The town of Pagosa Springs and the surrounding county experienced incredible growth — as measured in “annual percentage” — between 1990 and 2000. The people who made a living measuring things like “annual growth rates” informed us that Archuleta County had one of the more impressive population growth rates in Colorado, even in the US as a whole. Of course, “percent growth” can also be put in perspective, when you note that between 1990 and 2000, our county increased its population by less than 5,000 people, while the City of Denver — with a much more modest “growth rate” — increased its population by 90,000 during the same period.
But still, for a town located in the middle of nowhere, without any significant industry other than tourism, the growth in Archuleta County was remarkable.
I mention these numbers because the governments here in Pagosa — the Town, the County, and the numerous other tax-funded agencies — did very little to cause this growth to take place. In fact, the actions of our local governments might have hindered the growth rate, because it was already becoming apparent by 2000 that the tax-funded entities were struggling to keep up with maintenance of our existing infrastructure. The roads were a particularly challenging maintenance issue, causing the County government, in 2005, to declare that they could afford to maintain only the “primary roads” and would no longer be making even an attempt to care for the “secondary roads”.
The Board of County Commissioners published an official map showing which roads would be considered “secondary”.
But maybe they didn’t really mean what they said? The following year, the BOCC placed a tax increase proposal on the ballot — Ballot Measure 1A — asking the voters to ‘de-Bruce’ the County government for a period of 5 years — and focus a portion of the money on roads. The tax increase passed by a significant margin, but at the end of the five years, the county roads seemed to be in pretty much the same marginal condition. (The notable exceptions were certain outlying Metro Districts, where road maintenance was being funded by permanent mill levies and managed by someone other than County Road & Bridge.)
One of the financial problems facing communities like Archuleta County is the fact that, in Colorado, residential homes pay a much lower property tax rate than vacant land does. Within the 21 square miles of the Pagosa Lakes subdivisions, for example, a vacant lot worth $70,000 has an assessed tax value of about $20,000 ($70,000 x .29). Put a $330,000 home on that same property — for a total land and home value of $400,000 — and the assessed tax value increases only marginally, to about $28,000. ($400,000 x .07)
But vacant land requires almost no community services. Vacant land generates no wear-and-tear on the roads. Vacant land requires no law enforcement, no water or sewer services, no fire district protection, no public schools, no library, no recreational trails, no ‘economic development’.
Put a house on that vacant land, and suddenly all of these services are required… and expected… and, dare we say, complained about. Which is to say — from the perspective of property tax collections — population growth is about the worst possible thing that can happen in Archuleta County.
Now, take that same $70,000 parcel — typically measuring, in the Pagosa Lakes area, maybe 3 acres — and imagine it were zoned ‘R22.’ There is no ‘R22’ zoning in unincorporated Archuleta County, but there are several areas within the Town of Pagosa Springs zoned R22. A vacant parcel zoned R22 (in town) is allowed 22 dwelling units per acre. So our 3-acre parcel (if it were downtown) could theoretically accommodate 66 dwelling units. If each dwelling unit were worth $200,000, then we could put $13.2 million worth of housing on a 3-acre parcel.
The developed $400,000 parcel, in Pagosa Lakes, pays maybe $2,100 in property taxes. A 66-unit housing complex built on the same vacant lot would require considerably more services, and would have more impact on the roads, but it would also generate $69,000 in property taxes annually.
I mean, like, 30 times as much tax revenue.
Back in Part Two of this editorial series, I suggested that our community leadership has — unintentionally, of course – helped to create a situation over the past five decades that discourages property taxes. The numbers I just shared, above, help explain what I mean.
I’m curious about issues like this, because I was recently appointed to the Town Planning Commission, and I’ve been learning about how the activity known as “planning” takes place within the confines of a local government. “Planning” as a key government activity didn’t really get started in Archuleta County until about the year 2000, and our population growth rate has never been the same since. (As suggested above, maybe that’s a really good thing.) But while our population growth rate has been less impressive since 2000, the tourism industry has been bursting at the seams, so to speak.
So, two photographs. The first one, I shared on Tuesday, showing a “pedestrian-friendly” street in Vienna, Austria. In this photo, we see six-story buildings with retail and commercial on the ground floor, and — presumably — apartments on the top floors. The density of people, the historical development patterns, the architectural traditions, plus the government policies, make this an “authentic” walkable community.
No doubt some of the people in the photo above are tourists. But I assume the photo also includes some “authentic” Viennese residents, on their way to work, or to school, or to some other authentic destination.
I’ve also shared a couple of photos in this editorial series showing a completely non-authentic place: Disneyland, in Anaheim, CA.
Here’s the crowded and very walkable “Main Street USA” just inside the entry gates.
Main Street USA was inspired by Walt Disney’s childhood in Marceline, Missouri, between 1906 and 1911, and it’s designed to resemble an idealized turn-of-the-20th-century American town. According to artist Harper Goff, who created some of the original concept drawings for Disneyland, he showed Walt some photos of his childhood home of Fort Collins, Colorado and Walt liked the look — with the result that certain Colorado features were incorporated into Main Street USA.
A quote from Walt Disney, born in 1901:
“For those of us who remember the carefree time it recreates, Main Street will bring back happy memories. For younger visitors, it is an adventure in turning back the calendar to the days of their grandfather’s youth.”
What kind of Main Street are we hoping for, here in Pagosa Springs?