At the regular meeting of the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday, February 3, Commissioner John Ranson voted ‘No’.
He understood that he would be out-voted by Veronica Medina and Warren Brown, his two fellow commissioners. But he simply couldn’t agree to spending up to $140,000 of taxpayer money on an update to the Archuleta County Community Plan.
Up to $70,000 would come from the County budget. Another $70,000 might be available through a state grant. So, from two different groups of taxpayers.
“You know where I stand on this. I struggle with these ‘plans’. We’ve been delayed with our ‘Strategic Plan’ and we paid a lot of money for that. My two cents is to focus on the Strategic Plan.
“I’m not in favor of this. We’re trying find money for Road and Bridge, and every step we take to spend money on different things is hurting our chances of raising $1 million or whatever we’re trying to raise for Road and Bridge, and then hopefully another pool of money with the Lodging Tax increase.
“I think we’ve got to set priorities, and right now, the highest priority I see out there is how the heck we’re going to get some money for roads…”
Commissioner Warren Brown stated that he tended to agree with Commissioner Ranson, “but it’s my understanding that this particular [Community Plan] update is tied to potential grant funds in the future. Is it not?”
County Manager Longinos Gonzalez:
“Yes, we would have to… to be compliant with some of the other grants that we’re requesting, we would have to comply with what I mentioned: the state requirements…”
Mr. Gonzalez suggested that producing the required update ‘in-house’ with County staff would be “difficult”.
According to Senate Bill 24-174, passed by the Colorado legislature in 2024, a failure to update Archuleta County’s Community Plan by December 2026 appears to be tied directly to grant opportunities from numerous state agencies.
You can download the existing Community Plan here. This Plan was originally developed “through extensive public input in 2001″… following a decade of unbridled, unregulated growth that had doubled the county population and caused many old-timers to question where the community was headed.
In particular, the County-maintained roads were taking a beating, partly as the result of heightened development activity.
No one wanted Pagosa to become another “Aspen” or “Vail” — unaffordable to anyone but millionaires. But that’s where development seemed to be taking us. The 2001 Community Plan was an (ultimately failed) attempt to put the brakes on.
Then in 2008, the nationwide Great Recession arrived, and at one point, Archuleta County was listed as the Colorado county with the second-highest percentage of foreclosures. A significant number of the real estate sales between 2009 and 2012 were bank sales of foreclosed properties, and local real estate prices (and property tax revenues) dropped by about 30%.
The Community Plan was updated in 2016-2017… at a time when Pagosa Springs was finally recovering from the Great Recession and unbridled, unregulated growth once again seemed like a good idea — not just in Pagosa but all across Colorado.
However, the 2017 update retained many of the regulatory hurdles that the community — through its “extensive public input” — had inserted into the plan in 2001.
Seven years later, some folks in the Colorado legislature had realized that local regulations aimed at “preserving the community’s character” and “preserving property values” were, in some cases, helping to bring about a serious housing crisis, which was in turn hampering economic vitality.
Those legislative concerns resulted in Senate Bill 12-174 — a 45-page law that you can download here.
According to my reading of SB24-174, County Manager Gonzalez correctly stated that an update to the County’s Community Plan — by December 2026 — appears tied to future grant opportunities from certain state agencies.
From SB24-174:
(1) on or after December 1, 2027, any grant program administered by the [Department of Local Affairs], the Colorado Energy Office, the Office of Economic Development, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Natural Resources, the Department of Public Health and Environment, or the Department of Personnel and Administration that awards grants to counties and municipalities for the primary purpose of supporting land use planning or housing, excluding land use planning or housing pursuant to article 32 of title 29, must, so long as doing so is not inconsistent with federal law or the state constitution, include prioritization criteria that consider whether:
(a) a current local or regional Housing Needs Assessment has been completed for the local government and has been accepted by the department pursuant to section 24-32-3703 or 24-32-3704;
(b) a Housing Action Plan has been adopted by the local government and accepted by the department pursuant to section 24-32-3705;
(c) a report has been submitted by the local government and accepted by the Department pursuant to section24-32-3705 (6); and
(d) the Master Plan for the local government includes a water supply element and strategic growth element as described in sections 30-28-106 (3)(a.5) and 31-23-206 (1.5).
In other words, the state has grant funding available to help address your local issues, but only if you do as you’re told.
The carrot, and the stick.
A substantial portion of SB24-174 aimed at giving direction to the Department of Local Affairs (DOLA), requiring the Department to design the requirements for the Housing Needs Assessment, the Housing Action Plan, and the “Master Plan for local government” (in our case, the Community Plan). Which is to say, the detailed requirements for our studies and plans have come, not from state legislators, but from state bureaucrats.
If you look up the word, “extortion” in a thesaurus, you can find numerous synonyms.
I sorta like this selection:
coercion, shakedown, intimidation, squeeze, racket, demand, ransom
Commissioners Brown and Medina approved the RFP (Request for Proposal) that may cost up to $140,000. Commissioner Ranson voted “nay”.
Sometimes, you just want to pay the ransom.