I didn’t explain, in Part One of this editorial series, that the Pagosa Springs Town Hall meeting on April 25 was a ‘joint meeting’ between the Town Council and the Town Planning Commission, two important boards that rarely meet face-to-face.
The Town Community Development staff — Senior Planner Karl Onsager, supported by Community Development Director James Dickhoff and Planning Manager Cindy Schultz — was seeking comments on a number of proposed changes to the Land Use and Development Code (LUDC). That’s the 200-page document that controls how property can be developed within the town limits.
I believe all members of both Town boards were invited to the meeting, but not all of them were able to attend.
Nor did the general public make an impressive showing. The audience in the room consisted of two people.
I can understand the lack of public interest. Much of the discussion about the Land Use and Development Code (LUDC) update was rather technical. Also, the update itself has dragged on… and on… and on. The Town Council first hired Fort-Collins-based consultants Logan Simpson to oversee the LUDC update in 2020… and appointed a task force to help guide the work.
For any readers who are not familiar with how the Town controls land uses within the town limits, you can peruse the current LUDC here.
Typically in Colorado, municipal land use regulations are based on a community-driven “Comprehensive Plan”. The “Comp Plan” identifies land use issues, and the LUDC then puts those recommendations into legal language. The Municipal Code states that a review of the Comprehensive Plan review should happen annually.
The Town of Pagosa Springs used a year-long citizen-based process to produce an updated Comp Plan in April 2018. The 2018 Comp Plan update was the first full update in 12 years.
The Town had the good intentions, in 2018, of updating the LUDC to align with the new Comp Plan. But it’s now been five years since the Comp Plan was published… and the LUDC alignment is still in progress.
In 2019, the Town Planning Commission — on its own initiative — began working collaboratively on some pressing land use issues, such as downtown parking and short-term rentals. These were issues the Town planning staff had been meaning to address for several years, but had not gotten around to. The volunteer Planning Commission took on this extra work — voluntarily, without pay — because the Land Use and Development Code appears to assign them the authority and responsibility to recommend new policies, and to conduct studies related to Town planning.
From the LUDC:
2.5.2. PLANNING COMMISSION
A. Establishment, duties, and authority.
The Planning Commission is established pursuant to the authority of Sections 8.1 and 8.2 of the Charter. The Planning Commission shall have all powers granted and shall perform all the duties imposed by the Charter and statutes of the State of Colorado. The Planning Commission shall have the review and decision-making authorities listed in Table 2.2-1, and in addition shall have the following duties and responsibilities:
1. Develop and recommend to the Town Council new policies, ordinances, administrative procedures, and other means that allow expansion to be accomplished in a coordinated and efficient manner;
2. Conduct studies and recommend to the Town Council, any other new plans, goals, and objectives relating to growth, development, and redevelopment of the Town;
3. Act in the capacity of the Design Review Board, unless the Board has been otherwise appointed…
Apparently, someone connected with the LUDC update (and not a member of the Planning Commission) was not entirely happy with the Commission voluntarily deciding to conduct studies and recommend policies about parking, short-term rentals, and such.
The 199-page April 2022 draft, as currently written, would seemingly require the Planning Commission to wait around… until the Town Council directs them to conduct studies and develop policies.
A. The Planning Commission is established pursuant to Article 2 of the Municipal Code and shall follow the Code of Ethics established in Chapter 2, Article 4 of the Municipal Code. The Planning Commission shall have all powers granted and shall perform all the duties imposed by the Municipal Code and statutes of the State of Colorado. The Planning Commission shall have the review and decision-making authorities listed in Table 2.2-1, and in addition shall have the following duties and responsibilities:
1. Develop and recommend to the Town Council new planning policies, ordinances, and administrative procedures as directed by Town Council;
2. Conduct planning-related studies as directed by the Town Council any other new plans, goals, and objectives relating to growth, development, and redevelopment of the Town;
3. Act in the capacity of the Design Review Board, unless the Board has been otherwise appointed…
We might also notice that the voter-approved Town Charter is no longer mentioned as a source of authority, in the new draft.
Last year, the Planning Commission was surprised to find that their authority had been made conditional on ‘Town Council direction’ in the draft update.
A person concerned about healthy government — which relies on a system of ‘checks and balances’ to keep any particular council, board, or appointed staff from becoming overly powerful — might wonder why someone in the Town government would want to stifle the Planning Commission’s sense of entrepreneurial spirit?
These are, of course, the kinds of small (but important) details, in which the general public may have a limited interest.
But if you’ve managed to read this far into Part Two, dear reader, then you may have more than a ‘limited interest’. So we will explore more small (but important) details about the LUDC update…
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.