Photo: Archuleta County Sheriff Mike Le Roux discusses the issues at 284 Piper Place at the March 19, 2024 Board of County Commissioners meeting.
A few decisions were made at the Tuesday, March 19, meeting of the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners.
A proposal from Durango-based MODSTREET to manufacture four ‘bus shelters’ for the Mountain Express Transit (MET) system was approved.
Some minor changes to the Noise Ordinance, the Open Burning Ordinance, and the Control of Dogs Ordinance were likewise approved.
The tax abatement to fix an error by the Assessor’s Office appraising a 35-acre parcel in San Juan River Village at $2 million, was approved.
Those actions took place at the afternoon ‘Regular Meeting’, without much fuss and bother.
The fuss and bother took place at the very beginning of the meeting, when a group of property owners on the Lower Blanco Road showed up to protest the lack of County enforcement on a neighbor’s parcel. Reportedly, the parcel has been neglected by the absentee owner, and vagrants and squatters have been living on the property, apparently without access to a septic system, leaving the place a mess and allowing dogs to run at large. Past promises by the owner’s relatives to mitigate the problems have gone unfulfilled over the past eight years.
Also unfulfilled, it seems, were promises by the County government to address the nuisance situation. The Sheriff’s Office has made repeated visits, but the overall condition of the property has continued to deteriorate, according to the neighbors.
The property at the center of the controversy is located at 284 Piper Place. The County mapping app shows a small building on the property, and possibly signs of junk spread around the 2-acre parcel. The owner is Peggy Payne, who reportedly lives in Florida.
It was apparent from the testimony that the ball had been dropped by the BOCC and County staff back in 2019 — which was prior to the election of current commissioners Veronica Medina and Warren Brown. Preliminary legal steps had been taken back then, to address the mess, but the County had not followed through.
Normally, public comment at BOCC meetings is limited to three minutes per person, and the commissioners typically do not engaged in a discussion with the presenters. In this case, the commissioners were drawn into the drama of the situation, and spent about 30 minutes questioning the several Lower Blanco neighbors and also questioning County Attorney Todd Weaver as to the County’s legal options for addressing the situation — even though the topic was not on the meeting agenda. Attorney Weaver was given direction to renew the County’s legal effort to get the property cleaned up.
Commissioner Medina suggested that the County’s new Public Health Department could be enlisted to inspect the property and determine whether a public health issue exists there. Attorney Weaver noted that previous requests, made to San Juan Basin Public Health to inspect the property, had been refused. Now that Archuleta County has its own public health department, Attorney Weaver proposed, perhaps the Archuleta County Public Health Department will get involved in nuisance situations?
Interesting proposal. From my point of view, one of the main causes for San Juan Basin Public Health’s dissolution last year was a disagreement between the Archuleta BOCC and La Plata BOCC about how involved a joint public health agency ought to become involved — during a pandemic — in controlling the personal lives of citizens.
All government activities are ultimately political. But I wonder just how politically involved we want our new Public Health Department to become?
Which might be a good lead-in to the ‘Semi-Annual Update’ by Archuleta County Development Director Pamela Flowers, which took place earlier that same day, during the BOCC Work Session.
It might be a good lead-in, because Archuleta County Development Services are largely responsible for enforcing land uses in our community.
Ms. Flower’s department staff has grown somewhat over the past couple of years, most recently with the creation of the County’s Water Quality Department, which has taken over the inspection and approval of new and existing septic systems, a task previously handled by now-defunct San Juan Basin Public Health. Another factor in the growth of her department staff has been the growth of, and the increasing regulation of, the Short-Term Rental industry.
How strictly should development and land use in Archuleta County be controlled? Obviously, a lack of control and enforcement continues to cause distress among the neighbors on Piper Place.
As we know, Archuleta County budgets are controlled by the Board of County Commissioners, and as we know, where a government directs its money determines, to a significant degree, what gets done. And what doesn’t get done.
Back in 2005, the Archuleta County BOCC budgeted a combined total of 12 employees for its Planning and Building departments. Following the arrival of the Great Recession in 2008, budget cuts eventually reduced the combined Planning and Building staff to a total of 3.5 FTE (Full Time Equivalent) employees.
Building and Planning are now combined under ‘Development Services’… and the Water Quality Department, and Code Enforcement, have been added.
According to the slides we saw yesterday morning, Development Services appears to employ a total of 13 people in its four divisions. (I’m not clear on the total FTEs).
You might say, things have gotten busy at Development Services.
In Part Two, I’ll share some of yesterday’s presentation by Pam Flowers, describing what Development Services is now doing, and where it might be headed.