Looking out on the rolling hills of Archuleta County this spring morning — lush green grass dusted with fresh snow from the latest storm — it’s easy to forget that, just last summer, our water district was considering onerous “drought mitigation” fees, while the sky adamantly refused to deliver precipitation… and the river dropped to its lowest level in almost two decades.
What a difference a wet year can make.
Last night, I attended a special ‘ behind scene look at the rehearsal process’ the Pagosa Springs Center for the Arts. Thingamajig Theatre Company’s season ticket holders were invited to their first ‘wine and cheese’ gathering of the summer season, where they had a chance to watch director Chris Willard and choreographer Pia Wyatt put the cast of Mamma Mia! through their singing, dancing paces. (The opening nights for Mamma Mia! are May 31 and June 1.)
Following the event, I had a chance to chat, in the theatre lobby, with local gardening expert Ron Chacey — about the weather, of course; something very important to gardeners, farmers and ranchers. The conversation took some interesting twists and turns, as it usually does when you’re talking to Ron Chacey, and we came around to what the deer, our numerous deer, might be eating this year.
Especially, what they might be eating out of Pagosa gardens, much to the dismay of the gardeners.
Ron noted that he’d not yet seen any fawns yet, and he proposed that we might not see too many fawns this year due to the drought last year and the lack of nutritious vegetation. It was Ron’s belief that, when food is scarce, female deer will tend to skip ovulation as part of a natural process. Thus, we would see very few baby fawns this spring and summer.
Here’s a similar opinion taken from a study titled Mule Deer Management in Texas, published by the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department a number of years ago:
Deer herd nutrition, as it relates to reproduction, is important to the land manager. Successful breeding depends largely upon the doe’s health during the rut. The ovulation rate is strongly affected by the doe’s level of nutrition and physical condition just prior to and during the rutting period. The doe’s nutritional condition during gestation has an effect upon the size and survival of fawns at birth.
So Mr. Chacey may have an accurate reading of the situation, during a rather wet spring that follows a drought-stricken autumn.
The wine and cheese event at PSCA wasn’t my only activity yesterday, however. I also had a chance to attend an afternoon meeting of a local committee headed up by Pagosa Area Chamber of Commerce director Mary Jo Coulehan. The committee is studying the new ‘Opportunity Zone’ tax deferral program created by the US Congress in late 2017, as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. We wrote about that program in a previous Daily Post editorial. The basic idea behind the legislation was to attract beneficial investments in poor communities or neighborhoods, by wealthy folks with large capital gains tax liabilities. By making these investments, the wealthy investors would owe less tax on their capital gains, while the communities would benefit from economically potent projects that might not happen otherwise.
The Opportunity Zone committee is currently working on a ‘prospectus’ to be shared online and as a print brochure, to let those wealthy investors — whoever they might be — know about the exciting opportunities awaiting them in Archuleta County. About half the county has been defined as an Opportunity Zone, although it happens to be the half that has the least amount of existing residents and businesses.
Several of the folks most interested in working on the prospectus are hoping that Opportunity Zone financing can help promote the creation of affordable and work force housing — something lacking and sorely needed in nearly every Colorado community.
A gentleman named Jeff Kraft, from the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT), joined us for the Opportunity Zone discussion yesterday. (Mr. Kraft will be delivering a lecture on economic development and funding assistance today, Wednesday May 22, at 11:30am at the Pagosa Springs Arts Council building on Navajo Drive. This “Economic Outlook Luncheon” costs $30, and I believe you needed advance reservations in order to attend.)
From a recent Facebook announcement:
The Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade is pleased to announce our new Business Finance and Incentives (BF&I) Director – Jeff Kraft. As the new BF&I Director, Jeff will be responsible for administering all business funding and incentive programs, aligning the BF&I programs with OEDIT’s overall strategy in order to maximize the retention, expansion and relocation of businesses across the state, and for integrating OEDIT’s business funding and incentive programs with statewide partners.
During the Opportunity Zone discussion, Mr. Kraft noted that — based on what he knows about Pagosa Springs — investors might very well be attracted to housing development projects here, based on our ongoing population growth and especially, perhaps, based on the spiraling prices for real estate in Archuleta County. If an investor can expect to double his or her investment after holding (and improving) a residential property over the next ten years… (The Opportunity Zone program requires the investor to retain ownership of the project for at least ten years…)
… and then sell the property and pay no capital gains tax…
… well, wouldn’t that seem like a great investment? While also providing much-needed housing for the workers in the community?
Perhaps the authors of the potential prospectus will push that idea.
Except for one little problem, I think. The tendency of wealthy and moderate-income individuals to view residential property as financial investments — rather than viewing residential property as necessary shelter for a healthy community — is probably the main reason we have a worsening housing crisis in the first place. And probably the main reason rural Colorado communities are having so much trouble attracting young, healthy workers.
Trying to fix the problem, with the wrong solution, we can easily make the situation worse.