So Brooks and Maddie were heading up our working on acquiring a portion of Reservoir Hill.
So I didn't know if you guys wanted to speak first or lead this work session or if you'd
rather I just turn it over to Darren and Amanda.
Yeah, I know they've got a slideshow for us.
I'll just say real quick in introduction
for after their slideshow and our discussion here
that the GOKO Recreation Oriented Funding might not
depend just on our preserving the land,
but also on showing how the site would be used,
managed, and aligned with our broader recreational planning.
And so a clearer use management framework really strengthens our argument for funding.
And so that's kind of what we're trying to focus on here today.
Okay.
Did you have any comments you wanted to make?
Okay.
We'll turn it over to you.
All right.
Well, thank you.
So as you all recall, when we started talking about the land acquisition up on Redskill,
what was available. It was 491 total acres up there. There was a forest legacy
grant that some of the qualifications were 75% of the amount of acres you were
going to purchase had to be forest. So we carved out about 300 acres up there.
And last Friday, we were notified that, well, there was over $300 million worth of projects
proposed, and $86 million was accepted right now on the president's list, which included
11 projects, and Reservoir Hill was one of them.
And that funding would be for $5,875,000.
Now, it doesn't mean we have it.
What that means is, though, it's a great first step.
This now has to go to Congress.
And that entire package hopefully gets approved.
And all of those 11 projects are then funded
for that total of about 86 million, yes.
You're probably going to tell us,
but do we need to be writing letters to our congressman?
Kelly.
Amanda and I are meeting with Kelly Ingrison on Thursday.
On Thursday, yeah.
So we'll talk about that for sure.
More specific.
Our next steps is.
Okay.
I mean as like individuals.
I think community members.
I think, because we did submit
get over 25 letters of support to get this grant, which Kelly was very impressed with.
So I do think, you know, more is not going to hurt. So, but we will get direction from
Kelly. I definitely have that question too. Is it time to start writing?
Is it Department of Interior or whose budget is it at the Fed level?
So this is federal funding? Yeah, but who? It's agriculture. Okay.
Yeah, and so that makes a difference in terms of the letters. That's why I was asking sure and so yeah
So it would be through the forest legacy. So it is gonna
Colorado State Forest legacy
Do you have a cost on just the 300 acres? So
Negotiations will now start taking place with the landowner. So we don't have a total price yet
We know that that number that was awarded
I can tell you it's not going to cover the 300 acres, but that difference is still out
there anticipating maybe one to two more million, but we don't know that.
Okay.
We don't know where the landowners stand with this, but this certainly shows an incredible
first step in a sense of significant step forward in regards to acquiring the 300 acres.
You know and
Man and I are both just people on about a very pumped about where we stand right now with things and and
How it looks for the future in regards to acquiring that
Master clarifying question real quickly that the entire
The entire area was 491 correct, but right now. We're simply talking about the 300
The other 191 is still out there and that's still on the table and we're still looking
at how we can acquire that as well.
That is through, you know, some fundraising here and there and just if there's any other
grants we'll continue to look at, but the main focus right now is trying to lock in
the 300 while still seeing what we could do with the other 191.
Thank you.
I'm sorry I interrupted.
Go ahead with your presentation.
No, it's just fine.
Well, that gives the update kind of where we stand with Res Hill.
Amanda's put together a quick little slideshow.
What we would like to do is kind of give you an overview of Parks and Rec.
What we have, where we're heading, visions that you may have with Love Input
but as well as, you know, just talking about what's been accomplished through, I mean,
she went back to 06 surveys of what the community was looking for, and with those surveys, what's
kind of been accomplished as well since then, and again, and where we need to move forward
with some of this stuff.
So I'm going to turn this over to Amanda and let her go with this.
So yeah, I just want to give us kind of like a starting platform for what we already have
for parks and what we have accomplished.
So Park Directory, we manage over 150 acres of park space.
We have a total of 12 town parks, six are riverfront, and we have over five miles of
riverwalk.
I included that we have two specialty parks our school parks because we do have
an MOU with the school district that we can use Dakota Springs for biking and
running trails and then same with the high school softball fields so I just
wanted to point that out you know we have seven park staff and one part time
that manages all this space we also have 329 recorded trees within our
parks and this does not include any of our trees at Reds Hill. This is all trees within
our corridor of our parks and kind of landscaping along the Riverwalk and two wetlands. One is the
main Riverwalk here and then we are going to have kind of another wetland area in South Yamaguchi
kind of towards this fall. So the code of springs is where behind the high school it's that hill
side. There's about a three mile trail system back there. I was not aware it was called the
Cody Springs. At the active core group, what I was calling our athletic fields and sports facilities,
the highlights are Yamaguchi Park is 27 total acres. As you guys know, we installed pickle
ballcourts there, we have the skate park and the pump track, and we've added a lot of outdoor
exercise equipment, cornhole, bachi ball, fastball court, climbing wall, just basically made this
Yamaguchi, our central fully action-packed play zone, and we are looking to add a bike
skills park coming up in spring of 2026, probably start that in May. We also have South
Pagosa Park about three and a half acres and that's just kind of your open neighborhood
spot that we have green space. We did take all the fencing down from the multi-purpose
pavilion and have basketball courts and might kind of revise that a little bit but we just
added some more sand for volleyball and just really kind of making South Park a little
a little refresh. And then the iconic, you know, pirate ship town park in
athletic fields. That's about six total acres that we have. That's really kind of
like the heart of downtown park. The adventure hubs are kind of our
reshill, our natural parks. We have 110 acres currently up there with miles of
hiking and biking trails. There's great mountain observation views there.
18 hole first week off course and then of course we had as a festival venue at
some points like to get that back.
We do we we haven't been able to groom them I
was thinking quite I think more like the because like Nordic Club has more
used Yamaguchi for grooming more recently so I'd highlight that more as
at the Yamaguchi Winter use, but great point.
There's also a Reservoir Hill ski club, I believe, correct?
First-time quick laps when we get good snow, absolutely.
And we have recently added a labyrinth at the very top, and if you haven't been up to
the top, we'll check that out.
You added a what?
A labyrinth.
All the way at the top.
A lamp all the way at the very top.
