From envisioning the future boundaries of town to helping set street tree standards, Greg Hoch has had a hand in shaping Durango as a city planner for 35 years.
When Hoch, 68, started working on city and county planning in 1974, the city had yet to grow beyond Santa Rita Park or fill in around Fort Lewis College.
The development of the Grandview area, now home to Three Springs, was not even on the radar.
“It’s mind boggling,” Hoch said.
Hoch, a native of Denver, left that city’s planning office to work on the Animas Regional Planning Commission, a group that oversaw both the city and La Plata County.
At the time, land-use planning drew serious opposition, especially from county residents. After the group was dissolved, Hoch went to work for the city in 1981 and was promoted in 1987 to planning director. During his tenure, he has seen Durango embrace planning standards.
“The city of Durango, it’s embraced aesthetics as one of its guiding principles. That’s a big deal,” he said.
Many communities can’t take that step, but Durangoans expect new businesses and homes to look good when they are finished, especially along key corridors.
Much of the groundwork for how the city looks today, especially Main Avenue, was laid during the early 1980s. The city was one of the first in the state to pursue a national Main Street program to encourage revitalization and historic preservation, he said.
The city also offered low interest loans to help fund facade renovations that would meet the city’s standards.
Around the same time, the city also adopted a sign code, started requiring developers to include curbs, gutters and sidewalks and encouraged trees along streets.
Of all the changes, the trees are what Hoch appreciates the most. The changes have been cumulative, and without them the feel of town would be different, he said.
“I don’t think the people who come to visit here would be as impressed as they have been in the quality of the community,” he said.
The Planning Department deals with lots of change – new schools, housing complexes – and that can be tough, especially for those who live near new development. Hoch and his department were often caught up in those heated meetings and issues, even though the Durango City Council makes the final decisions.
“I have to tell my staff: ‘You have to realize there are going to be people who appear not to like you. But it’s not you. It’s the job that you have to do and that in a relatively small community like Durango, people who really appear to really dislike you, because of one issue, more often than not, end up expressing support for you on another issue.’”
He sees his role as helping to find balance on contentious issues.
It is work that he has found socially worthwhile, intellectually stimulating, challenging, and at times exasperating. And it’s somewhat hard to get away from in town.
“Everywhere I go people know who I am, and they want to talk to me about work,” he said.
But there was never a day when he didn’t want to go to work, he said.
“There is always something to do and always something to do better,” he said.
As he prepares to depart in October, he expects the city will continue to struggle with two main issues, traffic and housing.
Compared with a big city, traffic in Durango may not seem terrible, but the major north-south and east-west highway corridors converge on Durango, and Hoch foresees a day when U.S. Highway 550/160 will become a slow-moving parking lot.
This may be a tough problem to solve because bypasses around town have been explored by the city and Colorado Department of Transportation and the topography makes them seem unfeasible.
The severity of Durango’s housing shortage follows economic strength or weakness, but to truly solve the problem will take a groundswell of political will and dedicated revenue source, he said.
“There will have to be some concerted effort and commitment to address the issue,” he said, although the proposed apartments along the extension of Escalante Drive may help ease the problem a little.
While Hoch’s retirement will be official in October, he may be involved in finishing the extension of Escalante Drive, at some point, because it has been his focus in recent months.
Ethically, he cannot represent any entity or individual for six months, he said.
He also has no intention to represent developers. But he may do some contract work in planning after some time off, he said.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
If you go
Director of Planning and Community Development Greg Hoch will celebrate his retirement in conjunction with a fundraiser for Trails 2000.
The free retirement party will be from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday at Buckley Park.
The Happy Trails fundraiser will be from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Bands Eldergrown and Afrobeatniks will play. Beer, cocktails, food trucks and a kids fun area are planned.
Tickets to the fundraiser are $12 at the door or $10 in advance at Southwest Sound and the Durango Community Recreation Center.
Trails 2000
builds and maintains trails around Durango.
