Photo: About 100 people showed up at the Pagosa Lakes Property Owners Association (PLPOA) Clubhouse on Wednesday, January 8, to hear Board President Lars Schneider and other Association leaders provide answers to member’s questions.
The sign-up sheets at the entrance to the PLPOA Clubhouse on Wednesday night invited Association members to share their names and contact information. I skipped that process, because I don’t own property in Pagosa Lakes and thus, I’m not an Association member. I was attending simply as an interested journalist.
From what I could tell, the rest of the 100 people who packed the room were indeed members — Pagosa Lakes property owners — and they had questions.
About the proposed PLPOA gymnasium project.
And they had opinions.
Another 100 people attended the meeting via Zoom. They also had questions. And opinions.
The questions and opinions concerned an upcoming election, wherein Association property owners will have the opportunity to vote “Yes” or “No” on the following question:
Do you approve the funding of a gymnasium, for a one-time special assessment of $255, which will be billed April 1, 2025 and due July 1, 2025.
Payments can be made in full or in four monthly installments of $63.75 by the due date… or requests can be made for a written payment plan (per collection policy – Resolution 2024-04) up to 18 months with a minimum payment of $25 per month, without late fee penalties, if set up before the
due date.
Assuming the special assessment is approved, that is.
You can view the entire January 8 meeting on Zoom, here, or linked from the PLPOA website.
The Association consists of about 4,200 families and individuals, who own about 6,400 improved or unimproved properties with the PLPOA. Each property owner is entitled to two votes in the upcoming special assessment election, and the results will be determined by the majority of those voting.
Wyndham timeshare owners will also be entitled to vote, with each timeshare owner allotted 1/50 of a vote.
Each owner will receive an email invitation or a snail-mail invitation, with their voter code.
Voting will take place online, and will be handled by Vote-Now.com, the same company that handles the annual PLPOA Board elections.
Of course, the children living in PLPOA will not have a vote. But they will likely be needed to help their parents figure out how to vote online.
The January 8 meeting began with a 35-minute overview of the proposed gymnasium project, led by Board President Lars Schneider, Finance Committee chair Adam Blocki, PLPOA Recreation Center director Ryan Graham, and Communications Manager Jen Pitcher.
The introductory presentation was very similar to a video presentation posted to the PLPOA website, here… but also covered a few recent developments, such as the assessment amount changing to $255 from a previous estimate of $241… the cost estimate for the facility construction changing from $2.1 million to $2.2 million… and a fuller discussion about Association insurance coverage.
PLPOA has, for many years, been making recreational and infrastructure improvements to enhance the lives — and property values — of Association members. The presentation suggested that those investments have totaled about $1.5 million since 2020, and have included walking trails in various neighborhoods, restroom facilities at the lakes, cluster PO Boxes, and a dog park. An additional $1.3 million is planned to be spent over the next three years…
None of those investments have required, or will require, a vote of the membership. But the cost of the gymnasium, as planned, would exceed 15% of the Association’s appraised property valuation and thus requires voter approval, per Association rules.
The presentation by the various Association committee members and staff made it fairly clear that the Association leadership — including the Board of Directors, the Association staff, the Financial Advisory Committee, the Recreation Committee and the Youth Activities and Sports Committee — was in support of this project. An audience member later referred to the presentation as a “sales pitch”.
I am reminded, for some reason, of an old Western song.
And never is heard, a discouraging word,
And the skies are not cloudy all day…
The presenters highlighted the many positive aspects of the proposal, stress, for example, that the special assessment would fund only the construction of the gymnasium, but that the gymnasium operating and maintenance costs — like the operating costs and maintenance of the existing Recreation Center — would be fully covered by user fees, including the fees paid by pickleball players, sports teams, after-school programs, and tournament organizers who would be using the facility.
The presenters also highlighted the theoretical financial benefits of a gymnasium, claiming that Pagosa Lakes homes will increase in value as a result of having this amenity available to owners.
At the conclusion of the presentation, President Schneider opened the floor — and the Zoom call — to questions.
But, please, not opinions.
President Schneider:
“Everything we’ve done in the past [by way of community improvements], we’ve never had to go for a vote. So that is kind of why this is so exciting of a project, and why people are so opinionated. Because they get to express their opinion on it…”
He noted that members rarely attend the Association board meetings.
“Up until this gym project, I’ve been extremely vocal about how much we need more involvement from our community. We have 6,600 properties, and I can tell you, at more than half our Board meetings, I can count on one hand how many people show up to those meetings. By showing up to those have meetings, which are held at the exact same time every single month for God knows how many years… that’s how you guys get involved, when you say, ‘Hey, we need this… and we need this… and we don’t need that…’
“We need involvement. So I love seeing all the people here tonight…”
He stressed that every Association family or individual will have two votes in the upcoming election. (Voting will commence on January 27 and conclude on March 1.)
That is where, he suggested, members can express their opinion. On their ballot.
So tonight’s meeting is not about expressing opinions. This January 8 meeting was meant to be a Q&A session, where questions can get asked, and hopefully answered, he explained.
And questions were indeed asked, and answered. For the next 2 1/2 hours.
Read Part Two, on Monday…