On Feb. 17, the Pagosa Springs Town Council gave the green light to pursue a Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) Highway Safety and Improvement Program (HSIP) grant in the sum of $800,000 for improvements to Village Drive and North Pagosa Boulevard.
The town’s development director, James Dickhoff, was on hand to update the council on the CDOT program, explaining that the original plan was to partner with Archuleta County on the project, but that the Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) decided earlier in the day to “not participate” with the town in pursuit of the CDOT funds.
“We did bring this to the BoCC today, in a work session, to review where we are currently at, what the proposal was …[and offer] an opportunity for the town and the county to partner in the reconstruction of North Pagosa Boulevard, really to improve public safety both for vehicles and pedestrians and bicycles,” Dickhoff said.
He added, “After meeting this afternoon, [the BoCC] actually decided not to participate jointly to pursue the funding.”
Dickhoff explained that, despite the county’s decision not to participate, “the town could still apply for these funds and concentrate on things that are more in our control,” noting that the right of way on North Pagosa Boulevard is under the county’s jurisdiction.
One of the improvements “would be Village Drive improvements,” he said, “between the Camino Real building and North Pagosa Boulevard.”
He said that the Village Drive improvements would also include “relocating the trail which is attached to the drive lane asphalt and detaching it from the asphalt surface, either vertically with a curb or actually with a 5-foot landscape strip.”
He added that the project would also “pick up” the North Pagosa Boulevard pedestrian trail, “extending that up to the highway crosswalk facility, because right now we have a crosswalk facility with no safe way to actually get there.”
Reconstructing the access from North Pagosa Boulevard to Country Center Drive, which is a privately owned access road into the City Market shopping center, would also be part of the project and would be a “right-in, right-out only” access, he said.
With the county deciding not to participate, these improvements would be “appropriate for the town to move forward with, if we want to move forward solely with the improvements that we know that are needed that are on our side of the block, if you will,” he said. “Everything in the North Pagosa Boulevard right of way would still need to be coordinated with Archuleta County because it’s their right of way.”
The application for the grant funding program would be due by the end of the week, he explained, adding that town staff got the impression from CDOT that “we may be one of the only serious applicants moving forward with an application.”
He noted that the original cost estimates were for the larger project that included the county’s participation, but that the town would not need to redo the engineering estimates.
“We would endeavor to keep the cost at $880,000,” he said, explaining that this number would include the $800,000 from the grant and the town’s 10 percent match.
He explained that the grant “would not pay for the roadway that comes out of the [City Market] shopping center on the west side of Camino Real, which would be more of a private driveway … but we’d be working with the shopping center owners for that improvement.”
When opened to questions, council member Mat deGraaf asked if “at some point” the county decides to reconstruct North Pagosa Boulevard, if the project would need to be “changed.”
He added that he was skeptical since “the major player that really needs to be a part of this, to do what needs to be done, isn’t participating.”
“And so if we move forward with this … is it gonna be changed when the county decides they are gonna do something up there? Is that a risk that we run or not?” he asked.
Dickhoff suggested that improvement plans for Village Drive would not be a risk for the town since it’s the town’s right of way, but added that “there could be different improvements to that intersection and if they are making an improvement they’d have to take care of those modifications.”
Dickhoff added that the town’s plan to go after the CDOT funding is “probably the most cost-effective plan to really provide some public safety improvements up in that area.”
Council member Brooks Lindner also expressed concern that “if in five to 10 years or whenever they decide to do the full monty that needs to be done there, is it just gonna wipe out what we did there?”
Lindner also asked if the private owners in the City Market shopping center would be willing to chip in to improve the driveway on the west side of Camino Real.
Dickhoff explained that his conversations with the business owners indicate that “they are definitely interested in participating and they see the value in the improvements because they see the traffic congestion on Country Center Drive.”
He added, “We do feel like we have a good plan, an option B, that gets us one step in the right direction.”
“I guess if you guys think it’s a good idea worth pursuing … I could be supportive of it. I just worry about it getting wiped out if the county decides to move forward and do a bigger project,” Lindner replied.
Mayor Shari Pierce expressed, “I just have a lot of concerns with putting in a project that might get ripped out” by the county in the future “and the finances associated with that.”
She asked Dickhoff if all he was looking for was “guidance” from the council on if town staff should pursue the CDOT grant or not, with Dickhoff saying, “Yes, correct.”
Dickhoff explained that, for this round of funding, it would “be too late to identify” another project, “because we’d need to collect accident data, make our narrative compelling enough, we’d have to do traffic counts.”
He added all the work for this project is pretty much already done, “so we don’t have time to do all that for another location.”
Ultimately, the council gave a thumbs up for town staff to pursue the grant for the project, with Pierce being the only member to vote against the project, and Gary Williams being absent from the meeting.
County decision
During its meeting earlier in the day, the BoCC unanimously voted to not move forward in jointly applying for CDOT’s HSIP grant with the town, citing concerns of rushing the grant application and uncertainty about the community’s future development needs.
One public comment was given on the matter during the meeting from a resident stating they are a property owner at the North Pagosa Boulevard and U.S. 160 intersection.
“Honestly, I don’t think this fits for the vision that we have for uptown,” he said, describing the solutions historically brought forward by CDOT as “Band-Aids.”
He also mentioned that with plans for a new school to be built along Vista Boulevard, the speed limit might change, a stoplight may be added and the traffic flow will change.
Commissioner Veronica Medina noted that the grant sounds like a “great opportunity,” but, “I’m concerned that the deadline is Friday and we have to make a decision now.”
Medina also mentioned that she would like to have the business owners involved in coming up with a plan.
“I just don’t know if it fits what we want to do now,” she said.
She explained that the county “took a lot of care” when the intersection was redone last time so that those businesses were not disturbed.
“This would just be reckless of us to try and make this decision right now because the grant is due on Friday,” Medina added.
Commissioner Warren Brown asked Dickhoff if there is possibility that another grant like this would become available in the future, with Dickhoff indicating “it’s possible.”
However, Dickhoff noted that these grants do not come up annually and that he is expecting to see a reduction in the availability and amount of grants in the next two years.
Brown commented that he “really dislike[s] trying to make a decision in a hurry,” noting that the town and county would need to come up with $1.8 million in matching funds between the two entities.
He mentioned that he would like to see the business community, town and county work together to bring a more shovel-ready project to the table when a new grant comes up.
Brown agreed with Medina in that this is “great opportunity,” but noted that it is not the right time for it.
Ranson motioned to not participate in applying for the HSIP grant at this time with the town, which was seconded by Medina and unanimously approved.
clayton@pagosasun.com
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