On Sept. 3, the Pagosa Springs Town Council approved a motion for town staff to enter into negotiations for the purchase of about four acres of property adjacent to the San Juan River near the junction of U.S. 160 and U.S. 84, hoping to expand river access in the community.
While the council discussed the exact cost of the property in an executive session, Community Development Director James Dickhoff explained in the open portion of the meeting that the purchase price for the property, known as Bob’s L.P., is around $800,000.
Dickhoff noted that public surveys conducted by the town show a “community desire to see more public river access.”
He added that the 2012 River Corridor Master Plan and the 2022 East End Multimodal Plan both identified the property as “the last missing link” for expanding public river access.
He described the chance for the town to acquire the property as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” for the town to link its river access, particularly for larger boats, from the East End to the access point downstream at Yamaguchi Park.
At a previous meeting, he said, “I think this is a now-or-never scenario … because if we don’t consider buying this property, it will end up in a commercial developer’s hand…which will make it much more complicated to ever have the town acquire it for public access in the future.”
He added that, “currently, we don’t have any formal public access on this side [the East End] of town. It’s all private property.”
He explained that most current business owners in the East End’s River Center allow the public to enter the river near their businesses, but that if these properties were ever sold, these access points could be “in jeopardy of being lost.”
But, during the public comment section of the discussion, resident Bill Hudson questioned Dickhoff’s notion that access behind the River Center is all private property.
“I don’t know if I’m seeing something that I’m not seeing, or not seeing something that I am seeing, but I’m looking at the county’s map of property ownership and it shows that we [the town] own four acres behind the River Center,” he said. “We just heard from Mr. Dickhoff that the town doesn’t own the property behind the River Center …I don’t understand why that statement was made … We own four acres.”
After the executive session, Dickhoff addressed the town’s ownership status behind the River Center and noted that the town does own four acres behind the River Center.
“I just wanted to clarify, for the record, that, yes, the town does own four acres of park” behind there, but he explained that the purpose of the Bob’s L.P. property purchase would be to allow for easier boater access to the river.
In the past, the town contemplated installing “boater access” on the currently owned four-acre parcel, he said, “but it would have required paving over one of the ponds to provide parking and access for trailers … and we received strong public feedback that they did not want to see this pond paved over.”
He further explained that the property with the boater access behind the Malt Shoppe is private property and that the current owner allows river recreationists to use the access, but added that the property is for sale and the access point could be in jeopardy.
Earlier in the meeting, he explained that the council had already given its approval for the town to apply for two grants — a state Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) Community Impact Grant and a federal Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) grant.
These grants, he explained, would pay for 92 percent of the purchase price for the property, with more funding likely to come from Archuleta County’s Conservation Trust Fund.
The “out-of-pocket” cost to the town, if all these funding mechanisms work out, would be $50,000 that the town would extract from its Conservation Trust Fund, he explained.
The GOCO grant application would be submitted “next week, by the deadline,” he said, while the federal LWCF application would be submitted by the first of October.
At a previous meeting, Mayor Shari Pierce showed concern about the potential costs to the town if it does not receive all the grant funding for the river project.
At the previous meeting, Dickhoff then walked the council through the “Plan B” scenario in case the town only gets awarded one of the grants, saying, “I think town council would have to be making that decision on if we could cover the other half of the purchase price on the property.”
Pierce then said that she supported acquiring the property, but “I don’t think we can afford it” if the town doesn’t get the grant funding.
Dickhoff also explained, at the previous meeting, that the grant funding would only be going toward phase one of the River Gateway Project, which includes the purchase of the property, a boat ramp, an environmental assessment and parking improvements.
Any future phases, such as extending the Riverwalk trail, further parking improvements or restroom facilities, would require more costs from the town, he explained.
Once the council emerged from executive session, council member Matt DeGuise motioned to direct town staff to draft an offer to purchase the property, contingent upon the town being awarded the two grants.
The motion was seconded by Mat deGraaf and passed unanimously by the council.
