Photo courtesy Brenda Ann Kenneally/AmericanPoverty.org
About 86% of households view housing availability as a major or severe issue in the county…
— from the 2025 Archuleta County Housing Needs Assessment
The residents of this rural mountain town seem to overwhelmingly agree on at least one thing. We’re in the midst of a housing crisis.
But what to do about it? Who is responsible for fixing the problem? Do we need drastic measures… possibly, measures that will make some residents uncomfortable, and unhappy?
Archuleta County, the Town of Pagosa Springs, and Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation are hosting an open house tomorrow, Wednesday, January 21 to collect citizen input about the housing crisis in Archuelta County. Two sessions will be offered — one session from 10am to 12 noon, and a second session from 5 to 7pm, at the Ross Aragon Community Center, 451 Hot Springs Boulevard.
We often hear political leaders suggest that the “solution” to the housing crisis must be a “multi-pronged approach.” I agree. The reasons for the crisis are many and varied, and no single solution will lift us out of the hole into which we’ve dug ourselves.
At the December 18 meeting of the Archuleta County Planning Commission, Planning Manager Melissa Ryan told the commissioners that her department plans to bring forward some proposed changes to the County’s Land Use Regulations (LUR) possibly in January.
Ms. Ryan told the commission that “we are going to be bringing something in January for proposed changes to land use regulations” that will be related to County temporary use permits that might allow families to live in RVs year-round, indefinitely. The permits currently being issued to those families are issued under an “expired resolution.”
“So, we need to do something about this,” she said, explaining that the County Planning Department could allow people reside in an RV “as long as they need to.” When the RV has a certified septic system and electrical system, she suggested, the RV could be renewed every five years instead of having a County inspection every six months, as is currently required.
But not exactly “currently required”… because the resolution is expired.
Apparently, this isn’t the only change being suggested for the LURs.
She explained that, historically, the Department had depended on institutional knowledge within the Planning Department, to facilitate the interpretation of the Land Use Regulations… “and we’ve lost all of that.”
That institutional knowledge disappeared last summer, when the County Planning Department saw a mass exodus of seasoned employees — at the instigation of certain County Commissioners who were unhappy with recent Department decisions.
You can read about that controversy here.
“So, we’re starting from zero in starting to interpret our Land Use Regulations and realizing some of it is really confusing.”
She noted that the LUR includes more than 10 definitions for “housing”.
“There’s just a lot of stuff that we are having trouble with…”
I’ve been writing about our worsening housing crisis in Pagosa Springs pretty much ever since the Daily Post published its first articles in 2004. Part of the problem is the lack of continuity on our local boards and commissions. While an employee might continue working at a County job for 20 years or longer… the Commissioners, who tell them what to do, are in office only four to eight years, due to term limits.
This routine also means that department heads typically get fired every four to eight years by the incoming commissioners.
Another part of the problem: our local government leaders didn’t take the crisis seriously for the first two decades of Daily Post coverage. (Even though we were telling them to get off their backsides and do something.)
Yet another part of the problem: human greed. The Baby Boomer generation was raised to believe that a house is more than a place to live; it’s an “investment”. When you sell it, your should get more than you paid for it. The more, the better.
Almost nothing else in American life works like this. Something “second-hand” is nearly always worth less than something new.
As mentioned above, Archuleta County and the Town of Pagosa Springs are hosting a ‘Housing Action Plan’ Open House tomorrow, Wednesday, January 21. From the County website:
Everyone is welcome to come learn about the project, ask questions, and share what you think – no prior knowledge needed!
So that’s yet another part of the problem. Inviting the public to a housing plan event, to share what they think.. when the public may, in fact, have “no prior knowledge”.
For any readers who might like to attend the Open House, but also might want to arrive with some “prior knowledge”… you can download the 2019 Housing Action Plan that was created for, and adopted by, the Town of Pagosa Springs. That plan cost the taxpayers $50,000, but I wonder if it’s been sitting on a shelf, gathering dust, for the past seven years?
Let’s say you wanted to help our community solve the housing crisis that threatens to seriously damage our economy while also stressing out a large percentage of our population.
Where would you go to find out how to help?
I can imagine there’s at least a dozen people in our community who fit that description: wanting to help solve the housing crisis. Maybe even two or three dozen. Maybe more?