While walking through the Tennyson Sculpture Park yesterday — the site of Pagosa’s annual Festival of the Arts — a friend reached out his hand to say, “Howdy”.
“We need an article about ADUs,” said my friend, who has built a number of homes in Archuleta County.
He obviously meant, “An article about ADUs in the Daily Post.”
Good idea.
Fro those not familiar with the term “ADU”, it’s the acronym for “Accessory Dwelling Unit”… sometimes referred to as a “garden cottage” or “granny flat” or “carriage house” or “in-law suite”. Typically, a cozy, independent dwelling unit attached to the main house, or in the back yard, or sometimes in the front yard, often occupied by a family member… or rented out to an unrelated person or family.
Unfortunately, ADUs are not a legal form of housing, according to many government land use codes and HOA restrictions — although many cities and towns have been adjusting their building codes to allow for ADUs in certain neighborhoods.
Because these units tend to be small, and because they are located on the owner’s existing parcel, they tend to be less expensive to build than your standard 2,000-square-foot (or larger) home on a suburban-sized (or larger) lot. When used as a rental, they provide income to the owners, and housing options in the community.
In some communities, an expanded allowance for ADUs has made a significant impact, locally, on America’s housing crisis.
More about ADUs in a moment.
While walking through the festival in Tennyson Sculpture Park, I happened to strike up a conversation with a poet named Grace Turgeon. Ms. Turgeon had set up her manual typewriter on a tiny table near a couple of the sculptures, with a sign announcing that, for a donation of any amount, she would write a poem on the spot, based upon your choice of subject matter.
Ms. Turgeon has been traveling around Colorado, living in her van, and writing personalized poems at festivals and events. (She’s also available for weddings and family gatherings. gvturg@outlook.com)
She confessed that Pagosa Springs is one of her favorite stops.
Thinking that I might be writing an article about ADUs, I engaged Ms. Turgeon to compose a poem about the unfortunate lack of affordable housing in the communities she visits. A few minutes later, Ms. Turgeon had this poem ready.
from the windows of my home on wheels,
I find gratitude for springs and rivers
in the way they heal
prices for homes higher than the Rockies Peaks
so we learn to adapt,
and refuse a rent price that’s less than sweet
so as the prices climb and climb
I tell my worries to the springs, and hold a hope
for our children’s future times
I’ve not spent much time living in a van. I did once take a road trip from Yukon Territory, Canada to Tijuana, Mexico — and back — with some friends, but we mostly slept in tents, in campgrounds, along the way. The van was a last resort when campgrounds were few and far between. We knew, however, that this gypsy lifestyle was not meant to be permanent, and we would eventually end up back in our safe, warm houses.
When Clarissa and I first arrived in Pagosa Springs — with three kids and our household belongs — we rented a cabin that couldn’t have been more than about 600 square feet. But that was only for about three months. Our next dwelling comprised about 1,500 square feet. And the next house was even larger.
Apparently, we have traveling poets here in Colorado who live in their vans on a semi-permanent basis. It’s a lifestyle choice, even if the choices are limited.
When the Pagosa Springs Township was surveyed in 1883…
…nearly all of the parcels, including the commercial parcels, were drawn as 1/6 acre lots. 7,260 square feet. For the next 100 years, that size parcel was considered generally adequate space for a family home or commercial building. Many downtown homes were 1,000 square feet or less, even though families were typically larger than what we’re seeing in 2026. Apartment units were even smaller.
But times change. And then change again.
A typical three-bedroom home in the American West now measures about 2,000 square feet. But fewer and fewer young adults want or need a three-bedroom house… or even a two-bedroom house, for that matter. When Pagosa Housing Partners surveyed people employed in Pagosa Springs in 2021, they found that about 59% of employees needed only a one-bedroom house. Less than 23% needed three bedrooms.
Those are my estimates, based on the fact that 59% of the people surveyed live in one-person or two-person households. The American West is no longer generating large households.
If a person were creative and didn’t have a fondness for large front or back yards, they could easily fit six 1,000-square-foot dwellings on a 1/6-acre downtown lot.
But the Town of Pagosa Springs has adopted land use codes, aimed at achieving a certain “type” of community. In a few town neighborhoods, you can build four dwelling units on a 1/6 acre parcel. But for many town parcels, you are allowed only one or two dwelling units.
The land use codes adopted by the Archuleta County government are even more restrictive. In most of the unincorporated county, you are allowed at most two dwelling units on your property, even if you own 500 acres.
The state of Colorado recently passed a law that will require many counties to update their land use plans, and Archuleta County is one such county. The County has contracted with Colorado-Springs-based HR Green Inc. to update the ‘Archuleta County Community Plan’ — last updated in 2017.
It’s pretty obvious that the 2017 Plan update did very little to address the worsening housing crisis in our community and the resulting economic challenges that arise from a lack of affordable housing, even though we might think should have been part of the Plan’s purpose…
So can we talk, seriously, about ADUs?
Read Part Two… tomorrow…