mat deGraaf has been appointed to the seat previously held by Clint Alley. Mr. Patel just recently announced his resignation, I understand.
Where the newly constituted Council will head with the proposed bridge project is uncertain at this point. I believe it’s unlikely a Council of only five members will feel comfortable making major policy decisions.
My project this week is to transcribe the audio recording, of the (illegal) September 17 executive session, that Judge Greg Lyman ordered the Town Council to make public, and which the Town released on Friday. As noted, some of the audio is inaudible. For example, I am right now listening to the portion of the recording where Town Manager Greg Schulte is explaining how much a “Lease Purchase” financing option might cost the Town. In this inaudible section of the recording, Mr. Schulte appears to be talking about possible 4 or 4½ percent interest rate? And some dollar amounts?
“So I am going to go ahead and say this in front of Matt and Bill … [Springs Partners Matt Mees and Bill Dawson] … and that is, in order for this to be acceptable on some level, there has to be some sort of participation by the property owners… [inaudible] … put up some security for that, and that would be a portion of the 27-acre property … and some sort of performance guarantee, that if this went forward, there would be an agreement to essentially do ‘something.’ Because the thought is, we couldn’t build a bridge and a connection road and then have nothing happen. That would be unacceptable.
“So at this point, what I’d like to do is turn this over to Matt and Bill, and let you hear their perspective, and then we can excuse them and talk as a Council [inaudible.]”
We next listen to partner Matt Mees addressing the Council. The sound quality is particularly poor in this section, unfortunately.
“Well, I guess part of where we are right now is …” And then what sounds like an explanation for why the Springs Partners haven’t done a lick of development on the vacant property since 2012.
“We’re to a point now — Jack Searle is one of our partners now — and we’re making some decisions about what we want to do, what is it the right thing to do.”
Some background might be in order here. Matt Mees and Bill Dawson have been business partners for maybe 25 years; their most visible project was reconstructing the somewhat run-down Spring Inn motel into what is now the much more elegant Springs Resort. That resort is now owned by the Whittington family.
I believe Jack Searle joined the Springs Partners at some point in the past 18 months. Mr. Searle is perhaps best known as a local philanthropist, and as the founder of the charitable non-profit, Justice Ministries. He owns an oil and gas investment company, and has begun a couple of local housing development projects in downtown Pagosa; he also owns the Old Town Market and Deli, and donates the profits from that operation to Justice Ministries.
Partner Matt Mees continues:
“Overall, we feel like there are many options to look at. The whole reason for the bridge, in the first place, is to make downtown more viable. We have only the one block downtown, and all during the 12 years we owned the Springs, we heard the tourists ask, what is there to do? And we told them, you can go downtown. So that’s one block up and then one block back. So we feel like the bridge will provide a connection to downtown.”
A bit more background for our readers. There are currently four bridges — three pedestrian bridges and one vehicle bridge — located within a quarter mile of the Springs Partners’ vacant 27-acre property. Three of them lead pretty much directly to the property. But of course, the property is vacant, so it doesn’t attract much tourist foot traffic.
Mr. Mees:
“So people will be able to cross at [South 5th Street] and walk around and come back by the [Hot Springs Boulevard bridge] and walk past the water park and to the downtown retail and a riverfront restaurant. [inaudible… something about the Post Office and circulation.] It just seems like the one chance for our community, beyond.. [inaudible].
“I mean, our goal in doing the development thing to begin with is, we want downtown to work. It will take a lot for us to do either Sketch Plan A or Sketch Plan B. It’s a big plan and it’s going to take a while, and a lot of involvement from a number of people to make it happen. But it’s more of a ‘village approach’ to downtown; we will have a number of new residents coming in, but it will also be a place where local people will come to shop, to make it feel like a completed downtown. During the 40 years I’ve lived here, we’ve seen Pagosa get strung out from Highway 84 all the way out Highway 160, and we just missed doing something downtown. And that’s what we think we really need to make this thing feel complete.”
I guess four bridges is simply not enough for some people.