Real estate agent Veronica Medina offers real estate services through EXIT Realty Home & Ranch for Pagosa Springs, CO and surrounding areas…
— from ColoProperty.com, January 10, 2022
I understand Governor Jared Polis and Lt. Governor Dianne Primavera were sworn in yesterday morning in Denver, for another four-year term. I did not attend the ceremony.
Here in Archuleta County, we had a chance to watch several elected officials sworn into office, by County Magistrate Justin P. Faye, during a surprisingly festive, standing-room-only event at the County Courthouse.
The attire was fairly casual on the part of the elected officials. Jeans and a flannel shirt, in some cases.
Our new County Sheriff, Mike Le Roux — previously County Undersheriff — was among those sworn in yesterday. He wore his uniform.
Following his oath, an attractive woman approached him from the audience, pinned a badge on his shirt, and gave him a kiss.
At least, from where I was standing, a kiss appeared to be taking place. I assume she was his wife.
Magistrate Faye politely averted his eyes.
The elected official of most interest to me personally, however, was newly-elected County Commissioner Veronica Medina. None of the other elected officials have the authority to make, or change, County regulations, or set the fees for County services. None of the other elected officials have the ability to place tax measures in front of the voters, for better or worse.
As a local citizen activist, fees and taxes are high on my list of concerns. I suspect they are also high on Commissioner Medina’s list, as well.
Ms. Medina replaces outgoing commissioner Alvin Schaaf as the representative of District 3. Mr. Schaaf served for four years, coming to the job from a position in the Sheriff’s Office. In my opinion, he improved noticeably during his tenure, in his understanding of government processes, and his understanding of our community.
Ms. Medina comes to the job with a background in real estate (12 years) and human resources (15 years), and several years of experience in the leadership levels of the Archuleta County Republican Party.
Here are a few statements from her Facebook page:
My strategic plan is to work with local builders and government entities to offer other housing solutions. Arrange a strategic plan to get roads on a regular maintenance schedule.
My strategic plan is to work with local leaders to find new ways to diversify our local economy and not rely solely on tourism.
I promise YOU complete transparency and to always work FOR THE PEOPLE.
Complete transparency sounds like a fabulous promise. As noted previously in this editorial series, the current BOCC has been allowing an appointed STR policy group to meet secretly, behind closed doors, since September. If our new commissioner wants to bring that group out into the open, I for one would welcome the change… considering the level of controversy that surrounds the STR industry, locally and nationally.
I’ve heard Ms. Medina speak publicly at numerous BOCC and Town Council meetings, and the general drift of her comments left me with the impression that she cares more deeply about real estate profits and STR profits than about workforce housing. But she has now promised to “always work FOR THE PEOPLE.”
Who “THE PEOPLE” might be, and what work needs to be done on their behalf, is not immediately clear.
I’ve not had a chance to sit down with our new commissioner and discuss the work that needs to be done. Some of the work might involve new STR regulations, and fees or taxes, as recommended in the “Roadmap to Affordable Housing” document created on behalf of, and adopted by, the Town government in 2019. You can download that document here.
That plan has resulted in several changes to the Town’s Land Use and Development Code (LUDC). But it did not produce a viable revenue stream to be used to address the crisis, until the voters stepped up and approved the ‘Workforce Housing Fee’ last April.
That fee has now been invalidated by District Court Judge Jeffrey Wilson. You can download his ruling here, if you haven’t already.
Archuleta County did not adopt the “Roadmap” in 2019. Archuleta County has no plan at all for addressing the housing crisis.
We know a little bit about how our new commissioner feels about housing, and STRs, thanks to a video interview with realtor Matt Martin posted seven months ago.
Here are a few selected moments from a half-hour interview with Veronica Medina.
As we heard in this brief selection… (you can view the full interview here…) Commissioner Medina has an aversion to “any housing that is subsidized by the government.”
We just need housing. she says.
I find this attitude curiously reactionary. Government-supported housing dates back to the 1500s in Germany, and to the late 1700s in France, and became relatively common in Great Britain in the 1800s.
Commissioner Medina, however, holds out the promise that local builders can and will address the current crisis, without any help from the community. So I would have to ask our commissioner: Why has the Archuleta County housing crisis gotten progressively worse, over the past 20 years? If our local builders can solve our problem… why have they not solved it?
I would also have to ask: When the Town government offered free public land to any builder willing to construct ‘workforce housing’… why did none of our local builders respond with a proposal? Why did the only proposals come from a local non-profit (Pagosa Housing Partners) and from two out-of-town development companies?
Our new commissioner says she has talked to local builders, and been told that they “have not been asked to be part of fixing the problem…”
But the Town offered them free land, 18 months ago, and got no response.
From the Matt Martin interview:
“And there’s a lot of builders who are willing to step up and do what needs to be done. And granted, they would definitely put those deed restrictions, so they would not be Short Term Rentals. It would be for long term rentals. And pricing would be reasonable; it wouldn’t be, you know, just at the top of the market. It just wouldn’t be…”
I have to wonder. Who are these generous local builders that Commissioner Medina has spoken to? The ones who are willing to help us solve our housing crisis?
If you search “New Construction in Pagosa Springs”, you can find the following listings on the website Realtor.com. For example, a 480-square-foot house made of shipping containers, for $349,000 — $727 per square foot…
How about a 2-bedroom, 972-square-foot mobile home, for $444,000?
Sure sounds like “top of the market” to me.
Commissioner Medina has been involved in real estate for 12 years, according to her campaign ads. Yet she seems to have a limited understanding of how our community has been unfolding since 2010…