Following the Walmart announcement at Town Hall on January 3, where we heard Walmart representative Josh Phair disclose that his company had some property at “Highway 160 and Alpha Drive” under contract, I received an email from one of our Daily Post readers asking if I could tell her the exact location of the proposed discount store.
“You seem like the person who could find out,” she wrote.
The challenge had been made. Could I live up to it?
 I suppose I could have simply left a message for Mr. Phair at his Denver office (1660 Lincoln St. Unit 3050. Denver, CO 80264, Phone: 303-832-1369, joshua.phair@wal-mart.com) but for some reason I was feeling insecure about the Daily Post's ability to get a return phone call from a big corporation like Walmart. (It’s been a rough year, and some of us are feeling a bit ‘beat-up,’ I think. I guess I’m one of those.)
What I did know from Mr. Phair’s public announcement was that the proposed store would be about 93,000 square feet.
And I knew that there was a vacant 22-acre parcel along Highway 160, just west of Alpha Drive and directly across from the Pagosa Lodge. That parcel had terrible highway access.
Another group of vacant parcels were located just east of Alpha Drive inside the Aspen Village subdivision, next to the Parelli headquarters, with access via the lighted Aspen Village intersection. The largest parcel was 5 acres in size.
I visited the La Plata County Assessor’s website to see how much property one might need to accommodate a 93,000-square-foot discount store. Much to my delight, I found that Durango’s Home Depot store was also 93,000 square feet. That store occupies 10 acres, including its massive paved parking lot.
So then, we were looking for a parcel about 10 acres in size, right?
I stopped by the County Assessor’s office at the County Courthouse, to see if they knew anything about a property purchase at “160 and Alpha Drive.” They said they hadn’t heard anything specific yet, but told me the Town planning department was going to be hearing a “property consolidation request” in the near future. Well, then — that would be a consolidation of the small parcels in Aspen Village, no doubt.
That led me to the office of James Dickhoff, the Town planner. Mr. Dickhoff is one of the more open and straightforward government employees I’ve come across in my seven years as a Daily Post writer, and he proved willing to share what he knew about the Walmart situation.
He also agreed to email me a map of the proposed store site.
What we are looking at here, on this little property sketch (generated by the County Assessor’s website, incidentally) are seven parcels and a cul-de-sac road — shaded in Yellow — that are either under contract or already purchased by the Walmart corporation. Shown to the east, and shaded in light blue, is the Parelli property. I believe the remaining Aspen Village parcels shown in white are still vacant and on the market. (.. if they haven’t been snapped up since the Walmart announcement.)
One of those seven parcels — about 5.2 acres in size — was designated as “greenbelt” by the Aspen Village developers, and contains some federally protected wetlands. The development agreement with the Town requires the subdivision to retain that greenbelt — or its equivalent — as “open space”. Here is that parcel, shown in green:
According to Mr. Dickhoff, the Walmart corporation intends to consolidate all seven parcels — making a single parcel of about 15 acres — and will then designate a differently shaped 5.2-acre parcel of “open space” that might look more like this:
The existing cul-de-sac road shown on the sketch, labeled as Aspen Park Circle, would be vacated — and would perhaps become part of the parking lot?
At the January 3 Town Council meeting — a Standing Room Only event — mayor Ross Aragon introduced Mr. Phair’s announcement with this curious statement:
“This is an announcement to Town Council. Following Mr. Josh’s announcement, we will not entertain public comment. We will instead utilize a diplomatic option establishing a civil organization, and protocol in a public forum setting at the Community Center. The [forum] meeting date will be determined at the mid-month [Town Council] meeting."
According to Town planner James Dickhoff, that upcoming “public forum” might be held as soon as mid-February, though he didn’t exactly describe the event as an opportunity for the public to offer input and comments — but rather, as a one-way presentation by the Walmart corporation.
Walmart would likely be submitting their development plan to the Town Planning Commission at that board’s March meeting, he said.
What the mayor means by “utilizing a diplomatic option establishing a civil organization,” I have not the slightest idea. Sounds to me like something that would happen following a civil war. |