During Tuesday evening’s Town Planning Commission meeting, the commissioners — along with Planning Director James Dickhoff and local engineer Mike Davis — discussed the future development of Hot Springs Boulevard, with a particular focus on storm water infrastructure. This major downtown street was designed 25 years ago, but only a short section was actually completed… the section adjacent to the hot springs, bank and post office. The rest of the street has remained half-done, with only sidewalk and curbs, but without the planned street surface.
In many larger cities, around the world, serious rain events are managed through municipal drainage systems, but most rural communities in Colorado get by without storm water structures. Almost none of our downtown streets in Pagosa include storm drains, nor does the Town government have a plan for future storm drainage infrastructure.
As we learned on Tuesday evening, however, the north end of Hot Springs Boulevard — the portion that was actually completed 25 years ago — included storm drains. This ‘properly-drained’ portion of the streetscape comprises about 1/3 of the street’s total length.
During this Planning Commission conversation (which I personally found quite interesting), one of the commissioners asked when Hot Springs Boulevard would likely be completed. Mr. Dickhoff responded, “Whenever we get a grant to complete it.” As I understand it, the Town staff has in fact written more than one grant application to help fund the completion of Hot Springs Boulevard, but thus far, without success. Whether the street has remained unfinished due to a lack of adjacent development… or whether the lack of adjacent development has been due to an unfinished street… is not immediately clear.
A couple things about Mr. Dickhoff’s response — “Whenever we get a grant” — strike me as significant, and worthy of consideration. For 25 years, one of the main streets in downtown Pagosa has remained unfinished, apparently due to the fact that the Town staff and Town Council have been waiting for a grant.
Meanwhile, the Town has spent millions of dollars on parks, trails, and pedestrian bridges, apparently due to the fact that the Town has been successful at writing grants to support those recreational infrastructure investments.
One could say (if one were so inclined) that decisions at Town government, regarding what infrastructure the community will see completed, have been driven largely by the availability of government grants.
Which is to say, the state and federal governments — not the local taxpayers — make many of the key decision about how our community will unfold. Or fail to unfold.
At the south end of Hot Springs Boulevard (the portion that’s been unfinished for 25 years) we’ve been watching the Rose Mountain Town Homes slowly come into existence. These low-income apartments were made possible by local, state and federal government subsidies.
The primary subsidy for this project came in the form of federal tax credits for the wealthy investors who put up the money for the project. The credits were awarded by the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA), and the previously vacant land — publicly-owned land — was leased to the Archuleta County Housing Authority (ACHA) by the Board of County Commissioners.
Without these government subsidies, it’s very unlikely a housing project like this would have (or could have) been built anywhere in Archuleta County, given our real estate market and the cost of construction materials. I understand ACHA has a waiting list of 114 families hoping to move into these apartments once the final 16 apartments are completed.
We are assuming, of course, that they will be completed. And that we won’t have to wait 25 years… even though governments are involved.
Another significant thing about Mr. Dickhoff’s response — that Hot Springs Boulevard will likely not be completed until the Town government gets a grant — is directly related to the discussion that took place at conclusion of Tuesday’s Planning Commission meeting.
We are listening to Mr. Dickhoff discussing a grant application he’d submitted to the Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) to fund the potential purchase of 35 acres of raw land east of downtown Pagosa, purportedly as a site for future ‘affordable housing’. The Town is asking for $3 million, to be matched by $600,000 in Town revenues.
“Land acquisition is one of the top strategies that’s addressed in pretty much all of our housing studies, including the Housing Needs Assessment from 2017, or the ‘Roadmap to Affordable Housing’ from 2019… or the regional housing study that was recently conducted for Housing Solutions of the Southwest… In all of them, one of the top strategies is the acquisition of land by municipalities or governments, because then we have full control of what happens on that property. We can use long-term deed restrictions — and this DOLA grant requires at least 30-year deed restrictions…”
One of the problems with government-subsidized homes and apartments, in the past, has been a tendency by the developer or owner to turn around and flip the property at market rate, and essentially pocket the taxpayer subsidy — with the result that the home or apartment building no longer qualifies as ‘affordable’. 30-year deed restrictions and other tools can ensure that the property remains affordable over the long haul.
Mr. Dickhoff:
“Developing a 35-acre parcel with mainline extensions, the roadways, is no inexpensive project. But… that said, it does set the stage for a multi-year phased development dedicated to affordable housing that can serve our workforce, seniors, veterans, people with disabilities… for example. And I would say that this property, that Town Council is considering… you know, there’s a lot of properties with topography challenges. Geologically challenged properties. And it’s rare to find something this large. It’s flat. There’s soil down to frost depth, so we don’t have hard rock to deal with.
“So even though it’s going to be expensive to get infrastructure to the property, developing the property is going to be fairly easy… We’ll update you as this progresses…”
This was the first time Mr. Dickhoff had mentioned the 35-acre parcel to the Planning Commission. After the grant had already been sent off to DOLA.
Funny thing. I thought the Town Planning Commission might be the advisory group that makes recommendations about planning our town… but I guess not.