Editor’s note: Part I of this two-part column appeared in the Friday edition.
Reversing these trends will require more than small adjustments. Two major initiatives could fundamentally change the county’s economic trajectory.
First, build a business park.
When I was director of the Economic Development Alliance, we found that Bodo Business Park employed 2,400 people, paid above-average wages and supported an additional 700 jobs indirectly. That represented almost 15% of the county’s jobs, all housed in an area about the size of a golf course.
Bodo Business Park reached capacity in the early 2000s. Additional business parks have been studied, but none have been built in the intervening 25 years. As a result, the county has lost hundreds of jobs as businesses either left the community or expanded elsewhere.
As someone who runs a small business here, I can attest that the only way to find space is for another business to close or leave. That is not how an economy grows.
Given the region’s strong startup ecosystem, La Plata County could easily create more jobs and expand its economy if businesses could not only start here but also grow here.
Second, triple the number of annual housing permits.
According to U.S. Census data, La Plata County permitted 700 or more new housing units annually during the first decade of the 2000s. Wages were also rising, and affordability was slowly improving. Housing permits have now slowed to their lowest level since 1990, driving up home prices and pushing workers out.
We need to invest in infrastructure and streamline our permitting process to reach 800 or more housing permits per year. This will allow more people who work here to live here and help close the affordability gap by increasing the supply of adequate housing.
La Plata County has proposed changes to its land-use code to allow 320 housing units to be built per year. However, we are already building 300 housing units per year, just enough to keep our population from falling. Changes to the land use code that would only allow more of the same will not alter the trajectory of our skyrocketing home prices or allow our economy to start growing again.
For a recent example, according to U.S. Census data, Denver metro housing permits rebounded to early-2000s levels by 2016. Despite a spike in housing prices after COVID-19, Realtor.com reported that Denver has experienced year-over-year declines in listing prices since 2021, while County Business Patterns data show wages have continued rising. Attention to housing supply is helping improve affordability there.
A final note: Municipal governments rely heavily on sales taxes, and some may question why they should prioritize housing or business space for revenue generation. This is less of a concern for school and fire districts, which rely more on property taxes and population growth. More buildings and more babies benefit them.
For sales taxes, however, the answer is simple: Stores do not create sales taxes. Shoppers do. When employees live elsewhere, they spend their money elsewhere. Sales tax revenue rises when workers live here, and wages increase. Businesses that can grow here also purchase taxable goods, from supplies and machinery to fleet equipment and maintenance.
In sum, the local economy is struggling, jobs are stagnant, wages are falling, the workforce is aging and employees are being forced out. The county can continue down this path by maintaining the status quo and becoming another Vail. Or it can make a fundamental shift in housing and business growth and live up to its vision of being a distinct, inviting and inclusive community for all ages.
There are many people content to see things stay the same. I am not one of them. Are you?
Roger Zalneraitis is a former director of the La Plata Economic Development Alliance and previously worked as an economic researcher for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. He is currently CEO of MODSTREET, a La Plata County small business.
