About three years ago, a newly-formed non-profit called Pagosa Housing Partners (PHP) began organizing monthly meetings of local housing agencies — Habitat for Humanity, Archuleta Housing Corporation, HomesFund, Housing Solutions for the Southwest, Archuleta County Housing Authority, the Town of Pagosa Springs, Rise Above Violence — with the hope of sharing ideas about the worsening housing crisis in Archuleta County. The group became known as the Pagosa Springs Housing Coalition, and eventually came under the leadership of the Town Planning Department, which had been cooperating rather closely with local housing agencies on the growing problem.
(Disclosure: I currently serve on the PHP board of directors.)
The Coalition held one of its bimonthly meetings yesterday and heard updates from the Town Planning Department, HomesFund, Archuleta Housing Corporation, Habitat for Humanity, Risa Above Violence, and Pagosa Housing Partners.
Part of the Planning Department presentation touched on the ‘density bonus’ recommendation that I briefly mentioned yesterday in Part Four. The Town Planning Commission, this week, recommended that the Pagosa Springs Inn & Suites — one of our larger uptown motels — be permitted to convert all of its motel rooms into long-term rental units.
Some folks might wonder why a motel would propose such a change, when all of the evidence points to record numbers of visitors to Pagosa Springs in 2020 and 2021.
We have been hearing that our lodging industry — that is to say, our traditional hotels and motels — have been significantly affected by Archuleta County’s fast-growing vacation rental industry, in a couple of ways. For one, the middle-class families who typically visit Pagosa Springs are choosing to stay in vacation rentals rather than in motels. And for another, the disappearance of workforce housing — as homes are converted into vacation rental units — seems to have affected price of real estate, the market rental rates, and the general availability of long-term rentals, meaning that our hotels and motels are struggling to find employees.
Is it possible that a Pagosa motel can now be more profitable, by switching to long-term rentals?
It appears that the Pagosa Springs Inn & Suites — if approved for this project by the Town Council — would be sold to a new owner, and would become a mix of apartment unit types…
21 studio apartments (including 6 deed-restricted units)
62 one-bedroom apartments (including 16 deed-restricted units)
11 two-bedroom apartments (including 2 deed restricted units)
and 4 three-bedroom apartments
…with all units complying with the International Building Code regarding minimum room sizes. All units under 400 square feet in size would include access to a secure personal storage closet at a minimum of 200 cubic feet in size.
From the Town Planning Commission agenda:
Resident amenities on the property will include a small fitness room, bike cleaning/maintenance station, Outside sitting area with BBQs, garden area and 200 cubic foot storage closets for units under 400 square feet in size. The applicant has mentioned the possibility of small – medium dogs being allowed in the ground floor units.
The Town’s Density Bonus policy was adopted in April 2021 to stimulate housing supply with the stated outcome that units must be reserved for local workforce. Town Council may, at its discretion and upon a recommendation from the Planning Commission, consider an increase (bonus) to the number of housing units (density) permitted on a lot by the underlying zoning district or overlay district.
The Town Planning Department and the Town Planning Commission very recently proposed changes to the Town Land Use and Development Code (LUDC) and those changes were adopted by the Town Council. One change concerned the minimum size for units in a multi-family apartment building (such as the PS Inn & Suites might become) and the other change allowed for a 50% density bonus if a portion of the apartment units were offered as ‘workforce housing’ units for at least 7 years.
This changes, made a few weeks ago, seem to fit perfectly with the proposal now being made by the Pagosa Springs Inn & Suites. As if the new rules were ‘custom made’, you might almost say.
The deed restricted units would be rented out according to the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority ‘affordable housing’ limits. For seven years. After seven years, all units could be rented out at market rates.
This is all dependent upon Town Council approval, of course. Town Council will consider the Planning Commission’s recommendation and staff report on September 7.
As I mentioned, this project was summarized for the Pagosa Springs Housing Coalition yesterday.
The Coalition also discussed a different but related topic: the inability of working families and individuals to purchase single-family homes in Archuleta County. There are a few key reasons why a working family cannot purchase a single-family home here.
1. The houses that were available in 2019 and 2020 have been largely snapped up by vacation rental companies.
2. The shortage of houses caused by the vacation rental industry conversions and other market factors has resulted in inflated home prices.
3. The COVID pandemic has played havoc with the cost of construction materials and the availability of workers.
4. The Pagosa construction industry got hammered by the Great Recession, and many construction trade employees left town, or switched careers, and the industry has not been able to replace those workers. And even if workers were willing to come here, they couldn’t afford the cost of housing.
It’s a dilemma.
One question for our community leaders is: Do you want to address the problem in an aggressive manner? Or do you want to sit back and see if the ‘market’ can heal the community?
Because, so far, the ‘market’ has been doing exactly the opposite of healing us.