“Hooray” for the majority of Durango city councilors who listened to residents and voted to remove the 7th Street pilot from the Multimodal Transportation Department’s new Speed Management Plan (Herald, Aug. 8). But it shouldn’t have come to this. This was an avoidable, costly misstep that better front-end community outreach could have prevented.
The problem came into focus early in Tuesday’s meeting, when Cristin Salaz, owner of WeFill in north Durango, told councilors about a March incident in which a city crew flushed water into a storm drain, flooding her shop with sewage. She said she had no notification, had to close for seven weeks, losing products and revenue. Her insurance denied the claim and she plans to hold the city liable. She believes the damage could have been avoided with better communication.
Further down on the agenda was Councilor Koso’s resolution to remove the 7th Street Pilot Project from the Speed Management Plan. In a 4–1 vote – with Councilor Woodruff opposed – the city dropped the pilot and its controversial back-in diagonal parking from its speed-management planning toolbox.
Transportation Director Sarah Hill said a “robust” community engagement plan is in place for the August – October demonstration projects (but none have yet occurred). The 7th Street neighborhood only learned of the plan through the Herald in May (Herald, May 29). Hill acknowledged residents felt the city was at the end of the process while staff felt they were at the beginning – and that “notifications are coming.”
Too late. Sarah Shaw, a 7th Street resident who informed neighbors and organized opposition, called the city’s approach “backward.” More than 100 neighbors signed a petition asking for removal of the pilot.
The Multimodal Transportation Department has historically engaged residents early through Durango Engage, forums, surveys, and other tools. But this time, it failed. They know better. Input from those most affected is essential to a project’s acceptance and success.
It’s also unclear whether staff and all councilors understood that 7th Street was a questionable choice from the start. Unlike Riverview Drive and Goeglein Gulch – known for speeding issues – at the request of Shaw (who is the one data point of having complained about speeding last winter), city engineer Keith Dougherty and the Durango Police Department conducted a study. They found no speeding problem on 7th Street, a low volume of traffic, and no accidents in the past five years (Herald, July 11). Satisfied, Shaw turned to advocacy against the pilot.
During the meeting, Councilor Buell gave an impassioned speech about valuing neighborhood input and avoiding knee-jerk withdrawals in the face of pushback. She stressed using data to make informed decisions and warned against ending data collection prematurely – then voted to remove the pilot.
If the city truly values data and evidence, those metrics should have guided pilot selection in the first place, along with robust neighborhood outreach. On both counts, 7th Street fell short.
The Riverview and Goeglein Gulch pilots are still moving forward, with mailers going to residents this week. City residents do have a responsibility to stay informed, but the city must meet that halfway with early, thorough communication. We’ll consider this lapse an anomaly – but seek improvement.
As Buell put it: “Our commitment to thoughtful, evidence-based decision-making is paramount for Durango’s future.” That means ensuring data supports project plans and those plans are clearly communicated before implementation.
Residents can stay in the loop by signing up for Durango Engage at https://engage.durangoco.gov/register and Notify Me at https://durangoco.gov/notifyme.
