In a moment, we will dig into the Town Council’s January 25 work session discussion of its third highest priority for 2024…
3. Workforce Housing
But first, I promised back in Part Two to give a summary of a different corporate effort: the Town’s ‘Main Street’ program. That program was discussed during the recent Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation (PSCDC) membership meeting on January 23.
From the Colorado Department of Local Affairs website:
The Colorado Main Street Program offers support for community-led downtown revitalization. We help communities thrive by providing a customizable framework to focus efforts, energy, and resources.
The PSCDC Administrative Manager and Main Street Coordinator Kat McFadden headed up the Main Street presentation, noting that a 12-person advisory board — four government officials, and eight community volunteers — has been meeting regularly to develop ideas for the enhancement of the downtown commercial district. The big announcement concerned a cooperative grant application by the Town and PSCDC for sidewalk improvements. Pooling some matching funds with some grant funding from the Department of Local Affairs (DOLA), the Town and the PSCDC are proposing to replace and upgrade the maintenance-challenged sidewalk in front of the Pagosa Springs Middle School along Highway 160.
The Middle School sidewalk project is estimated to cost $250,000, and will reportedly be rolled into other Town-sponsored sidewalk and streetscape improvements during Colorado Department of Transportation’s (CDOT’s) planned two-year reconstruction of Highway 160 through downtown Pagosa. That larger reconstruction project has been in the planning stages for about five years; rumor is, that it will begin in 2024.
I personally find the Middle School sidewalk project somewhat curious. That particular stretch of sidewalk is rarely used by the Middle School students or staff, because the main access to the school is on Lewis Street, with auxiliary access on Fourth Street. Having lived in town for 30 years, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a class of students use the sidewalk on the Highway 160 side of the school.
Nor is that stretch of sidewalk particularly popular with ordinary pedestrians. But perhaps it was an easy sell to DOLA, because “it runs directly in front of a school.” The process of grant acquisition is a highly competitive sport, and no one wins a grant without a compelling “story”. The Town and PSCDC did, indeed, win this grant, so we know the story was reasonably compelling.
We just need 100 more grants to address all the downtown neighborhood streets that have no sidewalks at all. Those residential neighborhoods are not currently a priority, however. (The actual priority, for many years, has been a four-mile sidewalk from downtown to uptown.)
The Main Street Advisory Board has additional ideas for mitigating the economic damage to downtown Pagosa during CDOT’s two-year reconstruction project.
Then we have another area where grants will be sought this year and in the coming years:
3. Workforce Housing
… the third most important priority in the Town Council’s goals for 2024.
The Town staff has met with “numerous interested developers who are all waiting on Prop 123 funding programs to be announced in 2024.” Prop 123, approved by the voters in 2022, will someday start handing out grants and subsidies for certain types of housing projects, but we’re still waiting on those announcements.
PSCDC is hoping to benefit from some of that Prop 123 money to support higher-income workforce housing at the west end of town. The PSCDC has scheduled a public presentation by two finalists, in a competition for 10 vacant lots in Trails and Chris Mountain subdivisions. Those presentations will be held tomorrow, Wednesday January 31, at 3pm at the Tennyson Event Center.
The proposed ‘Trails at Pagosa’ low-income housing project near Walmart is awaiting plan approval at Town Hall, and might break ground this summer, if the stars align. It could provide 50 apartment units for households earning 30%-80% of the Area Median Income. In a tourist economy like ours, that income range would apply to nearly every working household. Only a small percentage of working households in Pagosa earn 100% AMI or above.
Meanwhile, the Town’s planned “Enclave Middle Income Housing” project designated for a three-acre parcel behind Walmart has been ‘on hold’ for over a year. That ‘public private partnership’ with Texas-based student-housing builder Servitas was stymied by higher interest rates, higher labor and materials costs, and a proposal by Servitas to place all the project risk on the Town taxpayers.
During the Council work session, Community Development Director James Dickhoff noted that Servitas continues to seek grants to help the project pencil, and stated that the “for-sale units” included in the proposed project look more feasible than the “for-rent units” due partly to a mortgage subsidy loan program available through Durango-based HomesFund.
A year ago, the project included xxx rental apartment units and xxx town homes for purchase.
Mayor Shari Pierce carefully posed a question. “Is there any… chance… of maybe changing the Servitas project?”
We heard laughter from some of the Council members.
Council member Mat deGraaf:
“I can just see the can of worms being opened…”
Mayor Pierce:
“But James mentioned the HomesFund assistance. If it became a different type of project? Condos for sale, instead of rentals?…”
Mr. Dickhoff noted that Pagosa has a well-documented need for rentals, as well as for-sale units.
Mayor Pierce:
“I’ve always felt that, to build wealth in your community, you want people to ‘own’ versus ‘rent’. And a lot of times, a mortgage payment is less than rent…”
Many people have the same impression as Mayor Pierce, thanks in part to a relentless marketing campaign by the federal government and the mortgage industry over the past 50 years, extolling the benefits of home ownership over rental apartments. Those benefits are real, but do not address the needs of all family types.
Pagosa now finds itself suffering a severe housing crisis, largely as the result of that intense marketing campaign and an ongoing failure to build out rental units in a low-wage tourism economy… to a point where working families are now forced to live in vehicles… or find jobs in some other town…