Compared to its peers in Colorado and across the nation, Pagosa Springs has a very sophisticated tourism promotion infrastructure…
— from the 2019 ‘Destination Master Plan’ for Pagosa Springs.
Typically, when Pagosa Springs Mayor Shari Pierce is presiding over a Town Council meeting, and the Council is considering various agenda items, Mayor Pierce does not allow comments from the audience unless the item is specifically noticed as a public hearing.
Under Colorado law, certain types of government decisions require a public hearing. But the proposed Resolution at last Tuesday’s Council meeting…
4. Resolution 2023-13, Tourism Board Allocation from Reserves
…did not require a public hearing. When I asked Mayor Pierce if she was going to allow public comment during that agenda item, she stated that she would not. But the Council always allows public comments at the very beginning of the meeting. So I took the opportunity to express my thoughts about the pending decision — whether the create a special ‘trust’ account on behalf of the Pagosa Springs Area Tourism Board, and squirrel away a half million dollars for the future planning and development of a tax-subsidized event center.
The Tourism Board had contracted with Wisconsin-based Place Dynamics in 2019, for the creation of a “Destination Master Plan”. The aim of this plan was, apparently, to continue converting Pagosa Springs from a place to live, into a place to visit for a weekend… and to further subsidize that conversion with tax revenues.
Place Dynamics had recommended using tax revenues to help create a tourist facility, aimed at corporate retreats and destination weddings. You can download the Destination Master Plan here.
If you read the Destination Master Plan, you might notice that Place Dynamics totally ignored the housing crisis in Pagosa Springs, and its impacts on every aspect of life in our community.
The Tourism Board itself likewise ignores the crisis. Consistently.
So I wanted to share a different perspective with the Council, as they considered the idea of dedicating $500,000 to a new account aimed at a future, tax-subsidized event center. I’ve personally been involved in organizing, promoting, and participating in events here in Pagosa, since 1993, so I have some appreciation for what’s involved.
Here’s what I shared with the Council:
“I was just thinking about the various places in Pagosa Springs, where I’ve organized events, or performed at events. The Pagosa Springs Center for the Arts; the Tennyson Events Center; the PLPOA Clubhouse; Pagosa Springs High School; the Ross Aragon Community Center; the CSU Extension Building; the Pagosa Lodge; the Parish Hall; the Liberty Theatre; and at a dozen bars and restaurants in town…
“Some of you will remember, back 15 years ago, a group of people got together — Stanley Levine and some people from the performing arts community — and hired a consultant to design an event center for the community. I believe the estimated price was $68 million?
“I see that you have, on your agenda, a proposal to put $500,000 into a special account for a future events center, that the Tourism Board thinks you should have. That they think we need.
“I would propose that, going in that direction, you are going to take business away from all of those businesses and organizations that I just named — that have been supporting our community, and that have been supporting our workers, for so many years.
“But the biggest problem with a event center is, you need marketing and promotion. You can’t just build a facility and expect things to ‘happen’. You’ve already seen what happened with the portable stage purchased by the Tourism Board. No one is using it, except the Town itself.
“So, is the Town itself going to be promoting this event facility? Who’s going to promote it? And who’s going to pull business away from our existing businesses and non-profits, while being subsidized with tax revenues?
“I think $500,000 could really be used well, to help encourage workforce housing in this community. But the Tourism Board doesn’t believe that. They have voted — unanimously — that they will not support housing for the workers in our tourism industry.
“And now they want to put other people out of business? Using tax revenues?
“This Council needs to think really hard about, what is the Town’s job, to take care of our community. And what are all our existing event facilities doing to take care of our community.
“Those are my comments. Please consider them as you think about this $500,000 proposal.”
Later in the meeting, the Council arrived at Resolution 2023-13: “Future Event Center Funding Allocation”.
Here is Tourism Board’s executive director, Jennie Green, whose job is to facilitate the Tourism Board’s agenda:
“So this item comes before you after quite a few sessions, between the Town Council, the Tourism Board, and the County Commissioners. The Tourism Board made this recommendation, to bring this idea forward, during their March 24 meeting. There was a work session with the Town and County the following week. The BOCC approved the allocation during their April 4 meeting. We had a further discussion on May 25, just to further discuss it.
“At this point, this [resolution] is to put the funding into a protected source, so the idea can be explored. It really comes from the Destination Master Plan, which was adopted by the Town and County, four years ago, I believe…”
It’s possible that some people have not noticed any changes to the Pagosa economy, and in particular, to our the housing market, since 2019.
As I sat in the audience, listening to Ms. Green, I hoped that the elected members sitting on the Town Council had noticed the changes.
Maybe some of them, at least?