I don’t normally read the ‘Public Notices’ in the weekly Pagosa Springs SUN — those required legal notices near the back of each issue, set in tiny type, regarding disputes over property or custody of children or government auctions or other legal issues.
But this being Valentine’s Day, I was curious if anyone had posted a public notice expressing their affection for the Pagosa Daily Post editor. On the outside chance.
Alas, all the notices were purely legal. Such as this one, which most people probably wouldn’t find terribly significant:
PUBLIC NOTICE
The Town of Pagosa Springs has received an application for rezoning property at 158 Eaton Drive. The applicant, OLYMPUS SRH EATON LLC, is requesting a zoning change for the subject property of approximately 1.05 acres from Town Residential – Medium Density (R-12) to Town Residential – High Density (R-22). The stated purpose of this request is for consistency with the Town’s Comprehensive Plan and to bring the existing development into compliance with zoning regarding density.
The Planning Commission will consider a recommendation for Town Council on the matter at a public hearing scheduled on Tuesday, February 22, 2022, at 5:30pm…
The applicant for this zoning change, Olympus SRH Eaton LLC, could also be described as the Springs Resort, acting through managing partner David Dronet (pronounced ‘drone-NAY’).
I presume the “SRH” in the company name stands for “Springs Resort Housing”.
Last month, Mr. Dronet delivered eviction notices to all of the 16 families living in the apartment complex at 158 Eaton Drive, telling them to vacate their homes by February 19. In the middle of winter. In a town with an ongoing housing crisis, where it’s difficult to find a decent rental at any price. You can read more about that situation here.
Although the weekly Pagosa Springs SUN is willing to print legal notices like the one quoted above, (for which the SUN charges a fee), I was unable to find any news coverage about the eviction troubles at 158 Eaton Drive in any recent issue of the SUN. Speaking only for myself, the eviction of 16 families in the middle of February strikes me as a newsworthy story, possibly as important as the SUN’s front page story last week, about three high school students placing in the top ten in a debate competition.
The reason given to the 16 families, for their mid-winter eviction, was the purported discovery by the new owner of significant repair issues, which may have been ignored by the previous owner (according to statements shared with the Daily Post about ongoing past complaints from the tenants.)
Why the repairs couldn’t wait until May or June, however… when the evicted tenants could at least camp out in the National Forest until a rental situation could be found… is not immediately clear.
The evicted families were told they could “apply” for the apartment units once the repairs are completed. With no promises made. The tenants also learned, (so I’ve been told), that some of the units will be reserved for Springs Resort employees.
But we do have a housing crisis going on, and the Springs Resort may be somewhat desperate to find housing for their own employees. And the apartments at 158 Eaton Drive are ‘non-compliant’ with the established zoning for the one-acre parcel on which they sit. In the 1990s, the Town government, for whatever reason, zoned the apartment complex “R-12” (12 units per acre) even though it has had 16 units on one acre since 1983.
If the new owner plans to make extensive repairs… then a change of zoning is required to make the building ‘compliant’ with the Town’s Land Use and Development Code.
Or if the ‘repairs’ were not actually extensive… but the new owner wanted to remodel the apartments into more, smaller units, for example… then a change of zoning would be required.
We are seeing a trend toward smaller dwelling units, here in Archuleta County. As the typical cost of renting a 3-bedroom home approaches $2,500 a month, landlords are finding that a tiny studio apartment (with zero bedrooms) will sometimes rent for $1,000 a month, or more. Indeed, the new owners of the Pagosa Springs Inn & Suites have applied to convert that former motel rooms into 98 rather small, long-term rentals, priced at perhaps $1,500 to $2,000 a month. (That’s my estimate at the future rental rates based on existing documents.)
It’s been challenging for our 600 hotel and motel rooms to compete with the 3,000 ‘vacation rental’ bedrooms in Archuleta County. So we can probably expect to see more motel rooms getting converted into long-term rentals. For example, a presentation at a recent Town Council meeting suggests that the new owners of the High Country Lodge, located north of town on Highway 160, plan to develop some long-term rental units.
I’ve stayed in motels, for one or two days at a time, while on vacation… in situations where we didn’t spend much time inside the motel room. In my humble opinion, a motel room is not designed for long-term living. So I will be interested to see how the new owners of the Pagosa Springs Inn & Suites re-design their motel rooms for long-term renters.
As published in the SUN’s ‘Public Notices’. the Town Planning Department has scheduled a public hearing for David Dronet’s zoning change request, on February 22. You can typically find the Planning Commission agenda packets on the Town’s citizen portal website a few days before the scheduled meeting.
Any zoning change will ultimately need to be approved (or denied) by the Town Council.