Today is the day — Tuesday, October 28 — when the Town of Pagosa Springs Planning Commission will consider a “Major Subdivision Sketch Plan” submitted by Montrose-based Arena Labs LLC. The meeting begins at 5:30pm at Town Hall, and the public is invited to share their concerns about this controversial development proposal. You can download the meeting information packet here.
I hope to attend that 5:30 meeting, and testify — not against the development per se, but rather in favor of following the Town’s Land Use and Development Code (LUDC) as currently written. Specifically, I’d like the Planning Commission to closely follow Article 13, which describes the requirements of a “Major Subdivision Sketch Plan”.
Even if some Town officials might prefer to ignore Article 13.
But before we dig into the application that will be discussed tonight, I want to mention a book written by Dr. Seuss in 1971.
The Lorax.
The year 1971 holds a certain significance for a published children’s book, because The Lorax came out one year after the U.S. Congress established the Environmental Protection Agency.
The Environmental Protection Agency an “independent agency of the United States government tasked with environmental protection matters”. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970 with an executive order. This order establishing the EPA was ratified by committee hearings in the House and Senate, and the agency officially opened its doors on December 2, 1970. The agency’s first administrator, William Ruckelshaus, took the oath of office on December 4, 1970.
I mention the EPA because, up until 1970, the United States government had a mixed record for protecting the environment from industrial and mining pollution, and from clear-cutting of its forests. Dr. Seuss illustrated those same concerns in The Lorax, by creating a children’s book about a forest decimated in service of a new industry that proceeds to destroy the environment in search of endless profit. The destruction of the forest results in the disappearance of many forms of wildlife.
On page 23, a strange little animal called the Lorax first addresses the corporation’s evil founder.
“Mister!” he said with a sawdusty sneeze. “I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees.
“I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues…”
The story apparently struck a chord, because in 1972, CBS made a television special based on the book… and in 2012, Universal Pictures produced a feature-length animated movie featuring the voices of, among others, Danny DeVito, Betty White, and Taylor Swift.
I have the Lorax in mind this morning, because the 100-acre parcel proposed for development by Arena Labs LLC features some of the largest mature pines in the Pagosa Lakes area. The first “Sketch Plan” presented to the Town Planning Commission back in April indicated that many of these mature pines would be victims of commercial and residential development, if the project were approved.
In April, the Planning Commission tabled the “Sketch Plan” for future consideration. The plan looked like this on the submitted map:
The proposed project is located south of Highway 160, opposite the City Market shopping center, and just east of the Pagosa Springs Medical Center. The green areas on the above map are outside the proposed development.
Following the failure to obtain approval in April, Arena Labs went back to the drawing board and removed nearly all the details from their proposal, and re-submitted a description, and a map showing only two parcels for development: a gas station at the corner of Highway 160 and South Pagosa Boulevard, and an apartment complex just south of the gas station.
This new map — almost completely lacking in information about the developers’ intentions — was revealed to the public in August, in a couple of presentations by Pagosa architect Brad Ash.
When asked why the map showed almost no parcel information, Mr. Ash claimed that the developers were waiting for information from Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD). Without that information, Mr. Ash asserted, the developers had no way to know how dense the development could be.
Disclosure: I currently serve on the PAWSD board of directors, but this editorial reflects only my own opinions and not necessarily the opinions of the PAWSD board or staff.
Unfortunately for the audience in attendance at the August presentations, the excuse for the lack of parcel detail given by Mr. Ash was bogus. The developers had not — and still have not — paid to have the necessary water model run by PAWSD. And PAWSD cannot run the water model until the developers specify how dense the development will be.
Mr. Ash’s excuse was exactly backwards.
Article 13 of the Town’s LUDC specifically details what must be submitted with a “Major Subdivision Sketch Plan”. You can download those regulations here.
Very little of the required information, detailed in Article 13, has been submitted to the Planning Commission. Nevertheless, the Town Planning Department has chosen to allow the application to be considered tonight.
There are three basic reasons — in my humble opinion — why the Town Planning Department is supporting an incomplete application.
1. The Town applied for, and was awarded, a $2 million grant for affordable housing, and ArenaLabs has promised to build that housing, if their “Sketch Plan” can get approved. Details about who the housing would serve, and how it would be financed, are still unclear. The legality of the grant has also been challenged.
2. The Town has been striving for many years to establish a pedestrian/bicycle trail between Uptown and Downtown. To judge by recent progress, the complete trail is still many years away. ArenaLabs has promised to build a portion of that trail as part of their development.
3. The Town has been striving, for many years, to create a “secondary road system” to permit vehicles to travel between Uptown and Downtown without using Highway 160. To judge by recent progress, the complete “secondary road system” is still many years away. ArenaLabs has promised to build a portion of that roadway as part of their development, if they can get subdivision approval.
I expect to see a number of local citizens testifying tonight in opposition to this particular “Sketch Plan That’s Not a Sketch Plan.”
Perhaps the Lorax will show up?