Photo: Dave and Heidi Dragoo at a ‘sketch plan’ hearing for Pagosa West with the Town Planning Commission, March 2025. The approval was tabled to allow the Dragoos to bring back an improved plan.
We all make mistakes, and sometimes the mistakes are costly, in terms of loss of money, loss of trust, loss of sustainability, loss of natural beauty. When our tax-funded governments make mistakes, the loss can be especially costly, which suggests that slow and deliberate decision-making at the government level may be appropriate.
We’re going to consider some expensive mistakes made in Pagosa Springs, and how they might be related.
As mentioned in Part One of this editorial series, the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners ultimately rejected the idea of building a new County administration building in the proposed Pagosa West subdivision. But the Dragoo family has continued to pursue the idea of a mixed-use subdivision on 100 acres at the west end of Pagosa Springs. They brought a ‘Sketch Plan’ to the Pagosa Springs Planning Commission in March 2025, which was tabled by the commissioners.
The Dragoos next approached the Town government to propose a special metropolitan district — a ‘metro district’ — encompassing the 100-acre parcel they had not yet purchased. Typically, such a metro district is designed to required future property owners within the subdivision to pay for all of the infrastructure improvements needed to build out the subdivision — the roads, the water lines, the sewer lines. Millions of dollars of infrastructure.
The Town Council rejected that request.
In October 2025, the Dragoos presented a new subdivision plan that — in my humble opinion, and in the opinion of others — violated the Town’s ‘Sketch Plan approval’ requirements. The Town Planning Commission approved the Sketch Plan, but a group of Town residents threatened to appeal the decision, and the Dragoos subsequently withdrew that subdivision application.
It’s not inexpensive to create a subdivision out of a scenic forest. Nor do you typically make yourself popular with the neighbors. But it seems that certain people cannot be happy unless they are creating new subdivisions.
The Dragoo family has now brought forward a revised plan for Pagosa West, which will be considered by the Town Planning Commission next Tuesday, June 23 at 5:30pm in Town Hall.
In my humble opinion, the revised plan properly addresses nearly all of the violations of the Town Land Use and Development Code (LUDC) that made the October 2025 approval appear to be illegal.
I still see a couple of issues, however, with the application as submitted. For one, a ‘Sketch Plan’ must address these requirements from the LUDC:
(iv) Water supply information including the number of water taps and the estimated amount of water needed to serve the development;
(v) Sewage disposal information including the type of collection system and the estimated amount of waste generated;
Pagosa West responded to requirement (iv):
We previously submitted detailed water demand information to PAWSD [Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District] for their application process. The expected number of water taps needed based on the conceptual plan is 29 commercial/multi-family taps and 150 single family residential unit taps…
According to PAWSD staff, Pagosa West has not, in fact, received any official information from PAWSD regarding water demand, nor have they paid the fees to have the necessary water modeling done for their proposed subdivision. PAWSD has reportedly made repeated phone calls to the developers, without any response. A statement from PAWSD staff:
On May 28, 2025, David Dragoo emailed Marlo to inquire about the progress on modeling. She replied on May 29, 2025 stating that PAWSD was still waiting for them to complete the Modeling Request Form that was sent on April 3, 2025 and pay the modeling deposit. We have not heard back from them since. I have attached the meter sizing worksheets and preliminary plans originally submitted December 20, 2024 and updated on March 5, 2025. These are the only materials submitted on this project thus far…
We have not heard from the developer since May 2025. They have not completed any modeling to date nor paid for anything…
This response from PAWSD might cause the public to wonder why the developer would state in a formal application, “We previously submitted detailed water demand information to PAWSD for their application process.” This comment appears to be an attempt to mislead the Planning Commission.
Disclosure: I currently serve as a volunteer on the PAWSD Board of Directors, but this editorial reflects only my own opinions, and not necessarily the opinions of the PAWSD Board and staff.
As many readers are aware, PAWSD has itself been dealing with a number of serious issues. Most recently, PAWSD staff reported that the district may be facing a substantial budget shortfall, due at least in part to an apparent slowdown in Pagosa’s construction industry. PAWSD relies on fees paid by contractors and home builders to help balance its annual budget.
Additionally, PAWSD has been embroiled in a legal dispute with the San Juan Water Conservancy District over PAWSD’s right to sell the jointly-owned Running Iron Ranch, north of downtown Pagosa — a dispute which has cost both districts a considerable amount of money in legal fees.
But the most obvious issues facing PAWSD at the moment are ongoing weather conditions and lack of precipitation during the 2025-2026 ‘water year’ which began on October 1. PAWSD currently restricts irrigation to non-daytime hours, and is now charging additional fees for excessive water use. PAWSD may impose Drought Level 2 restrictions in the near future.
If the Pagosa West project moves forward, the developers will apparently be requesting water service. Can PAWSD actually provide this water?
From the Pagosa West application:
For the estimated amount of water needed based on the conceptual plan, we expect approximately 58,420 gallons per day (once the development is fully built out in at least 20 years).
The proposed Pagosa West subdivision is located within the PAWSD district, so the property has been paying property taxes to PAWSD for at least the past 30 years, and probably much longer than that.
Does this mean the property must be served by PAWSD if the Town approves the subdivision?
Read Part Three… tomorrow…