We dropped by a new farmers market – my family and I – that was set up in one of several parking lots, amid 20 office buildings, along 84 acres of land near our neighborhood.
The two-story office buildings aren’t as old as our house, but they’re fairly old. Some well-known companies are there, one of them with its World Headquarters, in the 1990s-era office park.
I’ve bicycled around the place, with its lawns, foliage, and even some wetlands, and a slough, along one side of the site.
A property development company, based many miles from California, is proposing to change the office park, from the existing 20 buildings, to 15 larger buildings, which would turn the current 970,000-square feet, or so, of commercial building space into some 3.3-million square feet of what would become what’s being described as a “life science campus.”
I’m not sure if having a farmers market on summer Saturdays is for PR purposes. It may simply be a neat idea for utilizing space in an office parking area that isn’t full of cars, on weekends. But if it is a little PR, it could give folks shopping for produce, loaves of bread, and such, some good feelings about what might eventually be changing under their feet, so to speak, if the developer’s proposal is approved.
Like you folks in Pagosa Springs, and your neighboring communities, we have pending proposals in the works, out here, which — when you come right down to it — possibly could alter the character of the community.
The property developer proposing changes for our local office park “has worked to renovate the existing office buildings to meet the needs of its tenants,” according to the firm’s website messaging, but “the existing campus is technologically outdated and there is a limit to the type of improvements that renovation can accommodate.”
The developer is proposing “to transform the campus over time, through a carefully phased development, into a premier life science campus that thoughtfully engages its ecology and community.”
There’s also messaging about “giving companies room to grow and thrive,” and allowing “for a significant increase of green, open space on-site by concentrating the new lab and office space in modern facilities, and by transforming the site’s surface parking to a mix of architecturally-designed structured garages and podium-parked buildings.”
There’s an affordable housing component in the proposal, with $85 million to be invested for “affordable housing off-site,” which would be “over $30 million above the required fee,” to help with meeting “affordable housing goals.”
And there’s messaging about “expansive public open space,” and “dedicated community space,” as well as “child care,” and more.
That’s a lot to unpack, reading over the proposal… reading it thoroughly, which can be time-consuming, but edifying.
Perhaps especially, reading between the lines, to try and completely understand the pros and cons.
We do have a community group raising concerns about what could, I guess, be referred to as the ‘redevelopment’ of the somewhat old business park. Road congestion is one of the concerns, along with municipal waste that the group notes was capped, underground, years ago. I remember, a long time ago, hearing something about that. About capping a municipal waste landfill, that once was on the 84-acre site.
Passing by the site, commuting to and from my work, and, on weekends, sometimes, strolling around the area, I’d see something underway, which I came to realize had to do with preparing the land for its initial property development.
According to the activist group’s website, it was recommended that the cap should never be penetrated. “For this reason,” according to the community activists, “buildings were limited to two stories. The construction of larger buildings would require deep pile driving…”
There’s concern about the cap possibly being damaged, and about a possible release of toxic chemicals.
I recall seeing devices around the site, appearing to be like pipes in the ground, with gizmos at the top, and wondering if they were monitoring conditions, down below.
I have shared Daily Post Editor Bill Hudson’s editorial series – ‘Big Plans for Pagosa Springs’ – with the group.
I especially wanted them to be thinking about something Mr. Hudson said in one of the editorials…
That “growth shouldn’t have to hurt.”
Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.