Above is a photo taken during a less chilly time of year, showing a view of the so-called Mountain Crossing property. We are looking east. Judging by the leaves on the trees and the snow-free mountains, I shot this photo during late summer. We’re looking due east.
In the distance, the eastern San Juan Mountains. At the far right, also in the distance, the Strohecker asphalt plant. and further to the south — outside the photo — Mill Creek Road, the Rodeo arena, County Fairgrounds, and CSU Extension Building.
Outside the photo, to the left, is Highway 160, heading towards Wolf Creek Pass, and several ranch properties, residential homes, RV parks, a fire station, and the automotive business known as Buckskin Towing & Repair.
Behind us is the east end of downtown Pagosa Springs, home to several eateries, three marijuana dispensaries, two gas stations and a couple of motels.
People have been talking about a mixed-use development on the roughly-100-acre Mountain Crossing property for about 25 years. In fact, it was about 25 years ago that I created a fairly large real estate billboard (8 foot by 24 foot, as I recall) for some brokers trying to sell the property. (This was back in my sign painting days.)
The public knows very little about the Town government’s proposal to purchase and develop some property located at Mountain Crossing, other than the fact that the Town Council, on Tuesday evening, March 1, voted unanimously to submit a “1271 Affordable Housing Development Incentives Grant Program application for financial assistance for providing, electric, water, sewer and other infrastructure improvements as well as roadway development for serving a 35-acre parcel dedicated to workforce housing development.”
This grant program derives from Colorado House Bill 21-1271, passed by the General Assembly last year, which created three different programs in the Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) for the purpose of offering grant money and other forms of state assistance to local governments to promote innovative solutions to the development of affordable housing across the state.
How exactly the solutions proposed by the Town of Pagosa Springs qualify as “innovative”, we have no idea, because, as noted above, the public knows almost nothing about this proposed project… other than the fact that the Council approved a grant application for up to $3 million, which would require a match from Town revenues of $600,000… and that it has something to do with Mountain Crossing.
We (the public) have no idea if the Town has lined up private partners to assist with an ambitious project. We don’t know if the environmental hazards left behind when the site was abandoned by the San Juan Lumber Company in the late 1970s have been dealt with — and if they have not been dealt with, what such mitigation requirements might cost.
We have no idea if the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) will require expensive highway upgrades on Highway 160 and Highway 84 to accommodate hundreds of homes built on this currently-vacation land. We have no idea why this project would be successful, when so many other projects in Archuleta County have been sitting dormant and uncompleted for the past 15 years. We have no idea why the various owners of Mountain Crossing have been unable, for the past 25 years, to make anything happen on this property.
And we have no idea why the Town is acting so secretive about the project, thus far.
According to the “1271 Affordable Housing Development Incentives Grant Program” website, “affordable housing” is defined in the statute as:
…housing for families or individuals earning up to 80% of the area median income (AMI) for rental housing and up to 140% AMI for affordable homeownership. Applicants should demonstrate that the project addresses one or more AMI ranges with significant need. Affordable housing can include both income- and deed-restricted units and naturally occurring affordable housing (NOAH) as long as rents meet the AMI limits.
NOAH — Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing — has quietly vanished from the Archuleta County landscape over the past decade, as it has in most of Colorado and the U.S.
To put the ‘area median income’ numbers into perspective, “80% AMI” for a family of three, in Archuleta County, is about $53,000 per year (according to Energy Outreach Colorado). That would put “140% AMI” at about $93,000 per year. My work with Pagosa Housing Partners suggests that very few working families in Archuleta County earn $93,000 a year.
(Disclosure: I currently serve as a volunteer on the non-profit Pagosa Housing Partners board of directors.)
Thus far, we know nothing about what type of “affordable housing” the Town government will be proposing, when they apply for a $3 million innovative housing grant next Monday. DOLA, the state agency administering the grant, has announced $38 million in available funding for awards.
All funds must be fully expended (not just encumbered) before June 30, 2024. This means that projects must be completed by June 30, 2024. No extensions can be granted.
Eligible entities for the 1271 grant program include municipalities, counties, and city & county governments. Awards cannot be made directly to housing authorities, but municipalities and counties are encouraged to partner with their housing authorities and other partner organizations.
Thus far, we know nothing about other organizations that might be cooperating with the Town on the Mountain Crossing project.
Considering the excellent location of this property and the apparent endorsements from the Pagosa Springs Chamber of Commerce, the Economic Development Committee, Town Planners, and local Real Estate Brokers, as “the obvious and best major development project in the Pagosa Springs area…”
… we might wonder why it’s been sitting vacant since the mid-1990s?