Monica Wilson’s rental unit, one in a fourplex on Arbecam in Cortez, shows the most landscaping of any of the units. Her landlords have said she is watering too much. Photo by David Long

Frustrations over the prolonged drought have manifested themselves in sundry ways, sparking an increase in thefts of irrigation water, as well as conflicts of a more personal nature.

In one unusual case, an argument over watering a lawn could leave a disabled Cortez woman homeless just as the blistering heat turns toward autumn’s chill.

Monica Wilson, who has resided in a onebedroom apartment on Arbecam Street for the past four years, appears unwilling to budge over her use of water to maintain her lawn and the landscaping she has installed during her tenancy, and Calixto and Bonnie Cabrera, who own the low-income complex, have gone from being accommodating on other issues during her residency to demanding Wilson leave by the end of the month. (Her rental arrangement is a month-bymonth lease that can be terminated by either party.)

As all stories do, this one has two sides, and at this point there is a growing feeling that any resolution of the conflict between the parties other than by her eviction is unlikely.

What some might see as a rather petty dispute over the responsibility of a $50 water bill has blossomed like an invasive weed into a larger issue involving environmental principles as well as financial responsibility.

The Cabreras have owned the four-unit complex since 2006, when they purchased the property for $165,000. They also own two other low-income rental units in Cortez, one on Montezuma Avenue and another on Seventh Street, and according to Bonnie Cabrera, have good relationships with most of their tenants, going as far as accepting partial rental payments when times are tough and making other accommodations for their occupants, many of whom rely on HUD vouchers.

Wilson said she has a master’s degree in library science and a degree in biology, served for 10 years on the Fort Lewis College faculty as a science specialist for Reed Library, and later worked at the Denver Botanic Gardens.

But while working in Denver and living in Colorado Springs with her mother in a house with a 50-year-old furnace, she began feeling sick. Doctors were unable to diagnose the problem, but she continued to feel so exhausted she ultimately quit her job.

Monica Wilson picks tomatoes from her small kitchen
garden. Photo by Gail Binkly

She did not suspect carbon-monoxide poisoning because they had a CO detector and it showed everything was fine; unfortunately, she said, it wasn’t working.

The person who finally found the problem was with the public-utility company. A friend had told her that her water heater smelled of gas, so she had the utility worker come out. He checked the air in her home and immediately had her go outside in the snow and throw open all the windows.

“He said, ‘I’m surprised you’re still alive,’” she recounted.

The prolonged poisoning left her with brain damage that has badly weakened her short-term memory, she said, though her long-term memory remains intact.

She said that, still unable to work full-time, she spent all her savings and, after her mother died, wound up homeless and camping for four months on the San Miguel River with her cat. It was an experience that had both good and bad points.

“There are aspects of it I can remember fondly, but it was also very scary because winter was coming,” she said.

She said her entire ordeal “has been an interesting experience.”

“I have seen an aspect of life I never would have seen before,” she said quietly.

She was finally able to obtain a disability payment of about $800 a month – her rent is paid through a HUD voucher – and located her current abode, which she shares with her dog and cat.

All went well for the first few years, she recently recounted during an interview with the Free Press.

The first summer, she still wasn’t feeling well and stayed indoors. The next summer she grew a few flowers with no problems.

In August 2012, she said, her landlords complained of a utility bill they felt was too high. (The four units share a common water meter, so determining exactly which unit is using how much water cannot be ascertained.)

However, that did not result in any major problems at the time.

A unit at the other end of the fourplex shows the type of growth that would
occur without watering the lawn. Photo by David Long

This summer, however, her proclivity for sprucing up her yard with plants and flowers, including a small vegetable garden, has caused her landlords to object to the increasing water bill.

Wilson has created small islands of xeriscaping in the lawn, using plants dug from BLM land and others bought on sale at local nurseries. In addition, she admits to lightly watering the grass and weeds on the remainder of the property outside her unit.

The Cabreras blame Wilson’s maintenance of her yard – which, compared to the others in the fourplex, certainly has a more lush complexion – for a sizable increase in water and sewer bills, which in one month this summer increased more than $100 over the standard winter bills.

