The Pagosa Lakes Property Owners Association (PLPOA) offered its members a condensed summary and renewed appeals for community during an informational meeting held Feb. 5 about a proposed new gymnasium that’s currently under consideration by the association’s membership.
Another informational meeting about the gym is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 19, at 6 p.m. in the PLPOA Clubhouse, 230 Port Ave. The meeting will also be available by Zoom.
The Feb. 5 meeting was the second meeting of its kind about the project, which envisions a roughly $2.2 million gymnasium connected to the existing PLPOA recreation center.
Because the cost to build the gymnasium is expected to exceed 15 percent of the PLPOA’s equity, a majority vote among the association’s members is required. That voting window opened for members Jan. 27 and is set to close March. 1.
If passed, the project would require a onetime, $255 special assessment fee from the PLPOA’s more than 6,400 members to help build the 9,600-square-foot structure.
During the meeting on Feb. 5, PLPOA board president Lars Schneider summarized the project and extolled its virtues, claiming the gymnasium aligns with the PLPOA mission to foster recreational interests and social interactions, as well as protect property values.
“None of the specs have changed,” Schneider told the audience, which was significantly smaller than the one that gathered for the first meeting held on Jan. 8.
Examining the gymnasium from multiple perspectives, Schneider described a self-funding space that would primarily serve the interests of PLPOA members, with the potential to impact the greater community of Pagosa Springs.
“If anyone’s ever looked into communities that die, it’s typically communities that stop caring and stop doing anything,” said Schneider, who highlighted proposed after-school programs in the gymnasium as well as adult recreation leagues.
“We’re trying to help with amenities for the youth. But, I’d also like to point out this is not 100 percent just for kids,” Schneider said. “We’ve got four hours on that mock schedule for pickleball. That was a huge part of what people want, as well.”
Rather than wait the roughly 10 years he estimated it would take to save up for the project, Schneider framed the ongoing vote as a way for PLPOA members to make their voices known and, possibly, recalibrate the board’s priorities.
“We need to grow as a community, we need to continue to develop amenities, and I’m not going to waste a decade of growth for a gym that the board could very well be 100 percent wrong on what the community wants,” Schneider said. “So, that’s why we proposed it this way versus just wasting 10 years of development.”
Throughout his presentation, holding a printed sheet of questions about the project culled from an online discussion forum, Schneider bristled at what he characterized as alarmingly personal attacks aimed at himself and others on the PLPOA board, as well as claims that the association has attempted to stream-roll the project over its members.
“I’m upset with the way that people have bullied and attacked others,” Schneider said, later adding, “That’s what I’m currently very upset about, because I did not think we were a community that gets online and personally attacks because they are against a project that we’re simply saying, ‘vote on.’”
Should the special assessment fail when voting ends March 1, “the gym project is done and it is being scrapped off the recreation master plan,” Schneider reiterated.
“This was simply a question to the community on whether or not you all wanted it. That’s it,” he said. “The PLPOA is not here to shove it down your throats and make it happen no matter what.”
As of the Feb. 5 meeting, Schneider estimated about 3,000 votes had already been cast, stating, “ We cannot see anything of what’s going on, we have no feeling, no statistics, anything. We don’t get told that. We just get told how many votes have been cast.”
In a 2023-2024 survey put to the membership, Schneider counted about 800 responses received. Given the limited response, according to one question submitted online, is that enough to justify a multimillion-dollar construction project?
“Nope. It’s not,” Schneider replied. “It’s exactly why we are not proceeding with it and people can vote. The voting is what gives us an accurate idea.”
