After complaints about placing a managed camp for unhoused individuals on county-owned land in west Durango, La Plata County is shifting its strategy.

County commissioners voted Tuesday to purchase four properties along U.S. Highway 160 west of downtown Durango to create a managed camp. All three commissioners supported the move which, if finalized, would effectively end the protracted search for a location for a managed camp. Residents of the Ella Vita neighborhood and local unhoused advocacy groups supported the decision.

“There’s a lot of try and fail that has gone on here,” said Commissioner Marsha Porter-Norton. “The reality is if this doesn’t go through, I don’t see that we have any other options.”

The county will pay $1.7 million for the four properties located on a little more than an acre of land immediately west of the Durango Dog Park, stretching from San Juan Hearth and Renewables to the park. The properties run continuously and have two buildings and two mobile homes on-site.

La Plata County will use money from the American Rescue Plan to purchase the properties.

The county’s purchase of the land is contingent on the city of Durango’s approval of a land-use application for a managed camp, which will likely require rezoning, according to County Manager Chuck Stevens.

“It’s not a done deal. (The decision by the commissioners) doesn’t mean that the county then is going to own these parcels,” Stevens said during the meeting. “There’s still a number of due diligence items that will need to be addressed.”

La Plata County must conduct an environmental inspection, survey and appraisal, and other assessments before it can complete the purchase. Closing is slated for some time between July 15 and Nov. 1, according to county documents.

The city notified La Plata County of the properties, and in recent weeks the county has been working with the owners to come to an agreement.

Stevens described the properties as a better alternative to the county’s previous proposed location for a managed camp near the Durango Tech Center and Ella Vita and Crestview neighborhoods.

“The struggle that we have had over at least the five years is finding the right piece of property,” he said. “At the operational level, we have to find the right piece of property to put this camp and we think we’ve done that today.”

The four parcels are serviced by city water and sewer and within 3 miles of the city of Durango’s social services campus in west Durango, which was one of the criteria the county and the city identified for a managed camp. The site is also within the city of Durango and would clarify the jurisdiction of law enforcement with the Durango Police Department taking the lead.

Residents of Ella Vita and Crestview have previously expressed frustration with the patchwork response to dispersed camping from the police department and the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office because of the intersection of city and county boundaries behind the neighborhoods.

Stevens said there are natural boundaries that would limit the effects of a managed camp on the Durango Dog Park.

“People are going to be concerned about its adjacency to the dog park, but there’s actually a nice natural barrier with the vegetation and Lightner Creek that provides good buffer between the proposed parcel and the dog park,” he said.

La Plata County began to pivot from its initial proposed location for a managed camp near the Durango Tech Center after a Dec. 13 public meeting on the county’s plans for a managed camp. At the meeting, Stevens said the county had conducted an exhaustive search of county-owned properties and found that the Tech Center location was the only viable candidate.

However, residents of the Crestview and Ella Vita neighborhoods in west Durango, who were traumatized by dispersed camping near the Durango Tech Center from 2015 to 2018, pushed back and spoke out against the site. They argued the camp should be constructed elsewhere to minimize residential impacts.

After the meeting, residents approached the city and the county with a list of 18 additional sites they asked the governments to consider. The list included parking lots, vacant lots, the Best Western along U.S. Highway 160, River City Hall and the recently demolished Mason Center, among others.

Porter-Norton said the county and other experts have thoroughly evaluated those sites and others and found the four properties near the dog park to be among the best.

“I want everybody to know that over 30 sites have been analyzed going back to 2015. These sites have been vetted,” Porter-Norton said.

The county’s decision to purchase the properties and implement the managed camp at a new location was met with broad public support.

Overnight and through Tuesday morning, the county received 39 comments, 37 of which supported the county’s efforts to buy the four properties, Stevens said. Comments in opposition to the county’s plans stemmed from individuals who did not think the county should create a managed camp, he said.

Residents of Ella Vita and Crestview emailed the county and spoke at Tuesday’s meeting to express their support for the new location.

“It’s a greatly improved site. It’s got utilities, access to bus service (and) the site is flat. Most importantly for us, it does not seem to have a direct residential neighborhood impact,” Kevin Conroy, a resident of Ella Vita, said during the meeting. “... This is an imperfect but a greatly improved site and I support it.”

Caroline Kinser, board chairwoman for Neighbors in Need Alliance, an unhoused advocacy group, also embraced the move.

“I think this site would be wonderful. I think it’s doable. No site is ever perfect, but this is the best it’s ever been,” she said.

If the site passes the city’s rezoning and land-use processes, the county will submit a request for proposals to find an operator to run the managed camp. The operator will then decide how the camp is managed and the uses for the four buildings on the property.

“That will be up to the operator that’s ultimately selected to review the site, build the site plan, design it and then build it out,” Stevens said.

The county has already begun to plan for the permanent funding of the managed camp, identifying money from American Rescue Plan Act as an initial stream of funding for the camp.

Stevens also encouraged the commissioners to ask the city to use money from the joint sales tax fund to support the operation and maintenance of the managed camp.

During the meeting, Stevens addressed concerns raised by residents about the unhoused who would not use the managed camp and continue to camp in Purple Cliffs and elsewhere. He said the county was already preparing and would work with the operator of the managed camp.

“The strategy that we will employ is direct engagement and outreach to those individuals who are choosing not to go to the managed camp,” Stevens said. “We'll get the service providers to connect with them directly to try and understand what their trauma is and try to connect them with the right service to get them the help that they need.”

If not, the Sheriff’s Office will enforce the county’s camping ban on county property and force people to relocate.

As the commissioners meeting adjourned, Porter-Norton described the decision as a “watershed moment.”

Though he expressed that homelessness is a complex and multifaceted problem, Stevens likewise saw the county’s purchase of the properties and the construction of a managed camp as essential to addressing homelessness.

“We can’t continue to do nothing because what we’re proposing today doesn’t solve the entire problem. We have to start,” he said.

ahannon@durangoherald.com