On Aug. 2, the Cabreras received a notice from the city complaining that the grass and weeds on the property exceeded the maximum height allowed under the city code, and had to pay someone to trim them.

Last month Wilson was warned in a letter from the Cabreras that her unfettered use of water could not continue.

“Initially, we had no objections to a ‘garden’ around your unit in flowerbeds,” Wilson was informed Aug. 8. “But to have such a lush lawn during a drought is not something we support or allow.

“From Aug. 9 forward you are not allowed to have a lawn. Stop watering the lawn only and allow it to go natural as the other three units are. You may continue to have a small garden around your unit and flowerbeds only. Please keep in mind that excess water use will be billed to you for the garden if it exceeds the base rates that we pay for each unit.”

The letter calculated that Wilson owed $53.75 for the extra water she had used in June, with July’s water bill yet to come.

But this notice inspired Wilson to respond with an angry letter dated Aug. 12 in which she accused the Cabreras of “pious hypocrisy” because they had written that they “are not willing to support a lush lawn in drought conditions – we do not believe it is a prudent use of limited natural resources. . . ”

“Your reasoning on every point you attempted to make was fallacious at best,” Wilson wrote in response, “and your logic has no basis in reality.”

She wrote that the weeds they’d seen flourishing when they drove past on Aug. 2 were the result of recent monsoon rains, not her watering, and that the greenery around the fourplex is not Kentucky bluegrass but mostly Russian thistle, kochia, and other weeds.

“You have no idea of whom you are addressing your threats to,” she wrote.

“Apparently you believe that I am some foolish woman with a brain injury, getting on in years who can be cowed into submission and/or be duped into some false admission of guilt in the face of your supposed higher moral ground,” Wilson wrote.

“I imagine I am about as foolish as any other human being and my disability does give me great difficulty with my short-term memory. However, my long-term memory is just fine – excellent even.”

Wilson, while not denying her increased water usage, also offered some other plausible explanations for the higher bills – such as a broken and leaking outdoor faucet that went unrepaired for several days despite her notifying Cabrera three times by voice mail, and a large family of adults and young children in one unit who have since moved, but whose use of water, she maintains, had been quite liberal.

She wrote that it was ridiculous to call for the yard to go back to a “natural” state.

“There is NO going back to ANYTHING without water,” she wrote the Cabreras. “Plants – even weeds – don’t work that way. Nothing grows in the summer heat and the ground is a dusty bare brown. This place becomes the glaring exception in an otherwise well tended neighborhood.”

She further stated, “When there’s no watering done whatsoever, this place looks like hell and it’s a major eyesore, Frankly, all the neighbors with their own nice yards resent how this place brings down their own property values.

“Finally, since you are such dedicated environmentalists, you should have noticed the xeriscaping I’ve been putting in on YOUR property at my OWN expense.”

Wilson maintained that she did not owe the $53.75 and suggested that the Cabreras could increase the HUD-paid rent by up to $28, an amount allowed by HUD, a month as a way to cover the additional water expenses.

But Bonnie Cabrera, a former attorney and prosecutor in California who no longer practices law, tells a far different version of the dispute, asserting that Wilson had initially been given permission to have a small garden and a few flowers in her yard, but eventually was told her water usage had gotten out of hand and that she should cease all her watering efforts on the lawn.

Although she wishes Wilson well, Cabrera said, she is tired of dealing with the mercurial moods of her tenant.

The final straw, she said, was the hostile missive penned by Wilson on Aug. 12.

Cabrera said it does not appear any resolution of the conflict would be possible considering what has recently transpired. “Not at this point, because we received back a seven-page incoherent, rambling letter covering so many things it’s almost indescribable,” she said. “I didn’t even realize that she was this deteriorated mentally until this happened, [but] it sort of makes sense in light of some of the challenges we’ve had with her for the last couple years. I guess I didn’t realize that when I was explaining things to her she wasn’t understanding them, or that she was very, very scared or paranoid or something.”

Cabrera said Wilson gets along great with some of her neighbors but is very antagonistic with others. “She runs hot and cold.”

