PHOTO: Pagosa Springs Inn & Suites in 2021.
In most situations, lately, the Pagosa Springs Town Council and the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners have been making sure that their meetings — regular and special — are announced in advance, and are open to the public. Out of respect for, and in the spirit of, Colorado’s Open Meetings Laws.
For example. This was posted to the Town agenda calendar for today, Monday, October 24:
1. PUBLIC NOTICE OF THE PAGOSA SPRINGS TOWN COUNCIL, BOARDS, COMMITTEES, COALITIONS AND COMMISSIONS
In accordance with the Open Meetings Laws, this serves as Public Notice that three or more Pagosa Springs Town Council, Area Tourism Board, Parks & Recreation and/or Planning Commission members may be present at the following public meeting and that public business may be discussed.
Tour of the former Pagosa Inn & Suites housing units
519 Village Drive
Pagosa Springs, Colorado 81147
Tour begins at 5:00pm
One of the community’s larger motels, the Pagosa Springs Inn & Suites, was purchased last November by new owners — Pagosa Springs Apartments LLC, based in Monument, Colorado — for $3.3 million. The idea proposed to the Town Planning Commission and the Town Council was to convert the motel rooms into modest apartments, with rental rates aimed at individuals and families. Because the land use was changing from ‘commercial’ to ‘multi-family apartments’, the owners requested a ‘density bonus’ — because the Town’s zoning would normally have limited the 4-acre parcel to about 66 apartment units, while the owners were proposing 98 units.
In exchange for the density bonus, the owners agree to dedicate 25 of the units specifically to below-market rates affordable to working individuals and families. But the Town’s requirement to provide ‘workforce’ housing expires after 7 years. What happens then?
Who knows.
From the Town Planning Department’s description of the proposal, as discussed last fall:
The property is located within the Mixed-Use Corridor zone district which allows up to 16 residential dwelling units per acre. The property is 4.19 acres which would allow up to 66 dwelling units, thus the applicant is requesting a density bonus of an additional 32 dwelling units. The Town’s Density Bonus policy adopted on April 22, 2021, requires 25% of the total units be deed restricted for income levels up to 120% of Area Median Income (AMI) determined annually by Colorado Housing Financing Authority (CHFA) for a minimum period of 7 years.
25% of the total units equates to 24.5 units, rounded up to 25 deed restricted dwelling units.
The applicant proposes a mix of dwelling units types including: 21 each studios, 62 each – 1 bedrooms; 11 each 2 bedrooms; and 4 each 3 bedrooms, with all units complying with the International Building Code regarding minimum room sizes. All units that are under 400 square feet in size will include access to a secure personal storage closet at a minimum of 200 cubic feet in size.
Yes, some of the former-motel-rooms-now-apartments are under 400 square feet, as we will discuss in a moment.
The Town government has been taking a variety of steps, in terms of policies, regulations and funding, to try and address Pagosa’s housing crisis, and in terms of quantifying the extent of the crisis, the Town staff has apparently accepted the numbers published in last year’s Regional Housing Study written by Root Policy Research.
A shortage of 800 dwelling units in Archuleta County.
If that number is accurate, then 98 new apartment units added to the community’s housing stock would be a move in the right direction. Assuming the units are not overpriced.
The Town Council and staff may have also accepted the numbers in this year’s Livable Wage study by the Region 9 Economic Development District, indicating that Archuleta County has the highest cost of living in southwest Colorado, due mainly — according to Region 9 — to the high cost of housing.
From that report:
The 2022 Colorado minimum wage is $12.56 per hour, which amounts to $26,527 per year working full time. We found that in Region 9, Montezuma County is the least expensive ($71,292 annually), and Archuleta County is the most expensive place to live ($92,796 annually) for a family of four. Using housing and childcare costs specific to each community we found that the Town of Pagosa Springs is also the most expensive community in the region for a family of four ($21.97 per hour for each working adult) due to the high cost of housing…
The Pagosa Springs Apartments are being marketed online on the Nuance Industries website, where we can, if we wish, judge their affordability.
As you will notice at the top left of this screen shot, we have 725-square-foot one-bedroom apartments available, occasionally, here in Pagosa, priced at $1,300 a month. That rent is not affordable to many working households.
And now — thanks to the generosity of the Town government and Pagosa Springs Apartments LLC — we may soon have 339-square-foot one-bedroom apartments available, also for $1,300 a month. Bottom left.
Half the space, same price. Such a deal.
Prior to approval of the Pagosa Springs Apartments project last fall, the Pagosa Springs Housing Coalition — of which I am a member — received a briefing on the proposal. The Coalition also discussed a different but related topic at that same meeting: the inability of working families and individuals to purchase single-family homes in Archuleta County, or find affordable rental units.
There are a few key reasons why a working family cannot purchase a single-family home here.
1. The houses that were available in 2019 and 2020 have been largely snapped up by vacation rental companies.
2. The shortage of houses caused by the vacation rental industry conversions and other market factors has resulted in inflated home prices.
3. The COVID pandemic has played havoc with the cost of construction materials and the availability of workers.
4. The Pagosa construction industry got hammered by the Great Recession, and many construction trade employees left town, or switched careers, and the industry has not been able to replace those workers. And even if workers were willing to come here, they couldn’t afford the cost of housing.
It’s a dilemma. And rising mortgage rates promise to make the situation even more serious.
A question for our community leaders: Do they want to address this problem in an aggressive manner? Or do they want to sit back and wait for the ‘free market’ to heal our community?
Because, as I’ve written before here in the Daily Post, the ‘free market’ — so far — has been doing exactly the opposite of fixing the problem…