Kind of at the radio tower along the Mary Fisher Loop.
We're gonna announce it more as like a big opening sometime in May, just been
waiting for the guys to finish that up and make it. What is the labyrinth? Will
David Bowie be making an appearance? So we have one at Yamaguchi Park. It's that
walk-around like maze, you kind of walk around in a circle and there's always
like one. Yeah. People use it as like a meditation. Yes. Oh okay. Yeah. I didn't
but we do have that.
After these meetings, we usually sit down there and walk it.
Oh, thank you, dear friend.
And then we have five miles of, at least over five miles of river walk that really connects
everything to our parks, the downtown areas.
It's a great observation area for the wetlands and a birding area.
There's tons of spots to sit and relax along the route with benches.
And then I wanted to highlight just a little bit because it's something we don't really think about, but like history and culture, we have public art along our river walk.
We do have it specifically in parks, but I wanted to highlight, you know, that you guys have put a lot of effort and money in towards creating that vibrant artistic walk along the river walk.
And then, lastly, we have the river corridor, which we have a lot of river connectivity and
riverfront access, which is pretty awesome for having San Juan run right through downtown.
One of the highlights is that we are working on having that pedestrian bridge cross kind
of from the river center area to First Street over by the museum, hopefully by fall
of 2026.
And then same with, we will be working on the new river park.
They started doing the ramp recently so you can get boats in and out on that east end.
So that will get improvement this spring into summer.
And then hopefully by fall, we will have some improvements that the South Yamaguchi take out.
So we do have great river connectivity now. And as I looked back at surveys, those are things back in 2006 that we were really looking for.
and we've really connected the dots. So, you know, great work on you guys, part for
keeping that momentum and going.
Overall trends that I came from all these surveys of reading is people are looking for
diverse amenities. One of the biggest things was dual age group focus. So you could have
young kids to older adults all enjoying the same space. Open space preservation was
was a huge one in land acquisition through kind of across the board. Keeping that natural
wild setting around Pagosa was really important in a lot of our surveys. And then last one
which I think we've all heard is kind of adapting to our shoulder seasons and having
all season activities with a rec center and swimming pool, some type of indoor facility
that accommodates more than what we currently are accommodating at the
community center. And then overall that trend to connectivity into our trails is
making sure for for over two decades that we have more trails, more
connectivity to get to our parks and still connecting town to Pugosa Lakes. So
our uptown to downtown trails were kind of our overall needs. With
considerations of kind of things that our department has been looking at and kind of in
this near future is, you know, uptown parks. We've seen a need that the west side of
uptown Pugosa doesn't have any parks. You know, we do have Coleman veterans and PLPOA has
park and trails, but the town doesn't have any parks that they are managing up there.
where the sheep heard that part the trail is not that that is that is the
section that we have we manage so yeah that is one section and have it on the
slide later
sure and when we when I say when we talk about uptown parks we're really like
There's some classifications of what type of parks we're looking for, and I would say we're looking for more community or neighborhood parks, which are larger and acreage than the one.
Yeah, and like a mini pocket part so.
Connectivity, you know, we're still really looking to kind of close that gap on Town to
Lakes Trail. I know Kyle has really been working on 10th to Great Wells, correct, to see how
we can get funding and finish that section. So we're one section closer getting uptown,
but we're still trying to find everything we can for that.
We presented to you guys
of the joint work session, looking for revenue streams, something that makes revenue through
our parks that can help kind of provide our infrastructure so that we can continue to provide
recreation services throughout Pagosa. We also identified by gathering with the park,
it's working with partners because we find community groups have needs and when we build
of those partnerships, we can support a lot more funding
and long-term management solutions.
So those are kind of the considerations
that we have in the back of our head
of what's been coming up from the community.
But these are kind of the future recommendations
that we've been trying to chat about is,
you know, it's not probably new to NAVU,
but multi-purpose civilian RV and camping locations
that are in town. Shooting range facility. We've been looking at more outdoor shooting range,
but we also are going to kind of talk a little bit about an indoor shooting range that could use
for police training. Sports complex that are a little bit bigger than just our one ball field
or having to use the high schools ball fields to host tournaments. And then a recreation
center that provides a public access swimming pool. The locations we identified
obviously rest ill as the spot that we're looking to expand. Part of that is
that skyrocket trailhead area that we formerly known as Goodman's Park.
Rumbraw Bridge and the museum area behind the museum. There's some really
cool opportunities that we could create mini parks in there and Kyle
and I have been looking at funding for projects like that.
And then Cotton Hole's expansion,
looking at maybe the other side of Cotton Hole,
if there's things that we could do there.
So I believe that's all I have for
getting us on the page of staff recommendation,
but you guys can't really read this.
Sorry.
This is just a page of basically kind of amenities
and what parks we have with the acres.
So if you guys do have questions
and want to know stuff,
if I can zoom in and tell you that,
but trying to make that difference for you all.
So when we acquired Bob's LP,
that parcel had been specifically identified in,
what was it, the 2012 River Corridor Master Plan.
Are there any other highlights
that you know off the top of your head
that we have, I guess, acquisitions or amenities?
I know you mentioned one that had been called out about 20 years ago that we have finally
just gotten completed.
But yeah, were there any other highlights of specifically for river?
Just things that we have checked off, not specifically for the river, but just in general, I guess
more.
Certainly trail connectivity.
Yeah.
Trail connectivity.
We have checked off from some of these master plan and certain ideas.
Yeah.
I mean, those are those common trends.
They showed up from like, you know, 20 years of planning, which was amazing to me that you
still had the same trends of like open space acquisition, rec center, trail connectivity.
All those are what I mentioned the same. Pickleball was one that we got to check off the list for
sure. Dog park. That was another one. Park infrastructure and comfort amenities is what
it was kind of slated as, so having shape structures, restrooms, water access and
improving signage, which is all things I think that kind of checked out that list.
So there's a lot that we really have done in the parks and really followed still
with all of these plans, but as specific like allocations for land and
stuff, there wasn't that type of I didn't have the specifics in some of
these surveys or to read that long. Well it's good to know that trends
are staying, you know, trending.
