I informed the City Council it was a foul thought.
However we’ve got to provide many of the credit score to Mayor Shari Pierce, for her wonderful abstract of the problems dealing with the City Council on Tuesday, April 4.
The merchandise earlier than them — Mayor Pierce and Council members Mat deGraaf, Maddie Bergon, Matt DeGuise, Gary Williams and Brook Lindner — was a proposed $1.25 million actual property buy, for property that the residents of Pagosa Springs don’t have any urgent want for.
Sure, it was 3.4 acres of riverfront property. However the property had no current entry. Half of it was unbuildable, being within the FEMA floodway. It was terribly overpriced, as every part is, in Pagosa in 2023.
Really, I ought to merely let Mayor Pierce clarify the state of affairs.
“I’m opposed [to this purchase] on many alternative ranges, and I really feel it’s my obligation to stipulate a few of these for you.
“My first thought is, how a lot land alongside the river is ‘sufficient’? For the City to have, for us to do what we have to do?
“So I began fascinated by what we’ve got — and simply beginning on the River Heart [at the east end of town] we’ve got property alongside there. Then while you come down by the Museum, we personal that land there the place we’re going to be placing in a pedestrian bridge…”
“You then come round to Cotton Gap Park.
“After which while you get right down to South 2nd Road… we’ve got availability there for a possible ‘put-in’, if that’s what you’re in search of…”
“You retain happening, you have got City Park, we’ve got Mary Fisher Park, we’ve got the land the place the Customer’s Heart is, we’ve got the opposite aspect of the river and right down to Centennial Park and over to the pedestrian bridge there…”
The Mayor continued:
“Whenever you recover from to Sixth Road, we’ve got alongside Sixth Road all the best way right down to the townhomes.
Then we’ve got Yamaguchi Park and Yamaguchi South…
“We now have lots of alternatives for recreation with the land we have already got…”
I’ll interrupt Mayor Pierce, right here, to notice that Reservoir Hill Park consists of a lot of the south aspect of the river, throughout from Cotton Gap Park and South 2nd Road…
The City seems to personal land on one aspect of the river or the opposite, by means of virtually your complete downtown. And in some circumstances, on either side.
Sufficient, because the Mayor mentioned, for the City authorities to do what we want it to do?
Mayor Pierce continued:
“I don’t imagine the price for this property goes to be solely the $1.25 million. Although we’ve got mentioned we [can buy it and let it sit there] individuals are going to be coming to us and saying, ‘We want restrooms; we want a put-in for the boats…’ We all know we’re going to want signage… We’re going to have to take care of the park; we will’t simply let it develop over. All these issues are going so as to add up. So it’s going to price rather more than simply this greenback quantity that we’re taking a look at tonight…”
“Gary, I do know you mentioned we might simply maintain the half alongside the river and promote the higher half. However the actual worth of the property is that it’s riverfront. And we will’t construct restrooms on the decrease portion, as a result of it’s within the floodway.
“I believe we’d stymie potential growth in that space, for a developer… after we’ve been working so exhausting on our East Finish plan to attempt to assist that space down there.”
Right here’s the parcel that was into account, in pink.
“I’m actually involved in regards to the monetary piece of this. A number of conferences again, after we have been speaking about buying land, our workers checked out our numbers and really useful that we not spend greater than $500,000 [from reserves]. That is properly over that quantity. I worth their opinion, and I talked to [Town Manager Andrea Phillips] about it final week, and I requested her how they got here up with these numbers. And that’s why we acquired a spreadsheet despatched to us, to additional tell us the place we’re, financially.
“However since then, we’ve spent lots of that $500,000… And we’re speaking a few new pedestrian bridge [at the River Center]… What if that is available in, over finances? Right here comes extra money that workers will probably be asking us for…
“We now have lots of initiatives developing, and costs are simply going up…
“After we accredited this 12 months’s finances, we additionally accredited a 10-year capital enchancment plan. This property buy wasn’t in that plan, and I’m concern about what it will do to the work our workers has achieved to construct that plan, and that we accredited.
“Taking a look at our finances, after public works — which incorporates our road, that are essential — our subsequent largest expenditures are for parks. And I really feel we’re simply not placing the cash the place we ought to be placing it. We’ve dedicated to attempt to do one thing about housing. After which Andrea gave us an enormous rundown final month, about potential expenditures for sanitation — which the Sanitation Fund can not face up to.
“It’s not going to do us any good to have one other park, if we don’t have sanitation for our residents…”
Following a bit extra dialogue, Council member Gary Williams made a movement to buy the Hummer parcel for $1.25 million. Council members Brooks Lindner and Mat deGraaf voted in favor. Mayor Pierce and Council members Maddie Bergon and Matt DeGuise voted nay. The movement failed. (A movement wants a majority approval to cross.)
Invoice Hudson
Invoice Hudson started sharing his opinions within the Pagosa Each day Submit in 2004 and may’t appear to interrupt the behavior. He claims that, in Pagosa Springs, opinions are like pickup vans: everyone has one.
Comments