Who knew, that owning and operating a Short-Term Rental in Archuleta County — an STR, a vacation rental — could be a source of anguish and heartache?
I certainly had no idea on Wednesday, until I stepped into the evening meeting of the Archuleta County Planning Commission — with no idea whatsoever what was on the meeting agenda — and joined an audience of a half-dozen people, with a few additional folks attending via Zoom.
The first important item of business turned out to be an appeal, asking the Planning Commission to overturn a decision by County Development Director Pamela Flowers — a decision to revoke the STR license for a five-bedroom house and detached garage with a one-bedroom apartment, at 40 Elk Ridge Place, owned by Karen and Dennis Poquiz, who list their address as Arlington, TX.
The home is located in the San Juan River Resort, an upscale subdivision north of town that has basically been overrun by vacation rentals… or so I’ve been told by a few full-time residents.
Realtor.com values the property, currently, at $821,000.
In early July 2021, the County Planning Department staff became aware that the property was overbooking their home. Within Archuleta County, STRs are licensed to allow two guests per bedroom, plus an additional two guests. The property at 40 Elk Ridge Place had six bedrooms total — five in the house and one in the garage apartment — thus theoretically allowing for up to fourteen nightly guests.
However, Ms. Poquiz was running separate advertisements for the main home and the detached garage apartment.
A violation of the current regulations. To be in compliance with County Land Use Regulations, the business needed two vacation rental permits, one for the home, and one for the detached apartment.
This violation flagged the Staff to look deeper into the property, resulting in the discovery that the detached garage had been built (by a previous owner) without the benefit of the required County building permit.
This would not normally be a problem for a property owner. Many non-permitted buildings exist in the county, and such violations are typically ignored, until the property owner approaches the County for a change of use, or remodel. But an application for a vacation rental permit constitutes a change of use, requiring the non-conforming garage structure to be brought into ‘compliance’ by fulfilling an ‘After the Fact’ Building Permit. In fact, the Land Use Regulations do not allow the Planning Department to issue a vacation rental permit if any buildings on the property are out of compliance.
So Ms. Poquiz had her permit suspended.
From the Planning Commission meeting agenda:
As often happens, the Appellant and their property manager, iTrip Vacations, arranged a phone conference with the Development Director to seek options for resolution and clarify the issues. As a result of that call, the Appellant achieved a compromise allowing them to remove the bedroom in the garage from their bedroom count, remove all ads for the garage apartment as a separate rental unit, remove the pictures of the garage apartment from other ads, and continue renting only the rooms in the main house while they worked with the Building Department to fully resolve the unpermitted structure violation.
Ms. Poquiz then hired a licensed engineer to analyze the garage, and was told that it would cost $300,000 to bring the garage up to code.
Although Ms.Poquiz laughed as she revealed the estimated cost of the repair, it was what we might call, ‘an uncomfortable laugh’.
Ms. Poquiz told the commissioners that she and her husband purchased the house six years ago.
“Pagosa’s beautiful. We love it. But what made Pagosa special to us were the people. Every store you walk into, every place you go, everybody greets you with a smile. Everybody’s friendly, they say hello.
“Whenever we bring guests here, we always explain, when you sit down at a restaurant, you’re on Pagosa Time now. Don’t get irritated with the waitress; just sit down and chill out.
“So Pagosa Time has always been a real thing for us, and we love that about here, that nobody is really in a hurry.”
I presume this story was intended to remind the commissioners that getting any kind of construction project finished, in Archuleta County — or even getting one started — requires a significant amount of patience. Especially, since the community is short of construction workers, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, etc. for reasons we’ve often discussed here in the Daily Post.
“When we got the notice in July, we did start the process. We got the engineer, and then we got the bad news that it might be an extensive process, and not something that I wanted to do from Texas… because the engineer said it would be cheaper to just throw [the whole garage] into the landfill, and start over.
“You know, to make that decision, between July and September, when I hadn’t even seen what he was talking about, seemed a little bit excessive to me.”
Ms. Poquiz described herself as a “rule follower” and noted that she and her husband had been among the very first STRs in the county to apply for a vacation rental permit when those permits first became a requirement three years ago. She expected to be able to put the garage project on the back burner and continue to rent out only the main house, at least through the Christmas holidays.
Instead, she received a notice that her permit had been revoked.
“It was a kick in the gut, when we got the notice of revocation, because I’m used to Pagosa being a laid back town, and running on Pagosa Time…”
So this meeting, and this appeal, was a chance for the Planning Commissioners to overrule the Development Director, and allow Ms. Poquiz to continue operating for the next year, while she and her husband figure out what to do about the garage.
Time might be of the essence, in this case — as it often is, in legal disputes — because the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners could finally decide, at any point, that we already have too many STRs in the community… and put a moratorium in place. Or even, a permanent cap.
And if that were to happen, Ms. Poquiz and her husband could be left out in the cold, so to speak, without a permit.
Bill Hudson began sharing his opinions in the Pagosa Daily Post in 2004 and can’t seem to break the habit. He claims that, in Pagosa Springs, opinions are like pickup trucks: everybody has one.