But yeah, and that the decisions that we are making are
based off of years of input from the community. So I just think that's really important for
us to remember and keep in the forefront that well, I have a follow-up to it. So is there
some type of master plan that is there a binder somewhere or a document already that
exists? There's a couple. Yeah, I know we have like the East End multimodal one,
But there's one's more specific to parks and rec. Yeah, and and we're actually working on now a 2026 cool
And it's give us a minute, but yeah, we're gonna get that out and when's the old one from
2016 yeah
Just let me see context for me is I
Thought we were out of if we're gonna talk about reservoir Hill without the master plan
And I had a concern about that.
Context for me is really important.
The master plan would really be an important thing.
This is an opportunity.
I think you always design in your master,
whatever strategic plan you're looking at,
you always design handles for opportunity.
And so that's kind of what we're looking at
is an opportunity.
But I think that that's really important
to get that master plan.
Well, of course, in referring to the reservoir hill,
Well, even without the master plan in staff's opinion or my opinion, that's an asset that
currently already has trails that can be used.
It's an asset that if the 300 acres can be acquired through grant funding only, it's
no brainer.
Well, it is.
Without the strategic plan.
Let me see.
because I would argue that without that context,
there are gonna be things that are gonna be happening
that are gonna take priority,
funding away from other things at the wrong time.
I think it has to be in context.
So I would just keep something in mind,
that strategic plan for that area,
it's certainly, I think the first step
of that strategic plan is acquiring the property
and getting that secured,
which is what we're working on now.
Well, you already do have the plans that have come from 2016, like I said, and pretty much
they're very consistent that open space preservation.
I would say that gave us fuel to look at Res Hill of acquiring it.
And that's how you modify it to say, hey, listen, this is the plan, it's still the
plan.
It definitely still is the plan, and to your point, for part of this Forest Legacy Grant,
we will actually have to do a rec plan in general, so we will have to go through this
whole process anyways, but I would say it is following the plan from 2016 of land acquisition
and preservation.
And keep something in mind in regard to that strategic plan that we'll continue to
work on for Reds Hill, the acreage that we're purchasing, we cannot build other than possibly
a restroom. It's not like we can go up there and build a rec center on this. We can't
build any large structures on this. It's for conservation.
So the other 191 acres though that's still in play out there, that is where we can
actually build infrastructure on. So, you know, this 300 acres is simply an
incredible addition and asset to the town and for generations to come. And
certainly us helping to guide those future generations for Rez Hill is
extremely important, but that's just strictly we're getting things started.
There'll be generations ahead of us that'll possibly make adjustments as
well up there. So I totally agree with you. No, I totally agree with you. The strategic plan.
But I guess my point was make sure the emphasis is on the rights allowable.
I guess my point was is the plan is that if you're worried about us trying to grab these 300
acres without a strategic plan,
we kind of do have one as Amanda just alluded to. But
one's coming but it's so important we have this incredible opportunity to
possibly grab 300 acres through grant funding that's what we're trying to get
accomplished right now. The strength of your plan will be to put handles in place
for opportunity. So just design that into your plan. That's all. Well and it's
my understanding that the plan is going to help us get the grant funding as
Well, yes, absolutely the importance of it. So it's needed. Yeah, it's needed. Yeah, but it does sound like it's already
The the idea of preservation of open space is already sort of baked into it and understand what you're saying
Let's now take this opportunity that we have and make that part of the right. Yeah, and we will
I guess my my question is, you know, and I don't know if any of us have the answer many might be the
most well qualified is you know for go-co in terms of what they want to see
you know what is that what kind of product do they want to see from us
that's going to help us get that funding like that's what I would like to
work towards at this point yeah basically that community cooperation that
there's that community support to do this like I said we got 25 letters of
support, that's huge. But really looking at who those people were of the 25
letters, I will say it's a lot of them were nonprofit groups that used the
hill, who accessed the hill quite a bit. And so really just making sure that we
are speaking to their needs of what they want to see up there, that we can
accommodate those. So really just kind of going back to our supporters and
making sure that we haven't missed anything is kind of really what I
I see we need to look at.
But I would really, you know,
I think understanding what we will gain.
So there is definitely some conservation and wildlife approach
there that's gonna get us in better position
for go-go funding is because I really do wanna see
that we are conserving the land.
It's not all about recreation.
It's not all about use,
but there's some, you know,
Pugosa skyrocket in that location.
There's definitely some wildlife corridors.
and so making sure that any trails that already exist up there are in good
locations and wouldn't be disturbing a major habitat. So we have done some
mapping up there and I have kind of worked with Kelly a little bit on that
mapping and so really we've kind of all identified that that this is such a
good area because where the trails like Darren said already exist aren't in
the ways of some of the critical habitat that does exist there but you
some major resources. So it's nice that, you know, we are getting this opportunity where it wouldn't go
into land development and we could be seeing a bunch of houses that could be impacting our natural
resources. So I think we're really on the right track of just, you know, getting there. But I
still also think, you know, we need to hear from you guys what, what you guys want to see,
what's important to moving forward. You know, we've talked a lot about one of the biggest
things with Reds Hill, it's not the easiest accessible. You got to go straight up the hill.
We only have a one-way road. To me, that seems like a pretty important part that we want to
consider in our plan is that we would be able to have more accessibility to people out there.
Yeah, and I know Sherry has definitely been in favor of increasing especially ADA access.
And so I think that that would be a huge piece, especially if the road can accommodate two-way traffic in the portion that we would be receiving is expanding that, because that's a whole nother user group that, yeah, we need to be thinking about and trying to accommodate as best as we can.
And then, you know, and I don't want to, yeah, pigeonhole us in any, like, I want to hear from all the user groups, even, I know, you know, my neighbor in town has horses, can we have horse access up there?
You know, I think a lot of us are in favor of more hiking and biking trails, but let's not limit ourselves to just thinking about hiking hikers and bikers.
Think about the different methods that people might travel on.
Can I ask, I don't know if the space that you and I were talking to the school about
is included in the 300 acres or if it's part of the 191.
There's a flat area up there where there are no trees.
And we had talked to the school when they were trying to decide where to locate the
school about the benefit of having access to that area up there as a place to put
more fields.
And the idea was just that, that it would be big enough that we could in fact have tournaments and other kinds of things, other than just the single thing.
