Photo: Local resident Abbie Karas testifies at the July 18, 2024, Town Council meeting.
Negative economic impacts to downtown Pagosa Springs businesses are expected to begin next spring, if the Colorado Department of Transportation follows through on a proposed two-year effort to replace the asphalt surface of Highway 160 with a new concrete surface. The project, as planned, is likely to greatly reduce the amount of on-street public parking along Highway 160 (aka Pagosa Street) between 1st Street and 8th Street — through the downtown business core.
Some people feel fear, at the thought.
In hopes of mitigating those negative impacts — which threaten the economic viability of some downtown shops — a Town-appointed group of mainly business owners has been exploring the idea of creating temporary (or possibly permanent) satellite parking lots. One suggestion from the group placed a good-sized parking lot at the west end of the athletic field in Town Park.
The Town Council discussed that possibility at its July 18 meeting, and heard protests from Pagosa Springs Middle School staff and families. The Middle School has long used the Town Park athletic field for P.E. classes, and historically, it served as the High School football field before construction of the new high school at the end of South 8th Street.
The parking lot proposal had been considered previously by the Town Planning Commission, which voted unanimously against recommending the proposal, noting that the community’s municipal parks — being by their nature centrally-located parcels of mostly vacant land — will always going to be prime targets for development. We saw exactly that type of thing take place 15 years ago, when a section of Centennial Park was leased to the Geothermal Greenhouse Partnership as the site for three ‘growing domes’.
A week later, the Combined Parks & Recreation Committee voted unanimously in favor of the parking lot idea, with perhaps a reduced footprint.
The Town’s Main Street Advisory Board had originally suggested the parking lot as one of several parking proposals, but had not — to my knowledge — made a recommendation either “for” or “against” the Town Park location.
At the beginning of the July 18 Council meeting, the audience in the Council chambers was about as full as I’ve seen it lately, and Mayor Shari Pierce invited the audience to share their thoughts about the use of the athletic field for parking.
First to speak was Pagosa Springs Middle School teacher Scott White, who summarized his objections in terms of the historical uses in Town Park.
“I learned to play baseball there. I learned to play football there. I’m still a football coach there… And it’s about all the celebrations that we’ve had on that field…”
Next up was Matt Chavez, who also spoke about the park’s history.
“I’m fifth generation here in Pagosa. I grew up playing T-Ball on that field. Playing baseball there… and I just feel it would be disrespectful to turn it into pavement. I realize it’s not used as m uch as it was in the past, what with the [July Fourth] carnival being gone. But it’s still part of our history. And I’m personally tired of seeing our small town being taken over by the tourists and the almighty dollar, and getting rid of our history as a small town community…”
I’ll be sharing some additional comments from the audience in a moment — all of which expressed opposition to using part of the athletic field for a parking lot. But first, a couple of comments. Yesterday, we shared a short article from StrongTowns.org, written by Daniel Herrige, discussing the many benefits of reducing parking requirements in urban areas — in this case, the city of Anchorage, Alaska. American cities and towns (and we must include the Town of Pagosa Springs in this group) have developed regulations over the past few decades, that require new commercial buildings to provide automobile parking large enough to accommodate the theoretical maximum number of vehicles they might see on a given day. (But usually, will not see?) The definition of “commercial buildings” includes multi-family apartments.
Parking requirements have proved to be, in many ways, a double-edged sword, as Mr. Herrige points out in his article. A couple of the downsides that he doesn’t mention:
1. When every commercial building must have a large paved parking lot, this simple fact encourages people to drive from place to place, rather than walk or ride a bike. Witness, on a lovely summer day, for example, the number of pedestrians in downtown Pagosa Springs (which was built out mainly before parking minimums were imposed) with the Aspen Village mixed-use subdivision (where parking minimums have been enforced.)
2. Big parking lots create distances between commercial venues, which further discourages walking. Compare, again, the compact nature of Pagosa’s downtown shopping district, with the spread-out nature of the uptown shopping areas, due mainly to municipal parking requirements.
Simply stated, parking lots are good for cars, and bad for social interaction. No wonder we feel disconnected from one another, these days.
Here’s a photo of the athletic field taken this week, looking east.
And here are a couple of comments from Middle School Principal Chris Hinger:
“I am asking that you consider other places to put parking, other than our precious grass. With almost 500 kids [at the Middle School] that daily use that field for P.E., it’s integral. And we’ve always had a good partnership, the Town and the School…”
He mentioned the cooperative effort, years ago, that resulted in Yamaguchi Park.
“We’re known as a very healthy middle school; we have P.E. at every grade level. The kids go to P.E daily… Let’s find parking elsewhere…”
We understand the concerns of the businesses in the commercial downtown core. Sales tax collections have been rising steadily over the past decade, and it would be painful, to the businesses and to the Town’s sales-tax-driven budget, to see that trend reversed as the result of a CDOT reconstruction project.
But the question central to the Town Council’s decision on July 18 was: aren’t there other options?