February, 2020
The first confirmed US case of a newly-identified coronavirus was announced on January 21, 2020, in the Seattle, Washington area. Some evidence now exists that the virus had arrived in the US at least a month earlier, but had been misdiagnosed as seasonal influenza. The World Health Organization declared a global health emergency on January 30, a few hours after China reported the death toll from the newly-identified virus had risen to 170. On February 11, the WHO announced the official name for the viral disease: COVID-19.
But to many of us in Pagosa Springs, all of the posturing and announcing and worrying seemed far, far away. We had other things on our minds. Wolf Creek Ski Area was celebrating its 80th year of operation. Pagosa Springs Medical Center was planning its annual ‘Heartbeat Ball’ for February 29. The Town Council listened to a presentation urging the Town to install more charging stations for electric vehicles. LPEA was posting new, higher electric rates.
I, meanwhile, had yet other things on my mind. As a newly-appointed member of the Town Planning Commission, I was hoping to help make some changes in two important documents: the Land Use and Development Code, and the Town’s Comprehensive Plan.
The Comp Plan had been updated three years earlier by out-of-town consultants whose main concern, it seems, was to list every possible community “upgrade” that might conceivably happen over the next 10 or 20 years. They had come up with 363 goals, just waiting to be achieved. In other words, the 2017 Comprehensive Plan was not a “plan”, in any real sense of the word. It was a collection of hypothetical ideas, most of which would never see the light of day.
An organization the size of our Town government is lucky if they can achieve half a dozen community-wide goals in a given year. A dozen would be a real stretch. But the Town Council and the Planning Commission had been handed 363 goals. Ouch.
Also, the Comp Plan was not internally consistent. For example, one of the goals in the plan’s Economic Vitality section was:
14. Attract and retain a balance of tourism and non-tourism-dependent industries and businesses to increase economic resiliency and minimize the seasonality endemic in the local tourism economy.
This is a fine idea, which has been kicked around by our local leaders for at least the past 20 years — like a can, kicked down the road. And the Comp Plan likewise kicked it down the road — because the Plan listed literally dozens of “tourism-dependent” goals… but included maybe two mentions of one theoretically-viable “non-tourism-dependent” industry: “alternative energy”.
Where were all the other “non-tourism-dependent” industries that the Town government would work at promoting? I was unable to find them described in the 2017 Comp Plan — which suggested, perhaps, that the Town government was planning for a lot more “tourism” and not much “non-tourism”.
Here’s another instance of “complicated” (contradictory) goals, sitting right next to one another on the same page in the Culture, Heritage and the Arts section.
13. Design and locate buildings to respect the characteristics of the surrounding natural landscape. Buildings should follow the local architectural pattern and be located at the toes of slopes or edges of meadows…
14. Promote and provide diverse housing types and opportunities for housing choices for all, understanding that housing type and densities are context sensitive to rural and urban areas…
If you read these two goals separately, they each seem sensible. But our existing buildings, and our “local architectural pattern” in downtown Pagosa Springs reflect a by-gone era, when lumber was cheap, labor was cheap, concrete was cheap, and there was no Town government telling you, once you had paid a sizeable fee, what you could and could not build.
Basically, what was once “affordable” to build in Pagosa Springs is no longer affordable. In order to realistically provide “diverse housing types and opportunities for housing choices for all”, the future housing for working families will probably need to be very different — architecturally and materially — from what was build here in the past.
Unfortunately, the Town Comprehensive Plan gives us no guidance regarding these two options. Which future was the Comp Plan aiming to create? Because, as I understand the world, you can’t have your cake, and eat it too. Do we want a future where new buildings reflect the existing architecture (and thus, might be affordable only to wealthy retirees)… or…do we want a future where we’re also providing housing for working families (housing that might look very different from what currently exists)?
My hope, when I joined the Town Planning Commission, was to have some vigorous discussions about these complicated issues, making use the intelligence and creativity of the seven members on the commission. Which of the 363 goals in the Comp Plan were truly meaningful in 2020? What were the most serious problems we were facing?
Were there possibly three or four incredibly important goals in this document that the Town might achieve within the next five years? Wouldn’t it make more sense to focus on the most serious community needs, first?
And also — knowing that the Town’s Land Use and Development Code (LUDC) was in need of updating, and did not necessarily align well with the recently revised Comp Plan — I was hoping that the Commission would have some vigorous discussions about the LUDC as well. The Town Planning Director, James Dickhoff, had been complaining about the need for an LUDC update for the past three years, but nothing had yet come of his complaining. Maybe the volunteers on the Planning Commission could help recommend some meaningful changes? I was hopeful… since development of improved policies was part of the Planning Commission’s job description…
Little did I know that, within a few short months, I would be kicked off the Planning Commission for complaining about alleged illegal behavior by the Planning Director and the Commission itself.
Or maybe… I was removed for being a citizen activist, and circulating a petition?