Well over 100 people attended the Tuesday morning Archuleta Board of County Commissioners’ meeting — either via Zoom, or seated in the Commissioners’ meeting room, or standing out in the freezing (but sunny) weather watching the meeting on a large portable computer screen stationed outside the Administration Building on Lewis Street.
A few socially-distanced members of the general public were allowed in the BOCC meeting room — several lodging owners and one realtor.
Only two of our three well-paid County Commissioners were able to attend the work session in person and properly socially-distanced — Warren Brown and Ronnie Maez. I don’t know why Commissioner Alvin Schaaf was not in attendance. (I didn’t see his name among the Zoom participants.)
I spent the first part of the BOCC meeting standing outside the building with a handful of motel owners, watching on a large computer screen, and listening via a speaker system. The BOCC had gone beyond the call of duty to make sure the public was accommodated for this particular work session, even though no decisions were being made during the meeting.
Fortunately, my home is located only one block away from BOCC’s Lewis Street offices, so I rushed home (where it was warmer) to watch the remainder of the work session on my computer.
I recognized a fair number of long-time residents on the Zoom screen — a mix of realtors, vacation rental owners, owners of local hotels and motels, and ordinary citizens who are (generally) not happy with the impacts of our expanding and problematic vacation rental industry in Pagosa Springs. The only people speaking in favor of lightly-regulated and modestly-taxed vacation rentals were the folks directly profiting from the industry: STR owners (Short-Term Rentals) and Realtors.
No one outside of those two groups spoke in support of our current Archuleta County regulations and enforcement. But just as water runs uphill towards money, so do government policies and regulations. Generally speaking.
As local realtor Lauri Heraty pointed out during public comment, we had not seen this much interest in a local government decision since the controversy around the South 5th Street Bridge proposal.
The BOCC began the discussion by inviting a couple of motel owners to provide their perspective. The first to speak was Mona Cayard, owner of the High Country Lodge, located northeast of downtown Pagosa.
“For many of the lodgers here, it’s not an issue of short-term rentals, because we are not against businesses operating in the community. What we want is a balance, where there is affordable housing, for the workforce. And we’re noticing that [short-term rentals] have created a problem, because our employees are unable to find places to live int eh community. And many of the lodgers are actually taking rooms out of operation to provide places for their employees to stay, because either, one, they can’t afford [the rent] or, two, they are getting kicked out of their current places because the owners want to convert them to short-term rentals.
“I have a couple of employees I’m having to house, because of that…
“So one of the big things I’ve noticed — and it was presented by the Chamber at their last annual meeting — is the housing crisis in this community. Houses are in high demand… A working person cannot afford a house. An employee who’s making $15-$20 an hour cannot afford a house; they can’t even afford a one-bedroom apartment in this community. Right now, a one-bedroom apartment is running about $850 a month, plus utilities. That’s pretty hefty for a lot of people.
“So we’re seeing three or four people climbing into trailers, into one-bedroom apartments, just to find a place to live. And employees are working two or three jobs so they can afford to live here. That is a big problem…
“I don’t have all the details, but I went to a website called AirDNA, and I got numbers from 2017 through 2020… In 2017, they said the county had 625 active vacation rentals. In the last quarter of 2020, the community had 1,119.”
Ms. Cayard here is referring to the 81147 zip code. You can visit AirDNA here. According to the map on that website, the vast majority of STRs are located in the Pagosa Lakes area, with many more in the downtown area.
Ms. Cayard continued:
“I was just trying to understand how big of a problem this is, in terms of long-term housing options.
“So the biggest need we have as lodgers — and I think the other lodgers will attest — is more affordable housing, available to our workforce. Because if we don’t have places for people to live, we’re not going to be able to attract employees to come to this community… Even people who are buying businesses aren’t able to find a place to live.
“So this is a huge issue.”
At that point in Ms. Cayard’s presentation, one of the County staff was walking among those of us standing in the cold, outside the Administration Building — checking to see if anyone was planning to offer testimony to the commissioners inside the building.
I smiled. “No, thanks. Mona is already saying everything I would have said.”
We already have a crisis. It’s getting worse by the day. The BOCC is seemingly reluctant to take the steps necessary to keep our community viable for our working individuals and families.
Significant steps have already been taken, or are now being taken, in other mountain communities. But not here.
Is it too strong a statement, to assert that STR owners and realtors are destroying the Pagosa Springs we once fell in love with — and the BOCC is allowing that to happen?