The Pagosa Springs Town Council will meet tonight, Thursday April 28 at 5pm, at Town Hall, for a special work session, to address the following agenda:
WORK SESSION DISCUSSION ITEMS
- Discussion of LUDC Updates
- Workforce Housing Market Study Results
- Discussion of Possible Sites for Workforce Housing Development
- Other Discussion Items
The meeting is open to the public, but it’s not clear whether Mayor Shari Pierce will allow public testimony during the meeting.
The first item — presumably, a rather cursory overview of a draft 200-page document — concerns the Town’s Land Use and Development Code (LUDC), a large collection of requirements defining which types of building structures are allowed within the three-square-mile municipality, and where they can be located.
Although many Pagosa residents may not even be aware that development in the town is controlled by 200 pages of local rules — in addition to the rules defined in the even-more-massive International Building Code and the International Residential Code — it’s my belief that these controlling documents play a significant role in the community’s current housing crisis.
From the meeting packet:
Jennifer Gardner from Logan Simpson will be attending the work session virtually to provide an update of proposed amendments to the LUDC and to seek feedback. This project is coming to a close in the near future, and staff would like to get input on the proposed changes from both boards prior to a final public outreach push and drafting of the ordinance for public hearings and possible adoption this summer.
You can 22-Town-Draft-LUDC-Apr28download the draft version (6MB file) here.
The second item concerns a ‘public-private partnership’ housing project involving Texas-based Servitas LLC and the Town government, to build up to 64 ‘workforce’ housing units on municipally-owned parcels in the South Pagosa neighborhood. Negotiations between the Town and Servitas have been underway since last fall, but final agreements have not yet been reached on all the details of the project.
From the agenda packet:
The purpose of a housing market study is to analyze supply and demand in a community for certain housing products. Servitas, LLC, the town’s selected developer for the 64-unit workforce housing project, hired Western Spaces, LLC to conduct the study. The results will help determine the needs in Pagosa Springs, specifically the unit mix. Sarah McClain of Western Spaces will join virtually to share the results of the study. At this time, the Town has not received the final report yet. In addition to reviewing the various studies and surveys that have been conducted in prior years, Sarah held two focus groups in Pagosa Springs-one of area employers and another of realtors and long term rental property managers. This information, along with her data analysis, helps to inform the study results.
The third agenda item is also related to the proposed Servitas housing project. One of the apartment units — in this case, a 28-unit apartment — had been initially sited for a 1/2 acre playing field in South Pagosa Park, at the corner of S. 8th and Apache Streets. When subsequent neighborhood meetings indicated opposition to the loss of the playing field, and to the insertion of an apartment building into a public park, the Town Council decided to discuss the possibility of locating the proposed apartments at a different location.
I expect the Council will discuss feasible alternative locations at tonight’s work session.
A zoom link will be available, however the Town does not and cannot guarantee internet service or online broadcasting. Remote attendance is at the risk of the attendee as the public meeting will continue in person regardless of the Town’s broadcast capability.
Join Zoom Meeting By Computer – https://zoom.us/j/81994247086
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.