Photo: The Taj Mahal.
We touched briefly, yesterday, on the idea that the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners plan to invite the taxpaying public to give input on a plan to build a new County administrative office building in the Aspen Village subdivision, near Walmart.
That subdivision was approved about 20 years ago, and still sits mostly vacant. A new government building at its core might encourage more development, but it’s just as likely discourage development. Commercial businesses typically benefit most from being among other commercial businesses. Thus, the attraction of shopping malls and shopping centers.
When the new Pagosa Springs Town Hall was built at the end of Hot Springs Boulevard, 25 years ago, we were told that the presence of Town Hall would encourage commercial development on that mostly-vacant street. To date, only tax-subsidized development has occurred nearby.
At the April 1 BOCC work session, Commissioner Warren Brown stated that he’d like “at least two” community input sessions, and the sooner the better.
“I would like a chance to have direct input from the public about this, and like [Commissioner John Ranson] said — before we move too far along on this. There are some timetables we need to really bear in mind, here. And I think it’s important that we decide, as a group, which way we’re going to go.
“We need the facts and figures, so we can give the community the best estimate that we have.”
Commissioner Veronica Medina:
“It’s hard to set any meetings before we get some real hard numbers. That was some of the feedback that I received, when we did the meeting before. That we really didn’t have much to offer the public. The public already believes that the commissioners want to build the Taj Mahal…and that’s not necessarily true.
“But really, what the community is looking for is numbers. How big is the building? Who’s going in there? How much is the potential cost of it?
“Cost can fluctuate, especially now with some of the changes that are happening…”
Presumably, Commissioner Medina is referring to changes emanating from Washington DC.
“We do have a time frame, if you will. But I think it was stated in our last meeting, that Mr. Urbancyzk [the new owner of the old Courthouse] suggested that he’d be willing to extend the lease…”
…the lease to allow the Clerk, Assessor and Treasurer to continue leasing space in the Courthouse…
“Which we would have to pay. But we’re going to have to pay if we go anywhere. If the building is not done.
“But I feel, if truly the push is to have conversations with the community, but not allow them to vote, and just do the COP [Certificates of Participation], I think that’s a better conversation to have. It’s not fair to staff, to do a lot of legwork and in the end, not really go through with a vote by the public and just do a COP…
“We need to have a real conversation of, what are the true intentions of the commissioners of how they really want to do this… I think that’s my real question to the commissioners, of what their thoughts are.”
I noted yesterday in Part Eight that a new building that accommodates the “Elected Officials” who still reside in the old Courthouse could be 10,000 square feet in size, designed so that it can be expanded in the future, as needed.
But to my knowledge, that’s not an idea that has been discussed by the BOCC. The BOCC has only discussed a much larger administration building.
What might a 50,000 square foot government building cost?
We recently heard a price estimate for a new Elementary School, because the Archuleta School District is considering a bond issue, to abandon its old school buildings and build new schools. Their consultants, RTA Architects, estimated the price for a building the same size as the existing Pagosa Springs Elementary School — with playgrounds and parking lots, at about $75 million.
If the building were funded with a bond issue, we can add the cost of the interest payments. So make it $150 million, or more.
The existing Elementary School measures 67,000 square feet.
A school building serving 500 students and staff is not the same as an administration building serving 100 employees and officials, but there are similarities. You can cram more children into a given square footage than you might try to do with adults, but the “per square foot” price might be similar.
Shall we go out on a limb, and suggest that a new 50,000 square foot admin office would cost $30 million? And including the interest payments, more like $60 million?
And could we estimate that a 10,000 square foot building — the size that we actually need at the moment — might cost around $6 million?
About the same price as the County’s new Transit Center in Harman Park?
At the April 1 meeting, Commissioner Ranson indicated that he would be willing to support the COP route — and thereby avoid a public vote — but only after receiving substantial citizen input.
“I’m comfortable with that route, unless everybody comes out and just raises Cain. But I think it’s such a difference, what the County is looking at, versus potentially what the school district is looking at, or what the Town’s looking at, having to raise sales taxes to pay for [sewer system repairs]. Or a large bond issue for schools.
“I think it’s our job to get it to a certain point and then present it to the public, how this can fit into our budget, so that, yes, we can pay for this on our own, and we’re not asking them for additional resources. And I can’t answer that yet, because we don’t know the numbers. Once we get more firm numbers, then I think we can go out there and say, ‘Here are some options, and also, here are the costs. Here are the ones we can fit in the budget, and here are the ones that would be tough to fit in the budget’…”
Well, you can fit most anything into a budget, seems to me, if you’re willing to take other things out of the budget.