Keep Pagosa Pagosa

Bill Hudson, the face of the Daily Post, really got a rise out of me in his article Blue Sky vs. The Plan; Part Two. He concluded defining “small town character” was not possible. Not true! Not only can it be done, but this community has a duty to define itself. The fact that the Town and County have failed to establish what their respective characters are is a big reason, each boom is taking the Town and County further and further away from core values that make Pagosa Pagosa.

Like John Denver, I moved to Colorado in the summer of my twenty seventh year. I grew up in a Kansas small town, and it could have been any one of a number of small towns in Kansas. They were all pretty much the same – a water tower, grain elevators, a liquor store, a grocery store and a 3.2 bar. What attracted me to Colorado was the uniqueness of the mountain communities. Breckenridge was much different from Aspen, which was much different from Vail and so on. Over the years, with growth and development, many of these communities have become homogenized into the national cookie cutter syndrome many bought into – developers, planners and national leaders alike.

It has been the communities, which have sat down and decided on what to protect and what was not, then set a course to make sure core values were retained that ultimately became successful. If you get the chance, check out the men who were in the 10^th Mountain Division during WWII who came back and settled in various communities, and made those communities what they are today. Aspen and Vail are products of visionaries that came out of the 10^th Mountain Division, even though others were instrumental. Walter Papaeke was not in the 10^th Mountain Division, but he recognized the value of the Aspen Ski Area to his vision for that community. His example should serve as a lesson in community development.

Papaeke, unlike other wealthy individuals who have come to Colorado mountain communities hoping to re-make them in their own vision, wanted to preserve the values in the Aspen community. He gave paint to homeowners to keep the old Victorians in good shape, he subsidized various businesses so they could keep going in hard times, and he underwrote civic events that would give Aspen recognition like the Aspen Music School and the Aspen Institute.

Pagosa Springs stopped at “small town character”, and that may have made sense to someone coming to this community from Denver or Chicago, but it really makes no sense for residents of Pagosa Springs, Colorado. “Place making” is all about a community deciding what is important and then setting a course to implement protections (sticks) and incentives (carrots) to advance those self-determined ideals. I recommend “The Power Broker” to anyone who wants to read a case study of top-down community building gone awry, and it is top-down thinking that has this community at odds with itself and unable to define itself.

While one may disagree with the course charted by places like Aspen and Vail, one cannot dismiss the image left from intended place making efforts. San Francisco (CA), Portland (OR) and South Beach (FL) are all examples of communities that have, defined themselves, then charted a course to make sure they either kept to that definition or worked toward a definition.

Closer to home, Santa Fe is a recognized stylized community, and they feel so strongly about their “style” that even minor deviations become major community disputes. Boulder decided it was going to limit growth and protect its downtown, and it has been very successful in doing that even though it had negative repercussions for neighboring communities. I would include Durango as a community that has been able to chart its own course. In any event, a community that is unable or unwilling to define its own character will not know itself and will be easily led astray by any whim or distraction of the moment.

Recently, several small towns in Colorado have elected to make massive changes to reflect current philosophies by town residents. Minturn had an election to annex in the old company town of Gilman. Granby went through a failed recall and intense turmoil that drove one resident to actually attack town owned buildings with a tank-like dozer before they moved forward with three huge annexations. Gunnison is annexing in a huge parcel east and south of the Western State College campus as a way to encourage higher density development on terms the city wanted rather than see that development go the way of so many other rural subdivision developments in that area. I was just on the website for Minturn, looking at the planning commission agendas and noticed that they are now going through a process to re-define the community in light of the annexations underway in that community. Minturn just completed a downtown revitalization plan to make sure the core of that community continues to be the heart of that community, and now they are working on defining the community as a whole.

A few years ago Libby, Montana was dealt a huge blow when the major employer there shut down. Not long after that, people started to notice an increase in cancer cases and were able to attribute the cause to the former employer. The community was disheartened, frustrated, and at odds with itself over what to do and how to do it. It was only after a long and arduous process to develop a new community plan and downtown revitalization strategy that the town was able to get back on track and again look forward.

One more example, and then I will assume you get the point. Jasper, TX was the site of a horrific racial killing. A young man was dragged behind a pick up just because of his color. The town became divided over the incident, as national news coverage stalked people in the street gauge racism and dissecting the community. It was only after a small group of residents came together and developed a plan to do a community assessment and action plan that things started to turn around. The plan they developed for that community has been picked up by the State of Texas, the State of Wyoming and the State of Montana to help do community assessments that literally create a definition for participating communities. Towns and counties alike go through the process in Wyoming, which is highly popular because it is grass-roots, analyzed by objective outsiders and results oriented. I have served on six assessment teams, and it was my experience on a team that went to Red Lodge, Montana that eventually led to me taking the administrator’s job in that community.

Now, Pagosa Springs is looking at an aggressive annexation policy, but it really does not have the community input or standards necessary to effect an annexation plan. Conflicting and so amorphous policies negate the purpose of a comprehensive plan and render it ineffective. Without the good policies, then it is almost impossible to come up with good regulations because the regulations need to reflect the policies. This is a disaster in the making.

Pagosa Springs needs to know where its been, what it is and what it wants to become before embarking on an ambitious annexation plan. It needs to really work with the County to develop utility and growth boundaries as part of a Three Mile Plan before it can really decide the issues it is now wrestling with. Transportation issues, land use issues, urban interface issues and so much more needs to be dealt with, prioritized and strategized. Is the downtown important to this community? Is the downtown important to those who own property downtown? We know what many people are against, but we have yet to hear from many on what they want, and now may be the time; the window of opportunity to do this is while the economy is weak and people are looking for solutions and resolution so things can get back on track.

The Town and County need to decide what is important, and not important for services and then work with the County and special districts to either take over services from those entities or delegate authority to those entities to carry out those responsibilities. A community assessment is simple – ask yourselves three questions:

1) What do you like about this community?

2) What do you dislike about this community?

3) What would you like to see accomplished in the next five years and ten year periods?

When I first got here I was told there was a move underway to consolidate many Town and County services, and some meetings were actually held looking to that end. I said at the time that it had been my experience that the first place to look would be law enforcement. The recent agreement for dispatch services is a good example of what can be done. This agreement allows participating entities to be more efficient, more cost effective, better able to meet the needs of the community, and better able to adapt with changing conditions. Each and every service being provided needs to be looked at in the same way and evaluated to see who its important to, who would be most adept at, and how best to provide that service at the least expense to the most people. The cooperation that went into the dispatch agreement can and needs to be replicated again and again over the coming years.