Is that flat area, is it part of 300 or part of the 191?
It's not part of the 300.
Yeah.
Where the road goes up over here by Rose Mountain.
Is that road part of it or accesses it?
That's what it is.
the landowners but once again we are at that point where we will be trying to negotiate to make sure
that's still in place. Nothing's guaranteed at that point but we did really try for access for
that because that is kind of the whole point. Well that was my spot where I thought we could
easily get some ADA access up there and access for families with young children
And if in some of the lower part, we could have some flatter trails for people with wheelchairs or walkers or our elderly that want to walk on a flatter area.
And the kids on the strider bikes, they're the best, you know, so a place for families and youth and older people.
But I
I would really like to look into limiting access to part of that park, to keep it as natural
as we can for the future. And so maybe just have walking trails, but not cycling, because
we have a lot of cycling trails up there. And we don't. It's not a lot of miles. But,
you know, kind of keep some of it as natural as we can for the future so they can really
see what it was here. I mean this is that legacy park we're talking about. It could be a great place
like the kids go up to the Hershey Ranch every year and this could be another spot where they
can go study if we don't go in and change things a lot. So I don't know if there's parameters.
You kind of alluded to some parameters of what we can do up there. I think there will be built
in to that grant because it's so conservation based. There are those parameters and protections
I want to reiterate what Darren was saying.
The 300 acres, we're trying to get it with this forest legacy grant.
That's what's going to give us that potentially $5.8 million.
That is for conservation, so there will be no building of any kind up there or no development
of fields or anything like that.
When the school district had mentioned to us, oh, maybe if you guys get Reds Hill,
we could put fields up somewhere up there. That's that's out of the question for this 300 acres.
Yeah, that's why I asked the question. Yeah, I mean, it's still part of perhaps a deeper vision
for the 490 because that's still there and there are no trees there. And well, and especially
on the other side, say what especially on the other side, which is part of the 490,
the other side of Reds Hill, the east side adjacent to 84,
there's a lot of flat land over there.
That's kind of incredible space over there, actually.
I have two questions.
The first question is, how many miles of road
has been developed on that property?
No, I don't know any of that.
It seemed like we were told like five plus miles.
So I mean there's a lot of nice roads. Yeah, well they when they talked to me before it was like
They also had about four miles of trail, but I don't know about the road. Oh, yeah, okay. Well, maybe
Yeah
I'm not quite sure but we can get kind of no, I'm just curious
I mean, I think as we go for yeah, yeah to really tell the story of what we're looking up there and
and maybe connectivity, accessibility,
we will probably need to get started.
Well, let's call them all trails.
Because the beauty is you don't have to develop anything.
You can just start using that property once a time.
The second question is, what do you need from us tonight?
Well, obviously, we're kind of giving you
an overview of not only Reds Hill, but our parks in general.
And what's been completed, there's still a lot of work ahead of us.
That's part of what Amanda and I was trying to make our point at the joint work session
in regards to parks and recreation and the importance of it in a community
and having it recognizing that it can generate revenue for a community.
As far as I go, this is really more information
And if there's any recommendations from you in regards to anything, we'll take notes of that.
But one thing I do want to kind of discuss is that, you know, obviously we have, in my opinion, wonderful parks.
I've got an incredible staff that works very, very hard, not only in my office at the community center,
but over the maintenance facility with my park staff.
I've got a total group that I'm extremely proud of that really cares.
And that's what you need to prosper.
We have a lot of parks, but nothing's really generating any revenue right now.
And I think there's an opportunity at Skyrocket that we're calling right now, Skyrocket Park
in a sense, behind tractor supply for possibly creating something that could be a revenue-generating
area arts and recreation.
Currently some ideas that are floating is creating a campground and also a shooting,
possibly a shooting range.
We
really need to decide if we want to be in the business of competing with private
businesses here. That's a baseline.
When we bought the property, my idea was not to compete with other businesses but to create
a workforce campground so that people that came for summer employment could camp there at some
rate that was and had to prove they were employed by the town and this helps us with our
affordable housing problem. So that that was seeing a lie was interested in. I
think it's a great place for that. And again these are just simply
ideas, right? So what you see there in orange in a sense would be where a
campground could possibly go. It's kind of on top there. In blue, right behind
tractor supply, you see the road that kind of leads back to another area that's
down below that Chief Rockinsock had brought up in a department head meeting, possibly a
little bit of grant funding for a shooting range. It's been in our surveys that people
are interested in that, but this would have to be something indoor.
This would not be
a possibility, and that's all this is. But you could certainly put an indoor shooting
range there, create a training center area for law enforcement. I mean, currently the
chief comes over to the community center and he gets in the south conference room and sets
up all of his stuff, you know, and works on things. And this
could produce revenue,
you know so it's just something to look at certainly all we can do is give
ideas and get input from the community in regards to what they'd like to see and
get input from you and figure out a direction that we want to go in in
regards to that. If your department thought about the idea that we might
raise lodging tax and use part of that money to help fund recreational
Well, it is economic diversification, because we're increasing our competitiveness.
Certainly we brought that up at the joint work session.
I think that's a great area to look at to create a revenue stream, to not only for that,
but obviously we have over a $2 million budget for Parks and Recreation that the entire
county and families, they all enjoy, you know, and we certainly love providing the amenities
and the programming for all of that, but there's a cost that goes along with that.
And certainly to try and figure out how to recoup some of that cost, also have a revenue
stream that we can provide parks and recreation a little more on a countywide basis.
I certainly hope the, I hope the county recognizes the value in Parks and Rec, and I hope they're
willing to participate in some manner.
I will certainly go back in front of them and see where they stand, but it was put
out there.
But I think collaborating together, because as it was stated at the joint work session,
you know,
it's great.
the town has as created, you know, we have the majority of the parks. We provide all the recreation
and that's wonderful. But, you know, if you look at things county-wide and that's even talking
about trailheads and how they can be improved and have a more enjoyable experience in regard to
parks and recreation, countywide, it's, and even if we're participating in that with some
type of funding and working together, that benefits everyone.
And certainly that's an area that we want to, I'm going to continue to move forward with
until I'm told not to.
But going back to the lodger's tax, I think that's a great area to, in the short term,
just reallocate.
