At the Tokyo Olympics yesterday, the US men’s 4X100-meter relay team failed to qualify for the finals, following a flubbed baton hand-off between sprinter Fred Kerley and teammate Ronnie Baker.
Between the second and third leg of the qualifying heat, Kerley tried to hand off the baton, but Baker looked like he was trying to find a light switch in the dark, reaching back and touching Kerley’s shoulder. He reached twice more and missed. Kerley looked perplexed, trying to place the baton into position for Baker to grab.
The US team left the field, following their last-place finish, looking frustrated and embarrassed. Perhaps even angry?
Although it didn’t make the national news, the Pagosa Springs Town Council also flubbed a hand-off on Tuesday evening, August 3, concerning the Short-Term Rental mess in Archuleta County.
The Town Planning Commission, voting unanimously, had made an attempt to hand off a set of new policies, to be adopted by the Council, with the stated aim to ‘cool down’ an overheated real estate market that has seen the conversion of approximately 16% — about one-out-of-six — homes within the Town limits, from residential use into vacation rental use. The percentage of STRs in the unincorporated county appears to be around 8%.
Prior to dropping the baton, however, the Council took a moment to recognize — with an official proclamation — the 50th Anniversary of the Archuleta Housing Corporation, which has been providing low-income and workforce housing in downtown Pagosa Springs, to more than 60 families, since 1971. (Actually, the non-profit corporation was formed in 1971; the first apartment building opened its doors in 1973.)
The Council also took a few minutes to approve a master plan for ‘Yamaguchi South’ — a proposed 21-acre sports-oriented park near Pagosa Springs High School, just south (appropriately enough) of the existing ‘Yamaguchi Park’… and like the existing Yamaguchi Park, composed largely of athletic facilities. As opposed to, say, a wilderness park like Reservoir Hill.
The approved project would look something like this:
The estimated cost of this 21-acre park appears to be $15.6 million.
That includes $400,000 for new pickleball courts, to be constructed in the existing Yamaguchi Park. Over the past couple of years, pickleball has become enormously popular among certain Pagosa retirees and visitors, but not so much among the working folks in the community. A more popular sport among working families seems to be, “looking for a place to live.”
The hand-off of the multi-million-dollar ‘Yamaguchi South’ plan went very smoothly on Tuesday evening, with the Council asking only a couple of minor questions about the design, and then unanimously approving the plan.
No one raised any questions about the $15.6 million cost, or where that amount of money might come from. This was not surprising; the Town Council rarely raises questions about multi-million-dollar projects, when they are proposed by the paid Town staff.
But when a proposal comes from unpaid volunteers — such as, for example, from the Town Planning Commission — the Town Council sometimes flubs the hand-off. As they did on Tuesday evening.
The recommendations from the Planning Commission, dating from July 13:
1. Require a 2-year ownership prior to applying for a short-term rental.
2. Increase the STR license fee by at least a factor of 12 for non-owner-occupied units, with the revenues 100% dedicated to workforce housing.
3. Allow only one STR license per property.
4. Reallocate the Town’s 4.9% Lodgers’ Tax “to the maximum extent possible” to workforce housing.
The fourth item in this list does not directly effect vacation rentals, although we can certainly assume that the vacation rental industry has benefited from the $8.9 million spent jointly by the Town and County governments, since 2007, on tourism promotion.
Here’s Planning Director James Dickhoff, explaining the Planning Commission’s reluctance to recommend density limitations, such as required distances between STRs or caps on the overall number of STRs allowed.
“The Commission briefly discussed STR caps, but in general, as you heard at your work session, they kind of punted that determination to Town Council… Staff believes there are a few ways to consider this, if this is something you want us to pursue. You could look at a town-wide cap, but I think that would result in the STRs being consolidated in the neighborhoods we see most impacted now…
“Separation distances between STRs? We didn’t get into that at the Planning Commission meeting, but what we’ve found, from our research, that it’s not uncommon to see at least 250 feet being required between STR units, and we’ve actually found 500 feet to be a fairly common separation distance, in communities that are requiring a separation distance…”
In my own research, I have yet to come across any other towns in Colorado, which depend heavily on tourism, that have not already put some type of a density limitation on STR development. Pagosa Springs seems to be unique, in allowing unfettered STR development. But as noted, the recommendations from the Planning Commission did not include ‘separation distances’ or ‘caps’.
Typically, a recommendation coming from the Town Planning Commission is accepted by the Town Council and given their official approval. But on Tuesday evening, the Council couldn’t quite get their hands around the baton.
The lion’s share of opposition to the recommendations came from Council member Shari Pierce, who apparently doesn’t believe that any appreciable amount of the community’s long-term rental housing has been converted into vacation rentals. Here’s a short quote from Ms. Pierce:
“Increasing the license fees by this much… I just don’t see any justification for it…
“I still feel, if we do all these things, to push people away from doing Short-Term Rentals, we’re not going to increase the workforce housing. These houses, that people are purposing and using for vacation rentals, are not the kind of homes that our workforce people are going to be able to afford. So I think the whole STR discussion is more about the character of the neighborhoods…”
Notable support for some of the Planning Commission’s proposed limitations, meanwhile, came from Council member Nicole Pitcher — which may have struck some members of the audience as incongruous, considering that Ms. Pitcher is one of the three Council members who owns a short-term rental. (The other two STR operators are Council members Mat deGraaf and Rory Burnett. Mr. deGraaf did not attend the Tuesday meeting. Mr. Burnett engaged in the discussion on Tuesday evening, but then announced his resignation from the Council at the conclusion of the meeting.)
The Council did hear an opinion from Town Attorney Clay Buchner, that Ms. Pitcher and Mr. Burnett were probably not be required, legally, to recuse from the discussion; the ethical decision, whether to recuse, he felt, was properly left up to the individual Council members.
Read Part Two…