Wilson, who gave a copy of the Aug. 12 letter to the Free Press, admitted it was angry and hostile, but said she is subject to fits of temper because of her brain problems and the post-traumatic stress disorder she has because of her experiences with homelessness.

Cabrera said she considers herself an environmentalist and believes maintaining a green lawn is ecologically unwise.

“She ranted on and on about how we’re not environmentalists, but she doesn’t know anything about us. I am against fracking and various things that are going on in our national parks.

“We’ve allowed our own lawn to go brown, we own two other properties in town and they don’t have their lawns, and we never told her she couldn’t have a lawn, or a garden, but last summer we ended up paying $100 more just for August.

“So I said, ‘We’ll call it good for this summer (2012) but next summer if this happens you’re going to have to pay for the extra water. She absolutely insists that her yard is not the reason my water [bill] is going up, but this is the second summer in a row that it’s done it.”

Wilson’s yard “looks beautiful, almost like a golf course,” Cabrera said, “and we told her she could continue to do this, but you at least have to pay for the extra expense we’re incurring, and she just went ballistic.”

Cabrera said she wasn’t aware for quite some time that Wilson had a disability.

“She has accused us of discriminating against her under the American Disabilities Act, but my husband and I didn’t even know that she considers herself disabled. She doesn’t come across that way.”

Cabrera said she and her husband had been very lenient with Wilson and could have evicted her more than a year ago because she got her dog without permission in violation of her lease, but they didn’t. Cabrera offered to have some other tenants attest to their being good landlords, and one did call the Free Press at deadline to support the Cabreras.

Their requiring Wilson to leave now is not an eviction, she said.

“Either of us has the option with 30 days’ notice to not continue this lease and that’s what we’re doing,” Cabrera said.

“She’s shown she’s not going to take responsibility for the extra water she’s been using and she’s been very rude to my husband over the last two years – and to myself.”

Wilson, however, said she may have to resist leaving and force the Cabreras to go through the eviction process if she cannot find another place to stay.

Her housing voucher is for up to $528 a month, which must include water, and “places like that don’t grow on trees,” she said.

“Believe me, I’m looking, but if it’s between that and living in my truck, I’ll make them do the eviction process.”

She said she has been accepted into the Senior Community Service Employment Program, which retrains people 50 and over so they can find new jobs and become more self-sufficient, and is trying to find work.

Cabrera said Wilson’s threat to make them evict her is “the last straw.”

“Now she’s going to seek lawyers and drag this out as long as possible.

“She’s with HUD and we’ve worked with HUD and we’re trying very hard to make sure she doesn’t lose her housing voucher.

“We really try very hard to work with our tenants – my husband is a veteran – and once in a while we work with someone who is a veteran and borderline homeless, and we’ll try to get them into a place and work with social services and set up payments, so it’s not like we’re not accustomed to working with more-challenging cases, but she’s been so rude and hostile over the last couple years over little things – there’s been no respect and a lot of attitude.”

Cabrera said it feels like Wilson is trying to bully them, “threaten me with a civil action under the ADA, and as I mentioned, I’m a former prosecutor and she has no case.

“We didn’t even know she’s supposedly disabled, so how are we supposed to be discriminating against her?”

Wilson likewise believes the dispute probably cannot be resolved at this point but said she was not out of line in seeking to have a modest lawn and some landscaping and that it wasn’t costing as much as the Cabreras claim.

“I may have had a reversal in my fortunes and become disabled and forced to live on Section 8 [subsidized housing],” she said. “That doesn’t mean I don’t take pride in where I live.”

James Thune, a HUD housing inspector and advocate for the Southwest Center for Independent Living, said he agreed that Wilson’s letters been confrontational and insulting, but that the controversy had been ongoing and he has worked with her because she is disabled.

“I’m just someone who stepped into the situation and is trying to get this resolved,” Thune said, “but as far as it’s standing right now, Monica has to vacate. She’s got until Sept. 30 to find a new place within the fairmarket payment standard, which is not easy to do.

“This is a bad situation it’s come to with her – losing this voucher, if it comes to that, is like putting her homeless and if it goes that far, that’s what the possibility is.”

