A Downtown Strategic Partnership

Pagosa Springs has entered economic winter. But, eventually spring will come and the flowers will bloom again.

Time to prepare. What do we want for commercial downtown and how do we get there?

Our Town has changed in the past twelve months. More people attend Town Council meetings. More people are attending County Commissioner meetings. People are showing up at the Water District meetings. Business owners and other stakeholders meet to strategize reviving the local economy. Contractors and developers and land owners meet to strategize an effective partnership with the Town to build for the future. The Town Planning Commission has sat down with the County Planning Commission. The Town leaders talk to the County leaders.

Meanwhile, our downtown commercial core is shrinking, visibly. The number of storefront vacancies will continue to grow. Little new commercial investment can be found. School enrollment is shrinking. People will continue to leave town.

The Downtown Master Plan was just adopted by the Town Council on January 2nd. That document is, to date, the best statement of what we agree that we want for our downtown. The question of “how do we get there” has yet to be worked out.

“Successful implementation of the Downtown Master Plan requires a coordinated effort between public and private entities.” (Chapter 5, Pagosa Springs DMP) We are beginning to see the early stages of the “political quilt weaving” downtown -- a formation of the team --- which will eventually grow downtown towards the vision of the Downtown Master Plan. In a patchwork quilt, scrap pieces are woven together to form a unified whole greater than the sum of its parts.

First and foremost is our growing education of how to work together.

This year, the Town of Pagosa Springs has hosted two economic summits including representatives from: Town, County, water districts, electric association, business owners, media, economic development, open space, etc. These two meetings, with more to come, represent the weaving of a quilt of new possibility. Up until now, the business of our “one town, small county” has occurred in discreet, separate and divided little fiefdoms. Water systems managed here. Town land use planning managed over there. Business planning was done behind that door and marketing for the Town done over behind that door.

By necessity -- economic necessity -- the doors are being opened and the media, active citizenry and top elected officials are beginning to cross-pollinate one “room” to the next. Working together for a common vision requires yet more practice. But the issues of economy, sustainability and viability of our “one town, small county” demand it. Either we come together as a team or downtown will continue to crumble.

On the Town website we can find a document entitled “Community Survey Research Findings” from year 2004 compiled by consultant RRC. Go to the website and check it out for yourself. In summary, the 2004 Survey finds that the Town people want to: 1) preserve their small town character and ambience, 2) preserve its pristine natural environment, and 3) carefully address the very real challenges of growth. The people want to keep downtown for small, independent businesses and direct the chains and franchises outside of the downtown.

The results of that survey later expanded into the collective vision articulated in the Downtown Master Plan:
“In 2020, Downtown Pagosa Springs will become the Center of Town by developing a lively mix of activities that engage people of all generations, income levels and cultural diversity.”

“Visitors and residents alike join together to enjoy activities and features of the Downtown. It remains a distinctly special place with breathtaking views to mountains and valleys beyond, and has an exciting sense of arrival.” (DMP Chapter 3)

We want vibrant, small-town businesses downtown. We want a sense of place for all of us “one town, small county” residents to enjoy. We want visitors to arrive and bring sales tax dollars. And we want them to have a place to arrive to and an experience to return to again and again.

So, we know what we want. Next topic -- how to get there.

We don’t have to look far to find a commercial downtown that does function successfully. The Downtown Durango Partnership “is an umbrella organization and acts as one voice for the Central Business District” to “achieve ongoing vitality for Durango’s historic downtown”. (www.downtowndurango.org) The Downtown Durango Partnership (DDP) represents all the stakeholders including the business-owners, City, County, local economic development agency, residents and special interests like the library, museum and public facilities.

Acting in tandem, Durango Mountain Resort was highlighted in two different issues of Ski Magazine last year as one of the top destinations in the country.

In the last several years, the Durango downtown has become a successful, business-minded operation. The public and the private players have formed a team to draw businesses into the downtown and to treat the entire downtown as a great business enterprise.

The downtown of Durango was once suffering from the huge economic draw of the big-box Walmart and Home Depot to the south of Town. Coincidentally, Pagosa Springs today suffers from the huge economic draw of those very same big boxes and, in addition, from the past lack of effective of Pagosa Springs marketing and from our current lack of a “place to arrive to” downtown.

According to Downtown Idea Exchange, we should ask the question: “Does downtown have a workable business plan? Downtown is as much a business as any it is home to, and so must plan like one.” Some downtowns employ a “Strategic Business Plan”. “As its name implies, the plan is focused on planning for the economic future of downtown, not the district’s overall future.”

Pagosa Springs has already begun growing the business mentality that is crucial for our next phase of growth. The Town Council “commissioned a study to explore the feasibility of an organizational entity that would focus it efforts on downtown revitalization.” (Downtown Development Authority, Feasibility Study for Pagosa Springs, January 2007, RRC Associates) “The adoption of the ‘big box’ ordinance in March 2006 prompted Town Council to consider the impacts that development of large format retailers in other areas of Town would have on the downtown.”

“One goal of the study was to explore the various organizational and legal structures that might include: taxation districts to fund capital improvements with that district; support and promotion for businesses within those districts; special event coordination and promotion; and general ‘branding’ and positioning for Pagosa Springs’ downtown.”

“Support for formation of an entity would require the involvement of downtown business and property owners in concert with the Town.”

According to the Feasibility Study, in January 2007, of the 30% that responded to a survey mailed out to 104 property owners and 84 downtown businesses:
45% would likely vote for establishing a special business district
30% would likely vote against establishing a special business district
and 25% didn’t know.

Since that time, the economy and the short-term business outlook for downtown has deteriorated rapidly. One wonders if a well-articulated and well-organized effort at forming a Downtown Development Authority, now, among downtown business owners and property owners might not be well-received.

The message has to be that all of us who own land, own businesses, live, or work in downtown Pagosa Springs and, also, Town Hall have a vested stake in the economic future of the downtown. Actually, all of the people of our “one town, small county” who depend on business income, jobs, sales tax revenue or diverse lifestyle choices, have a financial stake in the success of the downtown commercial core. The degree to which we build a “must see”, pedestrian-oriented, downtown with a true sense of place for resident and visitor alike -- will permanently define the psychological, social and financial success of our greater “one town, small county”.

Especially if you own or operate a business downtown then the success or failure of your current financial investment is dependent upon the ability of our community of downtown businesses and land owners to join together to add value to their existing investments. The value to be added here is to grow new businesses and jobs, to architecturally create a sense of place downtown and to attract a growing tourist base for their sales-taxable dollars.

In addition, a thriving community must attract future full-time members. At the moment, the full-time membership of our “one town, small county” is shrinking, as are the number of businesses, jobs, and potential sales-tax dollars.

Downtown businesses and related stakeholders will now continue weaving a unified game plan or else crumble. It is time to organize our Business Improvement District, Downtown Development Authority and Downtown Strategic Business Plan. This can all be done under the single community quilt of a “Downtown Pagosa Strategic Partnership“.

The time is at hand to run our “one town, small county” as the large business that it is -- to create the thriving economy fundamental to a sustainable lifestyle here.

No man is an island and no business will prosper alone. The entirety of downtown will become an economic and social success or the entirety will fail.

The time has come for all of the players of our “one town, small county” to unite for the business of growing business downtown. In the spring, the flowers will bloom again.