Read Part One
As planners, we are uniquely positioned to lead our communities in times of crisis. You will be asked to continue with your long range planning and policy making while still ensuring that the wheels of great development move forward…
– from a March 20 email from American Planning Association president Michelle Stephens, AICP
For the past couple of weeks, the three of us — downtown residents Glenn Walsh, Greg Giehl and myself — have been going door-to-door in the downtown Pagosa neighborhoods, circulating a petition among registered Town voters.
The reception, even during a global pandemic, has been overwhelmingly welcoming. Numerous people — in many cases, fellow town residents whom we ‘d never met before — have invited us into their homes to listen to a short presentation, and to sign the petitions. Many more have come out on their porches to discuss the issue.
Here’s what I’ve experienced, thus far, while going door-to-door in Pagosa during a worldwide health crisis: a surprisingly open and friendly community, and an overwhelming lack of fear, of strangers.
The Pagosa Springs Home Rule Charter allows ordinary citizens to petition issues onto the ballot, and the particular issue that will appear on a special election ballot in July — should our petition drive be successful — will be a proposed amendment to the same Home Rule Charter, expanding the rights of Town voters.
We’ve created an informational website to explain our petition, which you can view at FairTaxes4Pagosa.com. (Voters living outside the Town limits, in the unincorporated county, will not have a chance to vote on this Charter amendment.)
Last summer, a couple of developers — Springs Resort partner David Dronet, and local businessman Jack Searle — approached the Pagosa Springs Town Council with a request for up to $79.6 million in refunded taxes over a 25-year period, to help fund a subdivision development on 27 acres of vacant land south and west of the Springs Resort. You can read about that proposal here.
After considering and discussing the Springs Resort proposal for a couple of months, the Town Council held a public meeting in November and — following a presentation by Town Planner James Dickhoff, explaining why 27 vacant riverfront acres ought to be defined as “dangerously blighted” — the Council voted 4-3 to create a new layer of government — an Urban Renewal Authority — that would be able to provide millions of dollars in long-term tax incentives to projects like the one proposed by Mr. Dronet and Mr. Searle.
The key tool for any future “urban renewal” tax give-aways would be Tax Increment Financing (TIF). TIF schemes have been used all over America to redirect municipal taxes into the pockets of wealthy developers.
Many people had voiced their opposition to the Urban Renewal Authority at the November Town Council meeting, including representatives from the several local government entities who would see their tax collections diminished by future “URA projects”. The Town Council had the option to allow extensive representation on the URA commission by those same local entities, but instead created a commission dominated by the Town Council itself.
Of course, all of this URA business took place before anyone had heard of COVID-19… and before global oil prices fell to $20 a barrel… and before global stock markets dropped, and dropped, and dropped, with markets worldwide losing $9 trillion in value in a matter of nine days.
Before General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler temporarily closed all their US factories “due to the coronavirus.”
Before international borders were closed, and every spare roll of toilet paper disappeared into hoarders’ closets.
I suppose the chances are probably fairly slim that Mr. Dronet and Mr. Searle will move ahead with a $180 million resort expansion during 2020, considering the general direction the US economy seems to be headed at the moment. But Glenn and Greg and I are moving ahead with our Home Rule petition, because it’s not specific to any particular development proposal. The Urban Renewal Authority (URA) created by the Town Council in November is now a permanent fixture here in Archuleta County. Unlike viral pandemics, URAs are designed to last forever. Our children and grandchildren will be dealing with “economic development” proposals long after the COVID-19 scare has passed.
Here’s our proposed ballot issue:
The foregoing amendment to the Town of Pagosa Springs Home Rule Charter is sought to be submitted at a special election. The approximate date of the special election would be July 14, 2020:
“Any proposal by the Town Council or by the Pagosa Springs Urban Renewal Authority to use Tax Increment Financing (TIF) must first be approved by the Town electors whenever the total TIF revenues are expected to exceed $1 million ($1,000,000) over the life of the project.”
We’ve been handing out information cards that suggest two possible reasons for these types of TIF schemes.
“Economic Development?”
“Corporate Welfare?”
Greg, Glenn and I are volunteers, in this particular instance. No one is paying us to circulate a petition. None of us expect to profit from a successful election. We’re just three downtown residents interested in taxpayer fairness.
I’m also serving currently on the Town Planning Commission, and I’m excited by a new sense of enthusiasm that’s sprouted up on the commission in recent weeks. The seven commissioners are hoping to meet face-to-face with the Town Council in the near future to jointly define some planning priorities for the next couple of years.
Earlier this month, the Planning Commission voted to suggest to the Council three urgent priorities, to which a “planning” commission could reasonably — and perhaps effectively — apply their expertise, volunteer time, and research abilities.
Affordable Housing.
Parking regulations and policies.
And a community-led plan for 26 vacant acres just south of Yamaguchi Park that, until recently, belonged to the Town Sanitation District and featured three large sewer lagoons. The vacant lagoon site, just east of the Pagosa Springs High School baseball fields, has been transferred to the Town government and could be utilized, we assume, for some type of mixed use development. Assuming someone had the money for such an ambitious undertaking. But the financial forecast at the moment seems a bit… stormy.
The current question is: how shall we plan for the next few months?
“You will be asked to continue with your long range planning and policy making while still ensuring that the wheels of great development move forward…”