The Thingamajig Theater Company, in residence at the Pagosa Springs Center for the Arts, has sunk its foundations deeper into the community. Already recognized locally and nationally for its highly professional stage productions, children’s theater programs, and free concerts, the Theater is in the process of completing its own house to accommodate its actors and staff…
— from the Pagosa Springs Center for the Arts website, May 4, 2017.
Some members of the Pagosa Springs Area Tourism Board expressed dismay, at their July 21 meeting, that the Town Planning Commission would make suggestions about re-directing Lodgers Tax revenues to address the (worsening?) housing crisis in Archuleta County. How was it within the purview of a Planning Commission, some members asked, to make recommendations for addressing a community problem… with money that is supposedly controlled by the Tourism Board?
Not all of the Tourism Board felt insulted, however. Only a few did.
A few other members suggested that, considering the crisis, the Tourism Board might actually want to support the Planning Commission’s recommendation. That the Tourism Board and staff have done a great job of attracting tourists, and maybe it’s a good time to switch things up a little.
Considering the worsening situation, on the housing side of the equation.
And the ‘over-capacity’ situation, on the tourism side of the equation.
Can we all work together on this?
Here’s Tourism Board member Mona Cayard, at the July 21 meeting:
“Here’s my thing. I mean, we’ve been having a lot of discussions. But I don’t see it going anywhere. So that’s my question. Who is going to help move this forward? I mean, we can meet every week, and we can have this same discussion over and over again. But it’s not getting us anywhere.”
Town Manager Andrea Phillips:
“Just so you all are aware, Dr. Webb — she’s the CEO at the hospital — they’re probably going to be asking folks to come to a meeting, and kind of just forming… I guess a consortium? — that would… with maybe one representative from the different stakeholders. So that might be a format?
“I think the other avenue is certainly going to the Town…”
Ms. Phillips laughed and looked across the table at Mayor Don Volger, sitting next to County Commissioner Ronnie Maez, and offered a quick apology for suggesting that the Town Council should treated to yet another set of conflicting opinions…
“Sorry, Don!”
Then she continued.
“…Going to the Town and the County with your ideas, and recommendations…”
Ms. Cayard:
“Well, this… I agree… but here, we have the [Community Development Corporation] having a discussion, you’ve got the Chamber having discussions, you’ve got the Tourism Board having discussions. Everybody is having these individual discussions, to address a problem. No one is getting into the same room, talking, and coming up with one centralized plan or something of that nature. That is what the disconnect is, that I’m seeing. Everybody is kind of in their own little silo. But we’re not having one centralized meeting, and saying, ‘This is what we need to do, as a community.’
Ms. Phillips:
“And coming up with a strategic plan…”
Interesting ideas.
The Town Council already has a strategic plan, adopted in 2019. A group of local volunteers called Pagosa Housing Partners contracted with an affordable housing consultant from Crested Butte, Willa Williford, and developed a 54-page strategic plan which the Town Council then accepted as its guiding document.
As far as I know, this is the only strategic housing plan that’s been developed, and adopted, in the Pagosa Springs community. The plan was rejected, however, by the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners, for whatever reasons.
One of the key aspects of the “Roadmap to Affordable Housing” — did I mention that the Town Council adopted it in 2019? — focused on finances.
Money.
Where will the money come from, to solve this crisis? We know that the County government was willing to spend $20 million to provide housing for alleged criminals, and offices for judges, in the new, state-of-the-art Fred Harman Law Enforcement Complex. We can appreciate the fact that criminals need housing, although we may not all agree that they need the most expensive housing in the community.
We also know that the Town government was willing to spend $5 million to build a brand new maintenance complex, to house their street sweeper and park maintenance equipment. And again, we can all appreciate the need to properly house expensive vehicles and equipment.
We’re a bit confused, however, about whether to spend money to help house the actual people who keep our economy running. We’re confused, because we’ve been spending tax money to grow our economy, thinking it would make life better in Pagosa Springs — and it actually turned out just the opposite. We see more and more people suffering, without places to live. Unless they are tourists. A tourist family, coming to Pagosa, has literally hundreds of housing options.
We can pretty well accept, I think, that the construction industry in Archuleta County is not, by itself, going to solve the workforce housing crisis. Private companies are formed to earn private profit, and the profit is right now in $500,000 homes.
We can pretty well accept, I think, that our County government is not going to solve the workforce housing crisis. They have still more County facilities to build.
That sort of leaves us with a few groups, that might be willing to help out.
The willing partners, with access to money, include the Town government, the Medical Center, the School District, and local non-profits like Habitat for Humanity, the Archuleta County Housing Authority, and Pagosa Housing Partners. The access to money is not evenly distributed among these public-service organizations, and some (like the Medical Center) are already burdened with heavy debt burdens.
But we’re forgetting one important group. Pagosa businesses, that can create housing for employees.
Thingamajig Theatre Company was a pioneer in this area, when they built the ‘Actors House’ on Aspenglow Boulevard in 2017. Unable to find affordable housing for their large summer season casts and crew, Tim and Laura Moore contracted with local builder Tim Brown to create a ‘group home’ — something like a college dorm — to accommodate the mostly-young actors through the summer months.
Once the house was built, volunteers from the community — fans of Thingamajig Theatre — helped finish the interior, landscape the grounds, and bring in and set up the furniture and appliances.
Pagosa has a huge supply of potential volunteers, for those who can find a way to motivate them.
We’re watching a slightly different effort taking place on Lewis Street this summer, (but without the volunteers), as the Springs Resort works at remodeling an office building into multi-unit employee housing…
The wave of the future?