Thune said he’s been looking for alternative housing since the brouhaha started, but finding another place within the HUD limits has been nearly impossible.

Thune said he hasn’t been in direct contact with either of the Cabreras, although this may be his next step.

“I can talk to Calixto and Bonnie and say, ‘The water bill is being paid for and you shouldn’t be doing this,’ but they have sent a lengthy document about the water bill and that’s how they feel. I’m doing my best to advocate for her in this situation that there’s not a winning conclusion if she gets an eviction notice.”

When it comes to how development should, or shouldn’t, be managed in the Dolores River Valley, one thing is certain: People have strong opinions.

Even members of the citizens’ working group that recommended the rules currently guiding growth in the valley continue to disagree a decade after their work was finished.

Bruce Lightenburger, who owns 622 acres upriver from the town of Dolores, believes the county’s current prohibition against building within 100 feet of the river is “ludicrous.”

“It’s ludicrous that someone can tell you what size of deck your wife can sit on in your own back yard,” Lightenburger told the Free Press. “It’s those types of things that I find repulsive. I want to protect the water quality, but under the guise of protecting water quality, they are telling us that we can no longer build on our lands.”

He said there are too many layers of bureaucracy already restricting development along the river, including requirements of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, state regulations concerning water wells, county rules about septic systems, and more. The county’s setback requirement and TDR system are too much to add to the mix, he said, and create hardships for valley landowners.

“There’s some people who own three acres [on lots created before the TDR system] and with the hundred-foot setback, they only have 30 feet to build on,” he said.

He likewise believes the current system of Transferable Development Rights, which allows landowners in the Dolores River Valley to build just one home for every 10 acres they own unless they can purchase TDRs from someone else, is absurd.

But Pat Kantor, another valley landowner who served on the working group, said the restrictions are reasonable to protect the river and the water it sends into McPhee Reservoir.

“The [valley] plan was put in place for the people who use the river, who depend on the potable water, who economically depend on it – farmers and ranchers, even in Dove Creek and that whole area where irrigation is supplied, hunters and outfitters, Cortez residents and businesses, the Ute Mountain Utes,” she said. “It wasn’t put in place for the people who live up river. It was for a greater good, the good of the county.”

She said at the time the group was working, there was concern about the possibility of a large golf-course and resort development on the river and the pollution it could cause. The group heard from various water managers who said that correcting pollution problems is expensive and time-consuming, so it’s better to prevent them in the first place.

“A lot of education and time went into the development of that plan and to have things changed without appropriate information behind decision-making would be very tragic,” Kantor said.

Lightenburger, however, said it’s possible to have growth and maintain water quality.

“Not one person that lives on the river wants the river polluted,” he said. “It would be killing the goose that lays the golden egg.” He and his wife bought their property some 15 years ago, he said. “It was an old gravel pit and all we have done is rehabilitate it. We care about the valley.”

However, he said the rules are too restrictive. Under the TDR system, he said, someone wanting to build a relatively small, 50- seat restaurant on the river outside the town of Dolores would have to own 150 acres, or the TDRs for that many acres.

However, according to the planning department, such a restaurant would take closer to 60 acres, although it could require more depending on slope and whether land is in the floodplain. The restaurant would not even have to be located on the 60-acre parcel itself, so long as the owner had a 60-acre parcel in the valley.

“Those rules are killing any development,” he said. “TDRs stop building and commerce.” Lightenburger pointed out that since the rules were adopted into the county’s land-use code in December 2003, not a single TDR has been transferred in the valley.

Kantor said that is largely because of the recession. “TDRs haven’t been exchanged, but look where the economy has been these past years,” she said. “Waterfront property is precious and we have beautiful land here and good water quality. As soon as the economy turns around things are going to change. There could be large acquisitions of land along the river and we have to be prepared for that.”

But Lightenburger maintained that the TDR system is strangling growth and should be abandoned, letting density in the valley be regulated according to the county-wide minimum of three acres per lot. Allowing just one home per 10 acres promotes sprawl, he said.

