It is critically important that owners are fully aware of the purpose of the Association and why one buys into such. The key factor is to protect property values by creating community guidelines by which all stakeholders operate. These governing criteria are what keeps communities like PLPOA aesthetically pleasing, focused on desired amenities and maintaining and enhancing property values…
— from the Pagosa Lakes Property Owners Association 2020 Strategic Plan
If your primarily goal were to “enhance property values”, you might conclude that a pattern of ever-increasing home prices was evidence of success. If that were your primary goal.
If your primary goal were a functional community where businesses are able to find employees and people on fixed incomes were able to put food on their table, you might want to reconsider that conclusion.
I’ve been chatting with a range of Pagosa Springs activists over the past week, because I sense that Pagosa Springs — the small, friendly community we once knew and loved — is facing a difficult future. We’re not exactly living on Death Row… but more like, headed for a hospice care situation, where there’s scant hope for improvement… and every expectation of one’s demise.
The situation is not “hopeless”. Shall we say, “extremely challenging”?
We’ve noted in previous editorials some of the more challenging details. Median home prices that have more than doubled since 2012. The skyrocketing price of construction materials. Young people moving away, unable to find places to live here. 10% of the community’s residential homes already converted to “mini-hotels” — vacation rentals. Government leaders and staff hesitant to try out creative solutions. A community fixated on “enhancing property values.”
We have relatively few industries in our community, and housing construction is one of the largest. Here’s a portion of a new chart I discovered yesterday on the Region 9 Economic Development District website — slightly modified to show some of the more active economic sectors, with the number of people employed in each sector.
Another relatively large industry: Government.
In terms of employment in Archuleta County, government is obviously very important, when we consider all its aspects:
Archuleta County
Town of Pagosa Springs
Pagosa Springs Medical Center
Archuleta School District
Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation
Pagosa Fire Protection District
Upper San Juan Library District
US Forest Service
Numerous local metro districts
Total up all of these government jobs, and “Government” could be classified as one of the the largest “employment sectors” in the community, surpassing tourism, construction, real estate…
And speaking of government… and the disappearance of Pagosa Springs, as we know it… The Town of Pagosa Springs is currently taking input from community activists, concerning the Town’s Land Use and Development Code (LUDC). You can sign up to share your ideas with the consultants from LoganSimpson.
The main objective at this time is to assess the strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities of the existing LUDC through community engagement and stakeholder feedback. The Town and consultant team, LoganSimpson, request your participation in 1-hour long stakeholder interviews that will be held via Zoom March 11 through April 2.
One of the strengths of the Town’s current LUDC is that it specifies relatively transparent approval processes, allowing for public input. Another strength is the protection of public health and safety.
One of the weaknesses of the current LUDC is its failure to promote an economically diverse community, in much the same way the PLPOA Strategic Plan has failed. As the Archuleta County Community Plan — which in some ways, echoes the PLPOA Strategic Plan — has also failed.
We have about 14,000 full-time residents living in Archuleta County (The US Census is still processing the data from last year’s national count.) We have thousands of additional community members who live here only part-time; the exact number is not known. We also see thousands of annual visitors — again, an unknown number — who come for a few days, maybe a few weeks.
About 15% of our full-time residents live within the Town of Pagosa Springs. The developed residential and commercial areas of the Town cover about 3 square miles, and those homes and commercial buildings and vacant lots are regulated by the Town’s LUDC. The LUDC is updated occasionally — a process is usually handled by the Town Planning Department and then approved by the elected Town Council. The residents and property owners living within the Town limits do not normally vote on changes to the LUDC.
The Town government has no authority to guide development outside the Town limits. It has no authority over, for example, the Pagosa Lakes subdivisions.
About 60% of our community lives within the 21-square-mile suburban paradise known as Pagosa Lakes… and are members of the Pagosa Lakes Property Owners Association (PLPOA). I counted 32 different subdivisions listed on their “Declarations of Restrictions” web page — and nearly all of the subdivisions allow for a type of home construction that fits the definition of “suburban single-family homes” as we’ve known them since the 1970s. Many of the PLPOA subdivisions allow for multi-family apartment, and other types of housing that might be considered — in 2021 — to be “affordable workforce housing” in certain parts of the subdivision. One subdivision — Vista — allows mobile homes.
Additional suburban developments are found outside of Pagosa Lakes… and like Pagosa Lakes, are dominated by suburban single-family homes. Let’s call it 30 square miles, of mostly suburban single-family parcels. Recently, the median selling price of those single-family homes has hovered around $400,000 each.
Between 2008 and 2018, our construction industry produced 838 new single-family homes outside of the Town limits.
During that same period, the industry built a total of 5 “multi-family” structures — all duplexes. A total of 10 dwelling units, over a period of 11 years.
Then, we have the Town of Pagosa Springs. About 3 square miles… also largely “zoned” for “single-family homes”… the kind of homes now selling for a median price of $400,000. But almost no one who actually works at a job in Pagosa Springs can afford a $400,000 house. Many local employees are living in their vehicles, or camping out in the national forest. These employees desperately need access to reasonably-priced rental housing — which would most likely be multi-family housing. The kind we are not building.
If there’s any hope of providing new, reasonably-priced rental housing in our community, it appears to me that it will probably be built within the 3 square miles of the town. But, in an effort to preserve the “character” of the town, the current LUDC places (challenging?) aesthetic restrictions on new multi-family construction within the town limits.
Time for a major overhaul of the Town’s land use regulations?