Occasionally, time is of the essence.
We typically perceive that expression — “time is of the essence” — to mean, “We need a decision right away”. “The essence” being, to avoid unpleasant delays that could be damaging to a project or outcome.
But “the essence of time” can just as accurately apply to the idea that, in some situations, delays are absolutely essential to allow us time to fully consider the implications of our decisions.
The Door of Time swings both ways.
At Tuesday’s Town Council meeting — discussed briefly in Part One — we heard the unified voices of the residents along Rainbow Drive, Pike Drive, and Brookhill Drive protesting a zoning change that would allow developer James Prutsman to revitalize an abandoned RV park on Put Hill. The neighbors provided about 30 minutes of arguments against the development, focused mainly on the traffic problems that might be created by such an operation, considering that access in and out of the park would primarily use the already-problematic Pike Drive-Highway 160 intersection.
The zoning change is only one of the hurdles facing the developer. A traffic study will be required, by both the Town and by Colorado Department of Transportation, and as Mr. Prutsman noted, that study will likely be useful to everyone concerned, even though he will be the party responsible for funding the study.
And speaking of time, I spent about 10 minutes, yesterday, observing the traffic entering and exiting Pike Drive at the Highway 160 intersection. This is what we would call ‘anecdotal data’ but perhaps still interesting data.
Mainly, I was hoping to get a photo of a vehicle trying to make a left-hand turn out of Pike Drive.
Three businesses have driveways connecting to Pike Drive: American Auto Care, Pike Interiors, and Tall Pines Beer & Wine Garden. Customers accessing these businesses — and residents accessing the homes along Pike Drive and Rainbow Drive — have three possible access routes.
- The problematic Pike Drive-Highway 160 intersection.
- The Eagle Drive frontage road.
- The two gravel roads — Rainbow and Brookhill — that head north and east through the Pagosa Hills neighborhood, to connect to Crestview Drive, which connects to Cemetery Road, which connects to N. 5th Street, downtown.
During my 10-minute visit to the Pike Drive intersection, most of the vehicles were visiting the three commercial businesses, and almost all of them used either Eagle Drive or Pike Drive-Rainbow-Brookhill for access.
Only one vehicle attempted to make a left turn from Pike onto Highway 160.
That one vehicle, an RV, waited at the stop sign for one minute 30 seconds before finding an opening for a left-hand turn.
On Tuesday, following the half-hour of testimony from Pagosa Hills residents protesting the zoning change for The Mill RV Park, the Town Council approved the zoning change, with the stipulations that the RVs in the park will be subject to the Town’s ‘dark sky’ regulations, the ‘crash gate’ accessing Rainbow Drive will be for emergency use only, and the proposed ‘workforce housing’ tiny homes included in the design will be deed restricted for working individuals and families in perpetuity.
Following the vote, nearly the entire audience left the meeting.
If they had stayed, however, they might have found a subsequent discussion equally interesting. In terms of traffic, for example.
From the agenda packet:
Application: Planned Development Zoning Application
Property Location: 500 and 600 West US Highway 160
Property Owner: April L Owens
Applicant: Village Care Partners, LLC
Representative: Carl Bommarito
Current Zoning: Rural Transition – (R-T)
Proposed Zoning: Planned Development Overlay District (OPD)
The Planning Commission considered the ‘Sketch Planned Development’ application on May 24, and passed a motion to continue the application consideration until their June 28 meeting. The applicant is currently working on revisions to their application, to address some of the Commission concerns and public comments received at the May 24 meeting.
Staff publicly noticed the June 7 Town Council consideration of the application and Planning Commission recommendation…
However, Town Council was asked, on Tuesday, to continue the application consideration until their July 5 meeting when we expect a Planning Commission recommendation for Town Council’s consideration. The Council agreed to continue the rezoning debate to July 5.
Here is a previous map of the project that the Planning Commission had been shown.
Pagosa Views. A lifestyle community.
As we see from this drawing — which was not provided to the PSSGID Board at the June 7 meeting — Pagosa Views was truly a lifestyle community, especially if your lifestyle includes living in an RV Resort (up to 180 vehicles), in a three- or four-story condo (up to 680 units), in a two-story townhome (up to 80 units)… or if you enjoy glamping, apartment living, cottages, patio homes, pitch & putt golf and two acres of clubhouse and amenities.
Near the top of the map, we can see a proposed ’roundabout’ intersection that would join Pagosa Views to Highway 160, directly across from N. 14th Street.
It’s possible that this drawing was not provided to the Town Council on June 7 because the developers had gone back to the drawing board and downsized the proposed project from a maximum of 1,200 units, to about 700 units.
The public has not yet seen a new drawing, with new numbers, but the 700-unit estimate was also shared with the Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD) board of directors last night, June 9.
If we figure an average of 2 persons per dwelling, then 700 units would more than double the number of residents living within the Pagosa Springs town limits.
Presumably, such a subdivision would have an impact on the Town’s sanitation system, which is already hovering on the edge of failure.
Presumably, such a subdivision would have an impact on the amount of local traffic passing the problematic intersection at Pike Drive, just up the hill.
Following the Town Council meeting on Tuesday, the Council convened as the board of the Pagosa Springs Sanitation General Improvement District (PSSGID).
The Pagosa Views developers wanted the PSSGID Board, on Tuesday evening, to provide a “Will Serve” letter. As we were told, when a developer is trying to line up financing for a project that will double the population of a small mountain town, the developer typically wants a letter from the municipality stating that the municipality will serve the new subdivision with sanitation services.
Just such a letter had been drafted by Town attorney Clay Buchner, for the Tuesday meeting. But it had not been shared with the Board nor the public in advance of the meeting, so the Board was asked to approve the letter without having thoroughly studied it.
Maybe time was of the essence?
The Board briefly discussed the letter with attorney Buchner, to assure themselves that the letter actually didn’t provide any concrete promises to serve the Pagosa Views subdivision. Once the Board seemed assured that the letter, as drafted, was essentially meaningless, they approved it unanimously.