“I don’t want it to be like Los Angeles up and down that valley, but I want the rules to be loosened to where if somebody wants to build a house for their aging mother-in-law they can do it.”

He questioned why, if the stricter regulations are necessary to protect water quality, they haven’t been imposed on the Mancos River or McElmo Creek, adding, “Because if we did it county-wide, the people would go berserk.”

But Marianne Mate, a Dolores town resident who was mayor from 2002 to 2006 and also served on the valley plan’s working group, said she sees the issue from the point of view of a public servant.

“I respect private property, but when private property impacts public safety, I think you have to look at the greater good. I understand people don’t trust the science, but in the long run you have to look at what’s best for the population that will be impacted.”

She said she doesn’t see anything wrong with the rules as they are. Any structures built within the floodplain are going to come floating down the river in a flood, she said, causing damage and creating hazards.

“When you do something up the river and you put a structure on the river, you are impacting the people that live below you and you are impacting more than just your own family,” she said.

In situations where someone who owns a small, grandfathered lot has difficulty finding space to build on, or where someone’s property within the setback is 50 feet higher than the floodplain, she said, “That’s what variances are for.”

Lightenburger and others have pointed out that numerous structures have been built next to the river within the town of Dolores, which because it is incorporated is not subject to the county’s planning regulations. Mate said that’s because the town is more than 100 years old and when it was incorporated nobody worried about floodplain protection.

“You have to look at what mitigation you can do,” she said. “The library has done some.”

During the roughly two years that the working group met, members learned a great deal about water quality, rivers, and floodplain protection through presentations from different experts, according to Kantor and Mate.

“People came together realizing for today, tomorrow, 10 years from now, 20 years from now, the importance of the water in the Dolores River Valley for the sustenance and maintenance of the county,” Kantor said.

One of the things they learned, Mate said, was that too much density along rivers can impair water quality. For instance, in Cottonwood, Ariz., planners allowed too much growth to be concentrated along the Verde River, and there were numerous exceedances of water-quality standards for contaminants such as e. coli.

Lightenburger said regulating density isn’t the answer. What the river valley really needs is a sewer line, he said, and regulations requiring all new homes to tap into the line.

“If they wanted to help water quality, they’d find a way to run a sewer line and a water line up the river. There are grants for that.” Then, he said, the county could reconsider whether stricter density limits were necessary, or it could look at every development individually. “One rule doesn’t fit all.”

“I think responsible growth can be done on the river. I’m not talking about condos and golf courses. But if someone wanted to do some nice apartment buildings with parks and livable spaces I think it should be looked at. I’m not saying to do it, just look at it.”

At present the county is looking only at loosening setback regulations, Lightenburger said, but it should reconsider the TDR system as well. “First we’ll get the setbacks and then we’ll go after the TDRs,” he predicted.

Young musicians play for their peers at White Cup Coffeehouse, a new
venue in the heart of Cortez on Main Street. Courtesy photo: White Cup Coffeehouse

When Stonefish Sushi & More opened its doors in downtown Cortez more than three years ago, owner Brandon Shubert began booking musical gigs on the stage reserved for sushi dining during regular hours. His plan was to present two gigs each month after hours on Saturday nights, offer live music at no cover, keep the bar open and let the people downtown enjoy the nightlife a little longer.

Today he still books live musicians once a month, but he has replaced the other event with electronic dance music generated by a professional DJ. He changes out the lighting to emulate club atmosphere and turns the volume up on the street. He calls it Club Mudd, and it’s a hit.

Two blocks away, Patti Simmons, the original owner of Blondies, which was already established and successful when Stonefish showed up, expanded the offerings at Blondies by promoting open-mic nights and installing a large stage in the front section of the bar.

Business began a trickling growth at these two food places. Live musicians were adding value to the restaurants.

Soon Mr. Happy’s Bar, Grill and Bakery moved in a block away from Blondie’s. Dave Chisholm, co-owner with his wife, Jill, knocked down an interior wall, renovated the space, painted the whole establishment sunshine yellow, added a bespectacled Biker Smiley Face to the murals already on the building, built a stage large enough for a good size rock’n’roll group, installed one of the best sound systems in the region, and created a marketing plan to promote the bands he booked.

