On July 15, the Pagosa Springs Town Council approved two revocable business licenses, allowing an ice cream vendor and pedicab service to operate on town-owned spaces.
Both the ice cream vendor and pedicab service will utilize different types of tricycles to provide their services to their customers.
The trike e-bike, which would be utilized by Neil Tillapaugh, owner and operator of Lion’s Pride Ice Cream, is a three-wheeled human or electric motor powered tricycle.
Pedicabs, which would be utilized by the owners of Pagosa Zip Trips, Jason Cox and Mike Candelaria, are a type of three-wheeled human pedal or e-motor powered vehicles used to transport passengers from one place to another.
An agenda document states that Tillapaugh’s “E-Trike is compact (approximately 9 feet long by 3 feet wide) and promotes renewable energy use by keeping ice cream cold using a solar panel system.”
Cox’s and Candelaria’s pedicab service “is intended to offer a convenient and environmentally friendly transportation option for both residents and visitors,” providing “scheduled rides, guided tours, and employee shuttles to key destinations,” the document states.
The business licenses are unique for the town since they would operate on town-owned properties, with the town’s home rule charter only allowing such operations under a revocable permit or license.
The ice cream business would utilize mostly town parks, whereas the pedicab service would be utilizing town roads and streets.
The town charter states, “the Town may grant a permit or license at any time for the temporary use or occupation of any street, alley, other public way, or Town-owned place. Any such permit or license shall be revocable by the Town at any time and without cause, whether or not such right to revoke is expressly reserved in the permit or license.”
The ice cream vendor will mostly be operating in town parks, primarily at Yamaguchi and Mary Fisher parks, said Town Clerk April Hessman at the meeting.
Hessman added that Tillapaugh has promised that he will not obstruct traffic or interfere with park operations while selling his ice cream, saying that he plans to sell on weekends and busy weekdays from April through October in the parks.
She said that both the police and parks and recreation departments reviewed Tillapaugh’s application for the license and that any questions they had were “discovered and responded to” by Tillapaugh in a satisfactory manner.
She noted that the main concern was if Tillapaugh was selling ice cream on or near a public trail, “making sure that if he is on a trail … he can’t block it, he can’t have a queue where people are waiting in line. He can’t block any public trail or walkway.”
When opened to questions, council member Leonard Martinez said that he “loves having his grandchildren here” and misses “the fact that we don’t have anybody going around town selling ice cream. It was so special to have that available.”
Council member Gary Williams said that the ice cream business would “add vitality to our town” and that he looks forward to trying the product.
Tillapaugh explained that he has operated for the last few years in town, mainly doing public events, but he wants to expand his operations beyond events.
Mayor Shari Pierce asked if the language of prohibiting the ice cream vendor from blocking trails and public right of ways would be written into the revocable business license, “so that we have the ability to enforce that if we need to?”
Hessman replied that Town Attorney Bob Cole would “help” to write the language of the permit and that it would include “details on prohibiting blocking trails and things like that.”
When a motion was made to approve the ice cream trike to operate on town property, it was seconded and passed by the council, with Pierce opposing.
Pierce explained that she opposed the license at this time because, “I just feel that we need more discussion on this for safety and just for those reasons.”
When the pedicab application came up next, Hessman said that “the service would be using our roads” to transport passengers from point A to point B.
She explained that the service plans on “going to the East End” quite a bit, and would need to cross the U.S. 160 bridge, adding that approval from Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) was obtained to use the highway to cross the bridge.
She further explained that the license would be similar to the ice cream license in that the owners would need to agree to the terms and it would be revocable.
Cox, who was at the meeting to represent the business, said, “We were looking for something to add on to help with the construction” to help people get around easier.
Cox explained that they originally planned on utilizing newly created town parking lots to give people rides to their destinations, but that “I’ve seen very little use of the public parking lots.”
He added, “So, running the route over there doesn’t make much sense.”
He noted that, instead, he is now planning on doing a dispatch service.
He stated that he was asking the council for “a set of rules that bind us to how we want to operate in general, which is to minimize the use of the riverwalk trail … and not to block people, not to be in high traffic areas, but we want to try to move people around downtown, particularly during the construction.”
He added, “The long-term idea is that this is a community benefit that will be ongoing well beyond the construction period.”
The business would probably start with “one four-passenger vehicle and see where it goes from there” and would not “charge anything to start the first year,” he said.
Hessman added that the town attorney would help draft the terms of the revocable license in this case as well.
Council member Brooks Lindner said, “people love pedicabs, and I think it would be something fun and beneficial for our tourists and locals alike.”
Williams noted that he would urge the town to be “less restrictive early on” while the business figures out how it’s going to operate.
Cox said, “This isn’t a way I’m going to go be a retired millionaire. It really truly is something we’re trying to do to be mutually beneficial for the community long-term.”
The operation probably won’t get started until late August and could run until about mid-October, he stated, adding, “Right now, we are still in the discovery process … we’re really looking to get started in the downtown core to address the issues that the CDOT construction project presents to downtown businesses.”
Pierce asked about the training of the drivers, with Cox replying that they would be trained by a long-time pedicab operator in Pueblo, Colo., but that there is no special driver’s license required for pedicab operators.
“It’s his full-time job and he is a trainer by definition, so he’d also be willing to train us,” he added, saying that the operator would also be willing to “lease us a vehicle” to get started.
“There’s no official credentialing service for this,” Cox said.
When a motion was made to approve Pagosa Zip Trips to operate on town roads until the end of its business license term, it was seconded and approved unanimously by the council.
derek@pagosasun.com
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