Because I know there's money that's being issued out that goes kind of towards recreation
currently.
And if that money can be reallocated, and if the county will look at their Conservation
and trust fund that they can only spend on parks and recreation and let us help them work
with that money to create something. I mean, you can see the work that's been going through
for these different grants in the Forest Legacy Grant and other grants that we've obtained.
We don't get everyone, but, you know, I can only, I give incredible amount of kudos
to Kyle and Amanda they have they have done some tremendous research on
grant opportunities and and we're obviously trying to get as many as we can
to help subsidize these projects and that's how we do it and and we are
being successful with it. I'd like to jump in and attempt to answer your
question without stepping on your guys toes because I requested this
work session, thinking that, you know, focusing on this idea that we could, GOKO could help
us with funding for Rez Hill.
And one of the things that helps us get that with GOKO is them seeing that we've got a
master plan.
It sounds like we have one, so maybe it just needs some kind of retooling.
But to answer your question, what do they want from us, I was thinking that they would
want to hear what our visions, our outlook might be for our parks and rec that are existing
and then how that fits in with what we're trying to acquire, not only Rez Hill but potentially
others.
And then hopefully get out of that some kind of product that whether it's a one pager
or it's something more expansive that we can use to help us get that go-go money.
I mean does that sound okay to everyone if we kind of help these guys out by
giving them some of what we think is our vision and direction for Parks and Rec.
They've got great information from their surveys from the community. That's
kind of where I was thinking that we were going with this. The elements
are present but need to be organized and that's what a master plan would
look like. And I think it's invaluable if we're going to go ask for people to say,
hey, listen, there's a vision here and here's how it's connected. I would add that working
with the skills that we have in the town for the benefit of the county
is one of those strategic elements. So I for one am absolutely in support of using the talent
the way that it's being proposed for the county. I think that's a great idea. I like that
But there are other things that you've already talked about that are not going to be left
out.
I mean, I think a community swimming pool is really important.
We grew up because Giordano was letting us go swimming.
So we had access, but the local kids don't have access to the thermal water.
The school now is going to become available.
What a better, they've got a well, that's the best place to put a community pool.
You know, so you have elements, I think, that talk about a comprehensive and a strategic
plan.
There's opportunity uptown.
I mean, we've had, we have a history of cumbersome totals at the narrow gauge, and there was
a spot uptown, and that's all brand new.
We've never done anything to ever look at the heritage that we've had that's except
the sheep herder that's out there now, but you can point right to where that
depot was.
And so, uptown, they have everything that's available to them in terms of the railroad.
So, we still have those opportunities that provide all of that.
But the thing that is also extremely important to me is economic diversification.
And you all are – you're on the verge of all of that stuff.
It just needs to be articulated in a way that really makes it look not just broad but deep.
So, I do want to just jump in as another reminder of the update at the work session.
Park was talking about, we are finishing our draft, finalizing our outdoor sustainability
recreation draft plan.
It's going to go out to our task members, hopefully, by this Thursday is what I'm told.
And then we are reviewing it next Thursday with the task members.
They will have some time to review that.
And then we will be going out to the general public to also give feedback.
So as you're talking about a master plan, that is parks and recreation.
The only thing is that that is a boundary that is all of Archuleta County.
It includes Hinsale County and Mineral County.
We're not focusing on just the town.
And that's the thing here where with this go code.
Local funding. The town has tons of projects that they want to get done. There's tons of funding
that's needed for certain allocated projects that we need to get through. So really, as staff
members, we kind of need that prioritization from you all of how do you see this fit in
our overall plan? Because when I get all of this narrowed down, I'm going to have
a real slim timeframe to turn it around and try to request those funds. And we're
looking at funds for the Forest Service, for the county, all these things.
So I really need to have it together, what your guys' prioritization of really what you've
seen in the past couple years of what should be our focus in Parks and Recreation.
I mean, obviously, this is a big opportunity for Reshill, and so I would hope it would
be a priority, but I really do need to know as there are things that also need to
be included as the town's main thing that we want to try to get funding for that's not
just acquisition because I think that's what GOKO is really going to want to see in this
round is community collaboration that we have prioritized what we think is the most important
right now and what we need to do with whether that's funding is available and we are going
to have a high impact of being able to conserve that many acres or do we really
they need to focus on the event center of a multi-purpose
pavilion really going through.
I mean, I think those are all great projects
and they're super awesome.
And I'm so stoked to be a part of this
and try to get it through the door.
But I think from you guys,
we really need some direction and prioritization
because we can't fund all of it
and we wanna make it look like a cohesive community package.
So we have about 30 minutes, and I feel like I'm hearing two different things.
You want to know more about how we can go for GOKO for Res Hill and their wanting prioritization for all of our parks.
Well, no, mine has to do with all of the parks. It has to do with the master plan.
Okay.
because it's my understanding that's what goko wants to see what amanda just said she wants to see
that we have prioritized our desires our needs our vision for our parks and rec thank you yeah i
thought you just wanted our vision for reshill no no not at all that would be my point too that
as a standalone it's an opportunity but if we don't connect it and that's what the plan will do
then I think we're susceptible that that money will evaporate because other
people will put their comprehensive plants together. It needs to be deep but it
needs to be broad. So I think we have the elements for it. So how it fits in for me
is I feel like we have a lot of active parks in our community. A lot of places
where kids can go ride bikes, play pickleball, whatever. But we don't have
a lot of passive parks, where people can just go hike, have a picnic, things like that.
And so I would like to look at this fitting into our community as more of a passive park
for a different type of recreation in our community.
There you go.
Thank you.
There you go.
