Photo: Colorado Division of Housing Meeting in Pagosa Springs, May 20, 2025.
The Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD) Board met yesterday afternoon, beginning with what has become a regular part of their routine: a closed-door executive session with the District’s attorney, Marcus J. Lock, to discuss the ongoing legal dispute with the San Juan Water Conservancy District (SJWCD) over the ownership of the Running Iron Ranch.
The cost of that lawsuit has been funded by the water customers living within the PAWSD boundaries and the property-tax-payers living within the SJWCD boundaries — who are essentially the same property owners. Which is to say, essentially the same ratepayers and taxpayers are generously funding both sides of the lawsuit.
Namely, Case No. 24CV30069.
A trial has been scheduled for May, but the two districts will be meeting this morning to undergo a mediation process aimed at reaching a jointly-stipulated settlement concerning the sale or continued ownership of the Ranch. The closed-door process will be guided by an experienced mediator: Grand Junction-based attorney Gene D. Dackonish with Dispute Resolution Services.
Disclosure: I currently serve as a volunteer Board member for PAWSD, but this editorial reflects only my own opinions, and not necessarily those of the PAWSD Board or PAWSD staff.
We should know, by the end of business today, whether Mr. Dackonish was able to find enough common ground between the two districts to produce a settlement agreement, and save the community’s property owners hundreds of thousands of dollars in future legal fees.
In hopes of such an agreement, PAWSD has scheduled a special meeting next Monday to ratify the settlement.
At its core, the disagreement about the joint ownership of the Ranch, and about PAWSD’s right to sell the property, centers on whether PAWSD has sufficient water resources already to continue serving a slowly growing rural community long into future, in the face of climate trends.
The PAWSD staff and Board believes the future is secure without building a $100 million reservoir that would — in their opinion — sit uselessly on the Running Iron Ranch, evaporating water into the high desert atmosphere.
The SJWCD Board believes Pagosa Springs desperately needs a large reservoir — perhaps three times the capacity of existing PAWSD reservoir storage — in order to serve the SJWCD taxpayers… most of whom live in the Pagosa Lakes area… 500 feet uphill from the proposed reservoir.
Although the idea that water does not flow uphill has been generally accepted for a few centuries now, certain governments in Pagosa Springs continue to deny it.
In Part Ten, I mentioned two of the challenges that our local business and government leaders struggle with.
Wildfires
The Housing Crisis
I did not mention in that installment some of the other key issues that Pagosa Springs and the state of Colorado struggle with in 2026.
Roads
High taxes and fees
Public education
Health care
Municipal, industrial, and agricultural water resources
Sanitation
Our numerous tax-supported local government entities — including the Town of Pagosa Springs, Archuleta County, PAWSD, Pagosa Springs Medical Center, Archuleta School District, Pagosa Fire Protection District, Upper San Juan Library District, SJWCD, and several metro districts — sometimes work together to address these key issues, but more often can seem to be in competition for a limited amount of the economic pie.
Following the closed-door executive session yesterday, the PAWSD Board convened in open session to consider a request for fee waivers for a workforce housing project currently underway in the Trail/Chris Mountain subdivisions west of town. Two of our County commissioners — Warren Brown and John Ranson — addressed the Board at some length, urging PAWSD to waive up to $26,000 in Capital Investment Fees, per house, for five government-subsidized homes under construction. The homes will be ‘deed-restricted’ to prevent the future owners from flipping the homes for personal profit, thus keeping the homes “affordable” as defined by federal and state guidelines.
Commissioner Brown spoke passionately, reminding the PAWSD Board that Archuleta County has distributed millions of dollars in grants and tax lien parcels to various local non-profit entities over the past six years or so, in a effort to address the housing crisis. He noted that business owners in Pagosa have identified the lack of reasonably-priced housing as one of the biggest issues, in terms of finding and retaining qualified employees.
Commissioner Ranson spoke with a similar passion, and told the Board that the BOCC is willing to work hand-in-hand with PAWSD to reduce the cost of housing for the local workforce. In passing, he referenced the connection between the new Colorado Wildfire Resilience Code (discussed in Part Ten of this editorial series) the requirements of which promise to add perhaps 10%-20% to the cost of construction, beginning July 1.
He also noted that the County Road & Bridge Fund has been significantly depleted over the past few years, and needs to be rebuilt. But perhaps that can be done while still supporting the need for housing?
Following those presentation, the five PAWSD Board members — Gene Tautges, Alex Boehmer, Glenn Walsh, Bruce Jones, and myself — shared our perspectives on the CIF waiver request, and ultimately voted in favor of waiving that $26,000 fee for any home built this year by the Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation (PSCDC) that is subsequently sold to a family earning 80% or less of the Area Median Income (AMI), as calculated by the federal government.
Only one of the ten homes built thus far by the PSCDC has been sold to a family earning 80% AMI or less. Eight homes have been sold to families earning more than 80% AMI.
The PAWSD vote was 3-2, with Directors Tautges and Boehmer opposed.