Traction was happening. The Cortez music scene was growing.

By spring 2012, people were spending time after 9 p.m. walking Main Street going from place to place to hear the music.

Today the three restaurants have been joined by White Cup Coffeehouse in the same area of downtown. It opened with a stage, another high-profile sound system, and additional rooms for musical studies. The owners offer advice on how to buy a guitar and all the services one would find in a full-service music store, except it is a coffeehouse and stage.

According to owners Wayne and Elizabeth Hatch Reichert, Wayne’s forte is “pawnshop rescue” (salvaging used guitars). With 25 years’ experience as a guitar luthier at their former location in Sanford, Fla., the Reicharts considered relocating to Cortez, Elizabeth’s hometown. To their surprise, the music scene was happening right in the heart of town. They opened the new coffeehouse next to KSJD Community Radio’s coming performance center, just a block from Blondies and Mr Happy’s, and east of Stonefish Sushi and More.

Bob Dunn sits in with Nashville bluesman Dave Duncan at Stonefish Sushi
& More in July. He returns for a gig there on Sept 28. Photo by Denise Coffman

The KSJD performance space is scheduled to open in early 2014, but its presence is already being felt on the street. Some broadcasting has even moved out of the front door onto the steps.

Tom Yoder, KSJD programming and me dia director, brought the mikes out on the front porch steps for the Montezuma Blue Star Moms during the George Geer Car show at City Park this year. In the evening the vintage autos cruised up and down Main Street, but in 2013, they also parked and talked with Yoder on-air about the significance of the veterans event.

It happened while the youngsters were jamming inside White Cup. People were crowding the street. It was a peek into the future of how a vibrant downtown Cortez might look once the performance space opens.

When completed, it will add another venue for lectures, music shows, movie nights and small theatre productions. “It’s becoming a corner where public media flows, exchanges information, and that always attracts people,” said Yoder.

And people spend money where they spend time.

The growing music attractions piggybacked on food and beverage establishments are bringing more people – tourists, locals and musicians – to Main Street. Some are calling the change a shift toward a designated music-arts district.

In early summer, the Cortez Cultural Center’s board of directors hired a new director, Anne Beach. This summer she collaborated with KSJD, just across the street from the center, and a half block from the crossroads of Main and Market. Together they brought Keith Secola, a Native American blues and rock singer, to the center for a concert. The plaza filled with people eager to hear Secola, who is well-known in Europe and on the rez, and now had an opportunity to share his music with the radio-station listeners and a live audience simultaneously. His presence kept people downtown four more hours, increasing the possibility that restaurants would benefit from after-concert diners.

The Reicherts, however, chose to shut White Cup during Secola’s performance. They said it was better to post a sign saying they were attending the concert, and thereby cross-promote Secola, rather than stress over the loss of customer base while he was playing. They also admitted, “We are musicians and we really wanted to see his gig. It was great!”

Tomoe Gozen, bassist for the Moetones, plays with Cody Kaufmann at the White Cup Coffeehouse.

Needing more bars?

In revitalization economics, the growth of multi-use entrepreneurial businesses is called “related cluster networks.” Matthew Yglesias, Slate magazine’s business and economics correspondent, recently addressed issues around urban cluster networks in an article titled, “Your Neighborhood Needs More Bars.”

“Cities … recognize that bars and restaurants are not the ugly stepchildren of the modern urban economy: They are its greatest strength,” he wrote. “They spur small business growth and creation citywide… [bringing] overall benefits to the region…”

An additional value for the city of Cortez is the location of the current food, bar and music businesses in older buildings. The spaces are not attractive to big-box or more modern retail chains that prefer new sprawling malls. Empty dilapidated buildings at the center of a town portray a look of despair. But the music and food industries can ignite revitalization. Fortunately, they want to be near each other.

“Theaters and live-music venues benefit from proximity to other after-hours activities and also drive customers to bars and restaurants … Providing these kinds of dense networks of related but independent small undertakings is exactly what cities are good at,” Yglesia wrote.

