Durango's New City Council

Elections this past year for the new members to the Durango City Council brought in an entirely new wave of people. The council has certainly gone green with a quasi-stated no-growth or slow slow slow growth agenda. The concept that “I am here now, so close the door behind me” is certainly in effect. To emphasize that very thought, the city Council put a moratorium on riverfront development in downtown Durango as their first order of business. It will certainly be very interesting to see how this city counsel plays out. While nobody here is in favor of uncontrolled growth where a developer comes in and builds 300, 400, or 500 homes a year… we are not a big enough market for that type of thing to happen anyway. One of his council’s main objectives is to continue to acquire additional open space and Greenbelt area all around the city. From a practical perspective somebody needs to remind them that over one half of the entire county is already national forest or BLM lands which provide absolutely no tax base to the running of our governments or schools. I'm afraid we are going into an era of “esoteric” and away from the practical.

Clearly this is my opinion and it does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Wells Group. I have a long history in Durango... four decades actually... so I've a pretty good sense of how things have changed and the rate at which they have changed. I see the agenda being shaped more by people moving here who have left an area where there was unbridled growth and are concerned that it will happen here. My concern is that we will create an elite community and become more like Vail or Aspen with skyrocketing prices that will price the regular person out of the market. City Council and city planners never take responsibility for the increased costs in housing that are really a direct result of their actions. This will be an interesting time until our next election.

The “action plan” for the smart buyer would be to buy anything and everything inside the city limits It is my opinion...and this is shared by others in my field…that Durango in-town prices will rise artificially because of a government imposed shortage of supply. As with all crystal ball predictions, only time will tell how accurate I am.