— From the proposed ‘Pavilions at Pagosa Springs’ lease, 2011
The Archuleta Board of County Commissioners will consider, this afternoon, an offer they may not be able to refuse. One of our local housing organizations — the Archuleta County Housing Authority — is proposing to develop a Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) apartment complex on Hot Springs Boulevard, about three blocks from the center of Pagosa’s historic downtown… across the street from the Ross Aragon Community Center and Town Hall.
All the County Commissioners need to do, to help make this happen, is provide the housing authority with a 99-year lease on 2.5 acres of a vacant 4.9-acre County-owned parcel. For $1 a year.
Spearheading the proposed development project is former County Commissioner Clifford Lucero, currently representing the Archuleta County Housing Authority. Mr. Lucero has also been developing moderately-priced homes on his own, in the downtown Pagosa Springs area.
Daily Post readers may be fairly familiar with this particular piece of vacant land. In 2016, while Mr. Lucero was still a commissioner, he and fellow commissioner Steve Wadley selected this same County-owned parcel as the site for a $28 million “justice center” — and then spent a tidy sum developing architectural plans for the future facility. One of the drawings looked like this:
But as it turned out, the site posed numerous problems as the location for a justice center, including terrain issues — and a deed restriction that allowed any type of government building except a justice center.
Later that year, downtown resident Ronnie Maez was elected to assume Mr. Lucero’s seat on the BOCC — Mr. Lucero had been term limited — and the BOCC subsequently decided to propose a smaller facility uptown in Harman Park. Thus leaving the parcel on Hot Springs Boulevard vacant, and without a meaningful purpose. Temporarily.
Daily Post readers who’ve followed us since 2010, meanwhile, may remember this same parcel as the proposed site for the The Pavilion at Pagosa Springs.
In the final months of 2010, outgoing commissioner Bob Moomaw negotiated a secret, back-room deal with his two fellow commissioners — John Ranson and Clifford Lucero — that would allow a non-profit organization headed by his wife, Janis Moomaw, to lease the 4.8-acre Hot Springs Boulevard property and erect a performance tent there, with the purported purpose of producing “Country Music concerts.” The lease, however, would have allowed The Pavilion at Pagosa Springs to use the property for “any lawful purpose.”
You can find the proposed Pavilion lease as a link in this Daily Post article from January 2011.
The hearing at which the Pavilion lease was to be discussed was one of the best attended BOCC meetings I’d ever been to, and it began with a surprise. Ms. Moomaw stepped up to the podium and addressed her initial comments to two of the three commissioners seated on the dais.
“I would like to thank commissioners Lucero and Ranson for your support and willingness to make The Pavilion at Pagosa Springs happen, because of the economic and cultural benefits to our community. With that said…”
Ms. Moomaw gave an audible sigh.
“…The Pavilion at Pagosa Springs requests you pull the proposed lease you have before you. The Pavilion made the decision not to pursue the lease because of the following reasons:
“Negative publicity…
“Distortions…
“Not the full support of the commission…
“The community was being torn apart by misinformation…
“Not being able to function to raise money, due to unreasonable restrictions by other businesses and non-profits in town.”
Ms. Moomaw had a good point, about the misinformation part. The lease negotiation process had involved a healthy dose of misinformation — as well as secret meetings, promises made and broken, and an almost complete absence of government transparency.
“The Pavilion will continue to follow our vision, but we will take a different path. We’ve had the offer of two pieces of private property. One piece is downtown, and the other is in Pagosa Lakes. By putting the venue on private property, we will have the freedom to grow into a successful site, for the benefit of local businesses and all of our residents.”
“Thank you very much, especially to all of you who wrote letters of support and encouragement.”
In fact, The Pavilion at Pagosa Springs, Inc. never did develop a venue on any private property. Ms. Moomaw and her husband Bob moved away, and I presume the non-profit organization Ms. Moomaw had been heading withered away from lack of leadership.
We now have another community group eager for a long-term lease of public land, and with a worthy purpose in mind. The BOCC packet for this afternoon’s 1:30pm meeting includes a resolution that would lease about half the 4.9-acre parcel to the Archuleta County Housing Authority, for 99 years, for $1 per year.
You can download the BOCC packet information here.
And here’s the map from the packet, showing the County’s 4.9-acre parcel on the east side of Hot Springs Boulevard, and the Town Hall and Community Center to the west.
The 2.5 acres on the north side of the parcel is the most buildable portion of the parcel, and the proposed subdivision — to be discussed at today’s BOCC meeting — would leave the County controlling the remaining 2.3 acres. A sloping 2.3 acres with terrain challenges.
From the “Summary of Proposal for ACHA LIHTC Project” as included in today’s packet:
The ACHA proposes to build multi-family affordable housing on the 2.5 acres as a Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) project, authorized by the United States in the Internal Revenue Code. Under the Code, LIHTC projects are overseen by state agencies, in Colorado the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA). LIHTC tax credits are available in limited volume, less than total demand, and are allocated by CHFA among proposed low income housing projects based on comarative merit under criteria that are beyond the scope of this memo but, in general, are intended to maximize the delivery of affordable housing.
This might be a great community project, worthy of public support. I think we all know, by now, that Pagosa Springs has an ongoing housing crisis. The ACHA project could conceivably be a step in the right direction.
We will see, today, how the BOCC feels about the proposal.