Valley Floor bond paid off: Local advocate says it time to celebrate, and plan
By Joan May
There aren’t many small towns that discover that they suddenly have millions of dollars a year at their disposal. But that’s exactly the situation Telluride finds itself in right now.
By the end of February, the town will have paid off its $20 million Valley Floor debt, several years ahead of schedule. The realization of the decades-long quest to preserve and restore the Valley Floor to its natural state is truly a marvel of planning, commitment and cooperation by an entire community. And a cause for celebration.
Now Telluride has some decisions to make. Economic ups and downs dictate the actual revenue amounts, but the open space fund currently brings in about $3 million annually. There are still many open space projects in the queue that some of that money will be needed for. The town has a long and expensive additional wish list: water and sewer plant upgrades, workforce housing, a beloved gondola transit system that needs future funding, to name just a few.
Housing locals is now the seemingly impossible priority that open space preservation was a few decades ago. Here might be an opportunity for our region to be leaders again in creative solutions, to have a wild dream, and to bring that dream to fruition. The community can use the lessons of open space as a model for addressing current challenges, by leveraging existing funding sources to do even more.
I’ve heard that the Valley Floor preservation dream began in the 1970s. Newcomers at the time established their roots as a community defined by a passion for open space and environmental protection. Thank goodness they had that foresight. Whether humans, plants or wildlife, we are virtually all here because of the abundant natural resources the area affords. Leaders back then felt a responsibility to be good stewards.
It took until 1993 for the community to put its collective money where its mouth was. That year Town Council adopted the “Twenty Percent Solution.” Town Council amended its municipal code, and confirmed that process by referring it to voters who approved it, to divert 20 percent of all town revenues to open space acquisition and preservation. That’s 20 percent of all sales tax, use tax, property taxes, business license fees, real estate transfer taxes, parking meter fees, the whole gamut, for open space.
Twenty percent for open space. Who does something like that? Telluride does. If it has a vision and a plan. The primary objective of the fund was to preserve the area’s two crown jewels: Bear Creek and The Valley Floor. Telluride purchased Bear Creek in 1995, thanks not only to the new open space fund but also to the ingenuity of Rich Salem and the San Miguel Conservation Foundation.
The story of the Valley Floor acquisition was a bit more drawn out, with failed negotiations, twisted plots, suspenseful court cases, legislative diversions, an April Fools gaffe and an eventual fairytale ending of a little town prevailing over a big corporation in determining its own destiny.
Telluride successfully purchased the Valley Floor in 2008 by committing its approximately $6 million of accrued open space funds at the time, $20 million in bonding against that fund, and in one of modern-day Telluride’s finest feats, raising $24 million in private donations — $17.5 million of which was raised in just over three months by the Valley Floor Preservation Partners. That’s how the town paid the $50 million price tag for the land, plus interest, legal fees and associated expenses.
Now, 30 years after the launch of the open space fund and 15 years after the Valley Floor victory, it's easy to take these open space parcels for granted; it just seems natural that they should be protected. Paying off the bond is a good reminder of the important history.
These days, in the midst of a local and national housing insecurity crisis, some say that Telluride should have built homes for locals on the Valley Floor instead of preserving the whole thing. This viewpoint overlooks a few facts. One that people might not recall, is that the Valley Floor condemnation actually did include 12 acres of land (the Virginia Placer) for workforce housing. That land now houses about 100 residents in town-owned rental units, a number which will grow as the property is built out. This is far more workforce housing than would have ever been possible through negotiations with the prior landowner.
Additionally, the fact that Telluride was able to purchase the 560 acres of the Valley Floor for open space was because the community had money available for open space — not for housing — because it made a decades-long, concrete commitment to open space funding. They did this because community members prioritized and still prioritize (proven by repeated surveys) habitat protection and preservation of the river, and the most ecologically valuable wetlands and carbon stores in the area. The community was and still is committed to providing free and open recreation access to all. They wanted, and still want, to limit sprawl.
More importantly, the court approved condemnation specifically for the purpose of open space protection. Leaders can’t simply override a court decision, even in the face of a pressing housing crisis. But they can plan carefully for current priorities. Payoff of the Valley Floor bond might provide some welcome opportunities.
Telluride has realized seemingly impossible goals before. It can do it again if it is bold in its vision and determined to do the necessary hard work to turn the vision into reality.
Director of Sheep Mountain Alliance during the Valley Floor acquisition era, Joan May (joan@joanmay.org) served three terms as a San Miguel County commissioner. Now an independent contractor working primarily on climate solutions, she also volunteers for various local organizations.