In terms of prioritization, for me personally, it'd be Rez Hill Rec Center are like the
top two things that I would like to see us to focus on. But with what I've heard a lot
that is really exciting today, but one thing that is most exciting, and maybe because, you
know, a little long in the tooth in this chair, but like the 2006 plan, and we can go back
to the community and say, hey, in 2006, you said you wanted this, that and the
thing, we gave you this, that, the other thing. And in 2012, you wanted, you know, you said that
these were important. Look what we've done. We've listened to you and these are the things that
we followed through on. Here's our plan, you know, here's our 2026 plan. And like, I think we,
I would love to see the successes blasted out and let people know that it's not just a dusty
document. Like we've been doing what you've been asking this whole time. And perhaps
That would also be a part of the grant application that you again showing them like hey
We put together this plan look at all that we did and now we're putting together this this plan
You can trust us to use these funds and these proper whatever in an appropriate manner because we've displayed that
This is what we've been doing the whole time. We follow through yeah
Displays competence and I would just love the I would love the public to just know we've talked about like
celebrating our successes and like making sure people know the great work that
happens that they wouldn't otherwise know unless we tutored our own horn. So let's
toot our own horn about this. And get people excited about the future. Okay are
you going next? Well if I may I mean I prepared something so it pardon me if
I'm just kind of reading it but I'd like to do that. I think we have an
opportunity here to develop a unique and valuable parks and open space system
that increases the quality of life for our residents and visitors and benefits
our local economy. My sort of high-level vision is combining our existing
parks, trails, and river assets with future acquisitions, namely right now
Reservoir Hill, to create an exceptional system of parks and trails
that connect users to a variety of experiences, including recreation, relaxation, events, dining
and retail, all in a pedestrian-friendly and beautiful Colorado mountain environment.
Not all of these ideas are mine. I've gotten some of them from listening to Gary and my other
fellow council members, but this is sort of more of a drilled-down vision. For the Goodman
property. I see that as kind of like a base camp area which connects via pedestrian trails to the
Riverwalk, to Rez Hill, the East End, Cotton's Hole, Town Park, Downtown, Yamaguchi, and ultimately
to the town to trails, or the town to uptown trail. Existing Rez Hill trails could be upgraded
to connect to other areas. Existing plans for extension of the Riverwalk to Bob's LP
parcel make connection to that very easy. And then I think this has always been Gary's
idea to develop parking on the Goodman property for visitors as well as areas for campers and
or RVs including spots for seasonal employees. I think that's a great idea that he has
and that could generate income.
A moonshot for me and again I think master plans you
got to include moonshots. Bob's LP was a moonshot, right? When they were doing the
East End multimodal trail back in 2006, that's what spurred me about thinking about all this
too, that the one meeting where James said, this first came up in 2006, and everybody
said, oh, that's impossible. We'll never get that land. We've got it. So just a
moonshot for me is a ski trail on the north side of Reds Hill. It's the only appropriate
a place for it in downtown because it's north facing.
But essentially, Rez Hill becomes a flagship area of conservation and recreation, including
hike and bike trails, open space, ADA access.
There could be sunset viewing areas, forest bathing, quiet zones, and educational opportunities
focused on forest conservation.
The connection between all of our different parks, Rez Hill and downtown, offers a huge
variety of recreational and leisure experiences. And then, finally, the
acquisition of Reds Hills once in a lifetime opportunity. There's a cost of
not taking advantage of this opportunity. If the town does not buy the
property, it may lose the chance to preserve it permanently. The land could
be developed, become more expensive later, or be acquired by someone else.
And in that case, the opportunity cost of inaction is the lost public
benefit of conservation, outdoor recreation, trail connectivity, community character, and future
recreational access. I would argue that this opportunity is so valuable that it justifies a
trade-off of forgoing other identified and unidentified initiatives to secure the funding
that ensures we acquire Reshill. That's my two cents here. Thank you.
Well, thank you.
My colleague Leonard is always concerned about diversifying our economy.
And I've said before, I think that is a great idea. And I worked in lots of small towns that tried to do that.
And it's, and they didn't have the resources we have here in terms of natural resources.
And so I've always seen diversifying our recreational opportunities as a way to diversify
our economy.
Basically the, the factory we have is a tourism factory and we turn the crank and
there's lots of things people can do here and this increases that.
And so that's good.
And then the changing climate, there are other opportunities to do things in town
when there's no snow or you know this and that. So I could see Reservoir Hill playing a big part
of that and and I've always and I and I and I always never wanted to pull out the other 188
acres or 91 or whatever it was. I always thought this is so important we need to keep it together
and just go for it somehow and so and and we can worry about future generations of
councils like this thinking well why did they buy all this land but on the
alternative is you know we can do other things with it too you know we could do
stuff with the land all the way out to light plant road and stuff it
wouldn't be in conservation so you know we could have a rec center there we
We could have a sewer treatment plan or we could, you know, whatever.
And so I think it's so important that I think raising our lodging tax and using that as a
source for revenue, for revenue bond, and we would raise the lodging tax, let's say
just a 6% or maybe it's just 1% for this and the other for affordable housing, you
but just do it all at once, dedicate that money for purchasing that property.
So I think it's important, I think we need to come up with a plan for how to buy it all.
And my humble opinion is that we're focusing on this because this is where we have the money
most readily available and we can't let this opportunity pass and then we can
consider about negotiating on the rest of it. So I just don't want to let this
pass.
Maddie, did you have anything? Yeah, I think Brooks kind of said a lot of what
I feel, but I really wanted to make sure that we were tying in the East End
multimodal plan with Bob's LP and the Goodman property, Skyrocket Park, and
making sure that that connectivity is being thought about because I think you
can you know hike or bike up and drop down to that south side but then where
do you go from there I want people to be able to hop back and then cruise along
you know that whole east end side of Pagosa either along the Riverwalk or
through sidewalks however they can you know visit all those businesses
whatever so I really want to make sure that that connectivity is thought
about. For me I think overall priority, I mean shoot it's really hard to say for
sure but I think Reservoir Hill, Town to Lakes Trail would be kind of the top two
just because I think that we really just need to keep on working on getting
folks off the highway as much as possible and that would be good for
safety for everybody and then yeah I think you know we've made strides in
our river access. We've been really hammering it that over the last couple of years so I'm
really proud of where we're at now. As a user of the new boat ramp at Bob's LP, I am absolutely
thrilled. So I think that we've done a great job there.
Yeah, I think just taking the
documents that we have and like you said, just refreshing them to kind of combine them,
give them a facelift. We have a lot of stuff there. Let's make sure the public
knows about it. No offense. But when we have folks on council who are asking if we have a document,
then I think we're kind of failing a little bit at making sure that leadership is aware of what we
have on the shelf from previous groups. And so when we've talked about this, too, as new councils
come on, let's really make sure that we have a nice, I guess, welcome package for just to
make sure that everybody is up to speed on the work that we have all been doing over the
in the last couple of decades.
