COLORADO COMPUTER STOLEN FROM COMMUNITY RECREATION CENTERDurango Herald OnlineComputer theft doesn?t stop public input on comp plan

November 18, 2005
By Shane Benjamin | Herald Staff Writer

If one thing can be said about Thursday's public workshops to update Durango's Comprehensive Plan, it's that not everything goes as planned.

About an hour before the first workshop was to start, a hired consultant discovered that a computer used to tabulate keypad polling had been stolen from a meeting room at the Durango Community Recreation Center

"If we look a little bit sick, it's because we are," said Greg Hoch, the city's chief planner. "We're really crushed."

But the case of the swindled computer didn't stop some 60 participants from making their opinions known. Instead of registering their views via electronic keypads, participants did it the old-fashioned way - with pen and paper.

They answered 18 questions related to growth management, attainable housing, economic development, neighborhood character, traffic and more. The responses will be manually tabulated and posted on a Web site to give consultants a better idea of Durango-area residents' priorities.

Before conducting the survey, Michael J. Lauer, with Planning Works, gave a presentation about why planning is necessary and why public participation is important. He also showed how Durango has changed since the adoption of its last Comprehensive Plan in 1997.

For example, in 1997, the La Plata County Fairgrounds was considered an "unmovable icon." Now it is home to the Durango Community Recreation Center. In 1997, the Animas-La Plata Project was considered a "Holy Grail or boondoggle," depending on who was asked. Today, A-LP is a reality. And in 1997, Grandview was "too remote" to be seriously considered for development. Today, it is the site of a massive residential and commercial development, and it is the site of the newly built Mercy Regional Medical Center.

"Traffic was too congested then, more congested now, and headed toward a parking lot in a lot of sections," Lauer said.

Lauer defined a comprehensive plan as a simple document that balances private-property rights with community responsibility. Part of the difficulty of coming up with a plan, he said, is finding that balance.

In addition to dealing with land-use and development regulations, the comp plan reflects community values and vision. But comp plans must be more than just a visionary guide, Lauer said. They also must be an effective guide, outlining trade-offs needed to achieve goals.

"The stability of a plan depends on broad community support," Lauer added. " Otherwise, we're one election away from having an irrelevant plan."

In his presentation, Lauer showed maps of La Plata County punctuated with red dots to indicate the location of homes. He started with a 1960s map, followed by a 1970s map, a 1980s map and so on. As the slide show progressed, participants reacted in amazement at the amount of development from 1980 to the present.

Participants then split into groups to discuss and answer three questions: What are their favorite cities and neighborhoods? What is the most important outcome for the updated comp plan? And what is their vision for Durango in 2030?

Daryl Crites, a participant, said Thursday's workshop was dull but meaningful.

"What's important to me is keeping Durango a place that 10 or 20 years from now we'll still want to live here, and we'll still be able to afford to live here," he said.

For Gary Matlock, Thursday's workshop lacked imagination.

"It doesn't seem to me that it is really seeking a really new vision of what Durango may be in 10 years," he said.

Matlock and his wife, Jan Thompson, live on La Posta Road (County Road 213) on a section of land the city is proposing to annex in coming years. Matlock said he counts Durango among the top-10 best cities, but he doesn't like it now as much as he did in the 1980s.

"I'd like to see imaginative things like the (Animas) River Trail," he said. "I'd like to see us continue to have commercial development along the trail. Things that provide quality, interest, things that would make somebody come here and say, 'Wow. That's a neat idea,' instead of continuing to do what we're doing."

And what is it that Durango is doing that Matlock doesn't like?

"Grow, grow, grow," he said. "More cars, more houses, more people, but without any particular quality."