At the conclusion of their regular meeting yesterday afternoon, June 18, the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners — Ronnie Maez, Steve Wadley and Alvin Schaaf — came out of an executive session and voted unanimously to enter into a lawsuit concerning a Timber Ridge subdivision road known as Bristlecone Drive. The commissioners specifically requested County attorney Todd Weaver to request a declaratory judgement from the courts defining a 1,400-foot stretch of Bristlecone as a public road, open to all users.
The lawsuit has been sparked, it would seem, by signs posted on one segment of Bristlecone Drive, by the Timber Ridge Homeowners Association, warning drivers:
“Private Road-No Trespassing”
Public use of Bristlecone Drive has been the subject of controversy for several years now, due largely to the fact that garbage trucks and other commercial vehicles often use Bristlecone to access Trujillo Road from Highway 160, and according to Timber Ridge residents, these vehicles do not always abide by posted speed limits.
Immediately following the commissioners’ vote to initiate a lawsuit, the next item on the BOCC agenda was “Public Comment.”
BOCC chair Ronnie Maez opened the floor to public comment “not related to anything on the agenda.” A gentleman named David Campbell stepped up to the podium.
“My question is, in the motion that you just made and approved, because you said Bristlecone… and I think there’s only a certain section of Bristlecone that’s in question? In my opinion, you should amend your motion to address the 1,400 feet that’s in question.”
Commissioner Maez asked attorney Weaver to respond.
Todd Weaver: “I can address that. The only part in controversy right now is the 1,400 feet. And that’s what the intent of the motion was to address… because the rest of Bristlecone, through the different phases, has been dedicated to the public. The only part that has not, and is in dispute, is in Phase Five.”
Mr. Campbell thanked the attorney for the clarification.
The audience at the June 18 meeting had included perhaps a dozen Timber Ridge homeowners, who subsequently gathered outside the County Administration Building following the meeting to discuss the BOCC decision. As I walked past the group, I heard someone utter the term “our attorney…”
John Finefrock, reporter for the Pagosa Springs SUN, had written a mildly informative story about the controversy back in early May, but unfortunately had obtained interviews to County government officials only, which created what might be considered an incomplete account of a rather complicated issue. (According to Mr. Finefrock’s article, Timber Ridge HOA president Linda Rigney was contacted by the SUN, but had declined to comment.)
From Mr. Finefrock’s article:
[Attorney] Weaver explained that in 1999, an 80-foot easement along Bristlecone Drive was dedicated to the public from Timber Ridge. The easement was set to automatically expire once Timber Ridge submitted a final subdivision plat map for approval to the Archuleta County Board of County Commissioners.
Timber Ridge submitted a 35-acre survey of the subdivision that never came to the county commissioners for approval.
“This [final subdivision plat map] never came before the board for approval, so this does not qualify as a final subdivision plat. So, this easement granted in 1999 is still in effect,” said Weaver. “So, they cannot put those signs up.”
Commissioner Ron Maez explained in a follow-up call that people use Bristlecone as a shortcut to get to the landfill or to go into downtown Pagosa Springs.
“People use [Bristlecone] to get to town, too, especially when the traffic’s high up here in north Pagosa or on Highway 160, because it does get pretty crowded out there in front of Walmart,” said Maez. “So, a lot of people go down through South Pagosa Boulevard, then turn and go into Timber Ridge and come out on Trujillo Road and come into town that way…”
If I’m not mistaken, Commissioner Ronnie Maez lives on Trujillo Road (County Road 500)… close to downtown, and perhaps two miles north of where Bristlecone runs into Trujillo. That would suggest that at least one commissioner is familiar with the complexity of the situation.
I haven’t driven on Bristlecone myself, for quite a few months. The last time I visited the Colorado Timber Ridge Ranch subdivision was back in September 2018, when I was writing about this same frustrating issue.
The Archuleta Board of County Commissioners spent considerable time, back in 2016, discussing the Trujillo Road access problems with County staff and with the residents of the Pagosa Meadows subdivision. The problem had come to the forefront of everyone’s attention, as the result of a proposal by C&J Gravel to open a new gravel pit south of the County landfill on Trujillo Road. This gravel operation, if approved, would have generated considerable truck traffic between Trujillo Road and US Highway 160.
There are three primary roadways connecting CR 500 and US 160: South 8th Street in downtown Pagosa; Bristlecone Drive through the Timber Ridge subdivision; and South Pagosa Boulevard/ Buttress Avenue/ Cascade Avenue through the Meadows subdivision.
Any of these routes would have sent gravel trucks through residential neighborhoods, and the BOCC ultimately rejected the C&J Gravel Pit application, based on the lack of suitable connectivity between CR 500 and US Highway 160. (You can read about that controversy in this Daily Post article.)
But the conversation about Buttress and Cascade Avenue continued, because that unpaved roadway was already undergoing heavy traffic from garbage trucks and various other haulers headed from Pagosa’s core population areas to the County landfill down Trujillo Road. The conversation focused largely on Cascade Avenue, because that particular road easement had been granted to Archuleta County by the Alpine Cascade Ranch, with an agreement that no commercial truck traffic would be allowed to use that road.
Those conversations led to a new County ordinance — No. 17-2016 — that specifically prohibited ‘through traffic’ on Cascade Avenue. But enforcing a “through traffic only” rule is tricky, especially for a chronically understaffed Sheriff’s Office. Further discussions led to a modification of Ordinance 17-2016, prohibiting large commercial trucks from using Cascade Avenue based more simply upon ‘weight restrictions.’ The ordinance also set a speed limit on Cascade.
The intention of this ordinance, we might assume, was three-fold. The BOCC wanted to honor the original agreement with Alpine Cascade Ranch. The BOCC wanted to limit the damage to the subdivision’s gravel roads caused by high-speed truck traffic. And the BOCC wanted to limit the amount of air-borne dust caused by high-speed trucks. As I recall, the residents living on Cascade were generally pleased with the decision.
The unintended effect, however, was to cause the larger, over-weight trucks to use Bristlecone Drive instead.
Larger, over-weight trucks that cause damage to subdivision roads.
Frustrating. For everyone.