So, thank you.
Leonard.
Yeah, let me see.
To start, I'm not a fan
of inflexible plants, long-range plants.
I am a fan, though, of going after things
that are very difficult, seem to be impossible.
And the only way you get there
is by pulling everybody pulling in the same direction and even then there's no guarantee.
The benefit of a strategic plan in my opinion is that you get to create a status in time
so that the things that are important to you you may not have to do it all in the first year
you stretch things out over over time so that your endpoint is a representation of
hard work, collaboration, and pulling those things together in a way that say
they're all part of something bigger. Where these things fall apart is when
somebody comes up with something new and it's not part of any plan and all of
a sudden we try to do something.
So, I think it's really important for us to take the inputs in, look at how we can integrate
them over time so that we don't have to do it all in the very beginning.
For me, I look at the community and those that I'd like to see have access to things
that maybe our visitors get, but we don't. So that's why the community swimming pool with
thermal water and a recreation center is so important to me because that's for the kids
that are here. And that when they grow up to be 70 years old, you know, they can look back
and say, well, listen, I did this, I want to make sure that my grandkids have the same thing.
So that's a big deal for me. But I got to trade this in economic diversification for me.
if you look along the right-hand side and you look at the community swimming pool and you think
about something like what Drango did with theirs, their wet pool where they've got three things all
going on at the same time and how the community uses that, well we travel there because it's
that's how good it is. I wouldn't go there ever if we had something like that here,
especially if we had thermal water that's why and I need to give credit where credit is due.
This is Bob Lynch's thought.
He doesn't articulate it
because he's on the school board.
It would be a conflict of interest,
but it's such a good idea
that well is sitting there waiting
because that property is not gonna come available.
And if we don't do something with that,
that may not cost as much as we think,
but it should take a long time
so that it's not taken away from other priorities.
It's just that the natural resources are there.
The affordable housing idea is a great idea because it does generate some, but we, the
seasonable, the seasonal people that we have here, I would keep it open year-round. We rented
a place up here at Pagosa campground for $850 a month for emergency shelter. The person
who was next to our trailer is a nurse who travels but chooses to live in Pagosa.
That's the only thing she can afford.
We have a lot of people who want to work at the Skiria, and there are six in a room.
So I mean, there's opportunities for us to make space for our workers.
And so, you know, the 300 is important because it's earmarked, it's going to be preserved.
It's the 191 acres that I think make a comprehensive plan.
And so I would be in the same place and say, hey, listen, get the 300 acres, because that's what's going to nail it for us.
But let's keep working on 191 acres because that's where the flexibility comes and it ties to some of the other things we're already working on.
I think I'd like to see the county wide and town thing to me that is an application that is going to be so unique across this nation.
So I'm really excited about that potential, if you can connect countywide things to what it is we're doing in this town.
The cultural and historic preservation piece of this, to me, it's all of that.
If you look at the economic diversification angle, each one of those, you can check those boxes, but that 300 acres is a quarter of that.
A night argue all 491 acres a quarter of that. And then just keep looking at those circles going out.
those are the concentric circles going out add time to it I'm on board with
this I didn't see it was a miscaria for me on the north side it was a tubing and
sledding with snow making on the north side
that too the kids in town can go tubing every day of the week and and we keep
snorkeling until it gets to 40 degrees but those are all connected they're
connected to the kids in this town as well as to the visitors in this
town. And it's not just the kids. I'm a 70 year old kid. I'll get up.
And if I have to live to 80,
then make it a 10 year plan on the two minutes. Don't leave it out, but just put it in the right
timeframe so it's not taken away from your attention units today to get the 300 acres,
to get the 191 acres, and to take these things in stride as we get them because you're doing
a good job of finding money. So I'm all for it.
And Leonard, there's a geothermal well on that front.
Well, yeah. And you know there was a ski hill back there, right?
On the other side of reservoir, there used to be a ski hill back there.
Yeah. Yeah. In the past.
Yeah, I totally agree with your kind of putting things into a time frame of,
you know, what would we like to see in 10 years, 20 years.
But I definitely want to leave room for, you know, needs that arise in the future, because
I can probably guarantee that when the original folks got the portion of Reservoir Hill that
we currently own, they were not anticipating a disc golf course going up there, you know,
and I think that that is a huge asset now.
And so I don't want to like over plan and be like, this is how it is going to be,
but we just like to have a general idea of, right?
I think we're all on the same page of connectivity and a variety of recreational amenities.
Yeah.
That was my first point about making sure that it's not a static plan and inflexible.
It has to be flexible.
Design the handles in the beginning, then you don't have to deal with, oh, what do we
do with this?
Right.
And I'm totally with you too.
I would love to go for the whole thing.
Potentially that's, well, the thing is in time that might be hard.
Again, we have the opportunity, now it might be time to do it now, to grab the whole thing.
This is where the fundraising might really come into play, which is what we've had the
committee for.
But I will say, you know, we might need more help with that.
And so that's, you know, we'll keep moving forward with that committee and, you know,
So, looking at what we can do for that, because we could get go-co for the legacy grant match
and then get private money to help us get the whole thing.
That's the ideal situation.
Okay.
Do you feel like you got from this what you were looking for?
I think so, again, I mean, it's like kind of comes back to these guys have to do the
work.
So, that's my next question.
Do you feel like you got the comments you need to help you?
Can we have the plan by Thursday?
By midnight tonight.
Yeah, it's not on the agenda.
So yes, I mean, I mean, just so you know, I mean,
as Amanda alluded to in regard to, I mean, there is a plan that's going to be coming out
with some different projects from park.
and as you know we've contracted with Park to work with them over the next
two years to try and build this in a sense foundation to help Parks and
Recreation expand countywide and so there's gonna be a lot of work being
put into this in the next two years and you know I think the feedback we've
received tonight is great, we can only bring you these projects and see what you think
because these projects are based not only from the staff perspective but from the community
and what they would like to see.
And getting these prioritized and also with these projects, we have to look at,
they
may be prioritized but this one on the bottom, there may be funding right now to
get that accomplished so it gets moved to the top.
