It appears an 86-room hotel proposed for 1111 Camino del Rio is on its way.
The project is intriguing. It would make a visual improvement along the Camino corridor, add a section of River Trail, create a small plaza and café open to the public, display public art, install a new sidewalk along Camino and be the first hotel to be built downtown in a long time.
Still, at more than 83,600 square feet, even with more than 31,500 dedicated to some type of public use, it is big and may not be the right project for this location. It may not even be needed.
Preliminary public input to define the Camino del Rio character district called for mixed-use development that capitalizes on the river, pedestrian access, art and public spaces, and connectivity with Main Avenue.
Some of these public interests have been incorporated into the revised plan. The building height along the river was reduced, for example, but from Camino, the hotel height blocks rather than bridges the view from downtown to the river in a key part of the corridor.
The Animas River is one of our greatest community assets. Tourists will love the hotel’s proximity to it, and the shopping and dining experiences downtown. Yet only visitors who stay at this hotel will get to experience both so directly.
Even with well over 30 percent of the site dedicated to a public purpose, this begs a larger question: How much of the river corridor should be public and how much private? Imagine a blend of both, like the San Antonio river walk, an esplanade experience enjoyed by visitors and locals alike.
Public response to the hotel project is mixed. Of 2,279 votes cast in a Durango Herald online poll, 44 percent (1,004) indicated they favored the new hotel and 56 percent (1,275) did not.
Although tourism fuels a considerable portion of our economy, and there will be new jobs with this development, do we need more service jobs, especially when we lack affordable housing?
Business owners are mixed as well. Downtown merchants welcome the increased foot traffic, but it is difficult for motel and hotel owners to be enthusiastic about another new hotel. Some have not been doing well, especially in winter.
Four new hotels have been built since 2014; one more hotel is on track to be completed this summer, and this one would be the sixth.
The circular conundrum, of course, is that sales tax pays for the many recreational amenities we enjoy as residents, and amenities are what attract tourists who pay this tax. With projects like this, we are currently at risk of development getting ahead of our collective community desires, and the planning processes that reinforce them.
We risk focusing too much on tourism exclusive of other types of businesses, seeing once again more new beds for visitors rather than residents.
It would behoove us to speed up and complete our definitions of current character districts and the housing and comprehensive planning processes that will outline our priorities and guide future land-use decisions.
This project has met all current planning requirements and is on track for approval. If we want to see a different vision and set of priorities, now is the time to participate.
Planning meetings are taking place this week (see durangoplanupdate.org) and next.
