On Dec. 19, the Pagosa Springs Town Council approved an agreement with The Springs Resort to accommodate public parking during Colorado Department of Transportation’s (CDOT’s) highway reconstruction project through downtown Pagosa Springs.
An agenda document on the matter states that the parking area, located at 347 Hot Springs Blvd., is “now being used for staging contractors and materials for” the resort’s expansion project and is “where the Folk Fest campers’ queue before heading up Reservoir Hill.”
The Springs Resort’s expansion project “is expected to wrap up in March 2025, at which time the Town can begin applying gravel, installing signage and other needed items to accommodate the use for a temporary public parking area,” the document states.
This agreement “is part of the effort to locate public parking options to help accommodate parking needs” during the main street reconstruction project,” the document states.
CDOT’s project is slated to begin in the spring of 2025 and is expected to continue through at least two construction seasons.
CDOT has revealed, at several public meetings, that some parking through downtown would need to be sacrificed in order to keep two lanes of traffic open during the construction.
However, it remains uncertain how many of downtown’s 188 parking spaces will be lost at any given time during the construction phases of the project.
Once CDOT’s contractor, WW Clyde and Company, releases more details on the schedule and phasing of its construction, more will be known about how many parking spaces will be lost at any given time during the construction.
Development Director James Dickhoff explained that the parking license agreement is similar to an agreement with the Upper San Juan Library District, forged last May, which will allow public parking in a gravel lot, accessed from U.S 160, west of the Ruby Sisson Library.
Dickhoff has noted that the public parking at the library would best be utilized by downtown businesses as employee parking, while the parking area on Hot Springs Boulevard would be more suited for patrons of downtown businesses.
The library lot will accommodate about 60 free parking spaces on the western edge of downtown and the Hot Springs Boulevard lot will accommodate about 220 public parking spaces, states the new license agreement with The Springs.
Dickhoff noted that one of the “revisions” that The Springs Resort made to the agreement actually provided “a much larger area for parking,” bringing it to more than 200 spaces.
The agreement states that the town “shall pay all costs associated with the use and enjoyment” of the parking area, which includes maintenance, grading, drainage, installation of gravel and signage, as well as “snow removal of the parking area and adjacent sidewalk areas.”
Dickhoff noted that once the Springs’ expansion project concludes, in March, the town would be “clearing that area of materials … and, at that time, we can move in, take a look, get some gravel where we need some gravel” and install some signage.
He also explained that a provision in the agreement states that if the parking area is used for something other than offsetting lost parking during the CDOT construction, such as “an event,” The Springs Resort would “have the option” to charge for parking in the area.
He said that, overall, it is a “straightforward, simple agreement.”
When opened to questions, council member Madeline Bergon asked how the town would enforce the ban on overnight parking, per the agreement and asking if it “would become burdensome on the police department” to ticket and patrol for overnight parking in the area.
Dickhoff explained that it could become burdensome, but that the police would probably lean more toward asking people “to move along, rather than ticketing them.”
He responded that it definitely was a concern of the property owners, “the library included, to have people camping overnight.”
He added that while these parking agreements would “be important for our business owners, we do need an enforcement component if we have violations on those properties.”
When a motion was made to approve the parking license agreement with The Springs Resort, it was passed unanimously by the council.
derek@pagosasun.com