You know and that's how things and that yes, and that's how things
Finally get accomplished in and just to give you guys a timeline with our next opportunity
For the go-go grant, you know, we have to have this interest letter to them by then to May
applications going to be in by July and
So this story that Amanda was talking about that that we're trying to build. I mean we're
every day that goes by, you know, we're just one step close to needing this
completed and all of this information is coming to a head here right before all
this is needed and rest assured the work's gonna be put in and it's gonna
get done. Now that doesn't guarantee we're getting the grant but with the
force legacy news, and as soon as that can hopefully get stamped by Congress, I think
that's going to really slingshot us forward in a sense in regards to the GOKO grant, because
they like to see that collaboration, you know, and the other collaboration we're
talking about with this GOKO grant also is this is an opportunity probably to help
fund the event center at Yamaguchi within this entire grant.
There's a $50 million pot out there, and some of it's already been used up.
And we talked about this at the work session, the joint work session.
You know, over the next, what, we have four years left roughly?
Three years.
Three years left to grab as much money as we possibly can.
And so prioritizing these projects, this first grant opportunity that we're going for, you know,
we can show this as a possible match, this $5.8 million.
You have to look at this even on a bigger scale.
You know, this is a $10 or $11 million grant we're going for.
And what are we trying to get completed within that 10 or $11 million grant?
Well, we're trying to get 300 acres purchased from Res Hill.
We're trying to build an event center out of that as well.
And at least dedicate $1.5 million towards that event center.
And by you, by saying event center, you're talking the multi-purpose person.
Yes, I am.
And so it truly is being thought about as multi-purpose.
Well, it's truly multi-purpose.
It's an event center to be used for events which include ice skating in the wintertime
for moving events down there for concerts.
Whatever else we come up, is there rollerblading involved in the summertime?
Whatever else we may come up good usage for that. So multi-purpose pavilion event center. Yes, all
All in one I look at it as as the same
Okay, if we want to strictly look at it as a multi-purpose pavilion, we certainly can and
but I've also I
Call it an event center as well because of what's going to be you could bring back roller skating. That's what I was just saying
Yeah, yeah, I see a lot of people rollerblading around
Absolutely. So that's what, you know, when you look at the big picture, now we possibly
have this almost $6 million match. We have the $500,000 that was set aside for the multi-purpose
pavilion as a match. Brian's group is trying to raise money and continue to try and raise
money and we'll see what they have by the time this application is due in July.
So it continues to show that collaboration that we're all working together, you know,
and it's not just one entity right in the check.
Can I ask a couple more questions about the multi-purpose pavilion?
Sure.
If you have time and you're willing.
Yeah.
Okay.
I'm just, April wants us out of here, so ask your questions.
Um, I guess for because it's the tourism board that has set aside
the 500,000 correct
For as a match or the town for all the town. Okay, but it came from that pot. Yes. Okay. Um, I guess
So are we anticipating any?
Feedback from that board in terms of final like as we start to see sketch plans and stuff like that
Are we looking for feedback from them or is this going to be primarily coming before council?
You mean from the lodging board?
Okay, I
Think they probably are on board with it already because they've already voted
There's a member I would say most of the people on the board now were not there when the money was set aside
So a man and I are gonna be there tomorrow
the tourism board to talk about park and
We will certainly bring that up
You know in regards to that there was 500,000 allocated. Yeah, and in regards to that and make sure everyone's on the same page, right?
Yes, I and as an advisory board. I mean again, they're an advisory board. Yeah, and forgive me
I think I was I think I might have missed the meeting the last time
Brian came before us I
Not completely up to speed on what his updates are, but I just wanted to make sure that we were still trending on
just staying focused on the idea of a multi-purpose pavilion and he's very
on board with that. We met with him and Ryan. Yeah and then considerations, I
don't know if it's like in the space but considerations for maybe restrooms or
like an area for concessions or something like that. Absolutely that's all we can
consider. Before we, I don't interrupt but I did want to just, while you're
talking about tourism and this whole thing, I think tourism is done a
great job of presenting Pagosa for recreation in a non-motorized way. And I think we want to
continue that, and this plays into that, and you might be able to use that, I think. So we don't
want to be a Moab. We're offering something different down here for recreation, and it's
active and it's outdoors and it's you know just by her to say pass it but even
that you got to get out there was that everything yeah yeah I just thank you so
from my council members we're looking for an update
Parkes and Rec plan, including what we have now input from the community and other opportunities
that we might identify in the community for future.
So, I think we're all in agreement
with that. The Goodman property. Do we want staff to look into ways to monetize that with
the direction towards workforce.
Yes, that would be the number one thing that we would, or
I don't want to dump everything on them. I mean, so we got to work. We got a housing
group housing coordinator, you know, maybe we should look. I mean, I don't want to take
it away from you on, but I mean, it's how we don't want to develop it. We want to
Alicia didn't have it developed or something.
No, this isn't, I want them to do it.
I'm saying staff.
Oh, I got you.
David's here.
Yeah, yeah, staff.
He's the one who,
these are just something we want to be looking into.
Yeah, okay, all right.
Okay.
And then a lodging tax increase.
Do we want staff to look at,
what a lodging tax increase would look like
and suggestions for the places
that they feel like that could be best applied towards our goals that we have
set and make recommendations to us. Okay, is there anything other directions we
want to give to staff this evening? Can I add one more thing? When considering
that lodger's tax also please consider the reallocating the current
and lodging tax possibly as well, if needed.
If you're not sold on raising the lodger's tax,
at least consider reallocating some of the current.
I think that can be part of what we're looking at.
Okay, okay.
Best use of the lodger's tax.
All right, thank you.
The lodging tax.
Yeah, did anybody say you can have a diversification?
Oh, yeah.
But to that end, I think I always want us
to keep affordability at the front of our minds, especially for our workforce, and so
if we're thinking of reallocating or raising, it's imperative that a good chunk of that
is workforce housing and or helping people stay here and raise families here and not
drive them away.
I might have tried.
Anything else?
All right.
Thank you all.
for a great work session.
Thanks.
Great discussion.
We appreciate your time.
And April wants us out of the b-