He added that the value grows in each business. “Complicated interdependencies and complementarities arise … you might want to meet friends for dinner in a neighborhood where you’re also likely to be able to grab a drink afterwards.”

Now a destination for local entertainment, the downtown Cortez restaurant/ music venues are providing a place for the music service industry to perform and manifest revenue to the establishments. Nothing in the business model is tangible at first until enough profit can generate investment in a new concrete patio or a performance hall windows, or old dangerous stairs get replaced with new safe structures and wheelchair access grows. These are tangible signs of intangible services, like the work of musicians and artists and wait staffs, that precede profit and the growth of materialism.

‘We’re in This Together’

Yet none of it would be happening in downtown Cortez without the love of the musicians’ services and a desire to hear their music.

According to Shubert, who is also a vocalist and harmonica player, “Mel [his wife and business partner] and I love music. If we break even I’m pretty happy about it.” Chisholm agreed. “We do it because we love music. Eventually it will pay off down the road.”

Deswood Calhoon, current owner of Blondies Trophy Room, knows it’s good for the biker bar’s business. “We are 70 percent liquor, 30 percent food, live music and no cover. Karaoke is our best draw. Live bands are great. Musicians are good for business.”

He also said the music scene keeps people in downtown Cortez as opposed to traveling to Durango. “These two blocks are becoming the place to be because customers can walk between venues.”

The city benefits too, Chisholm explained. “They have been wonderful, really supportive. People complain about government entities blocking business, but I’ve never seen it. No one wants to control growth here and that’s good.”

Cortez City Manager Shane Hale said that the city incentive resolution, “We’re in This Together,” is based on encouraging new growth. Passed in October 2012, the resolution includes a 10 percent sales-tax rebate on new sales by at least 3 percent over the prior year and 50-percent abatement of the building permit fees and use taxes on new construction or remodels for all business building permits through Dec. 31, 2014.

“We’re always looking at other small-town models – the ones with highways going through them,” Hale said. “Cities are defined by their downtowns today and there’s a lot of cool stuff happening in ours. The resolution represents our partnership with business. In our meetings we all talk about a walkable downtown, a good place for pedestrians and families. We’re working to slow traffic through our beautification programs because people spend more money at 3 miles an hour than they do going 30 miles an hour.”

The customer base on Main Street is mostly local in the winter season, but during spring, summer and fall, tourists beef up the street. The music groups are also mostly local, with some returning road groups or singers who have developed a following at the venues.

Moe Cooley, lead for the popular local Moetones, and a resident of Cortez, said the music has always been here, “even before I got here from Austin.”

“It takes a lot of people to make this happen,” Cooley said. “The hopeful part is that even though the quality is extremely good and the number of musicians is growing I haven’t seen the kind of backstabbing that you find in places like Austin. Everyone just wants to play. What’s happening is really right.”

Nashville bluesman Dave Duncan is returning to Stonefish in mid-September, booked back by popular demand, but also because he likes the feeling in Cortez.

“I love playing gigs in southwestern Colorado,” said Duncan. “The fans are knowledgeable and appreciative. It’s a highlight of my summer touring schedule, in particular Stonefish in Cortez. Bob Dunn [local harp] sat in with me when I played there in July. Brandon got up and sang with me. We had a really joyful groove going all night.

“I really look forward to coming back again in a few weeks. I enjoy playing music in Mississippi & lower Alabama but there is always something special about my gigs in Cortez and the distillery in Mancos.”

Dunn is a vocalist and harmonica player. A longtime resident of Cortez and front man for his group, Big Money and the Corporate Citizens, he feels that joy, too. “It is really gratifying to have more places to play. Local bar and restaurant owners are doing a great service to this community.”

He feels the benefit is more than just economic. “I was working the open mikes when they began. Young people started showing up. It’s so amazing to watch them. They get a chance to play real music on a real stage, with real instruments and a real audience. Over just a period of a few gigs they begin to blossom and thrive and are learning from the professionals on a level they don’t get in school.

“I have to give Patti Simmons the credit for starting it all when she began open mic nights at Blondies many years ago. She provided the first venue for these kids. It has created intergenerational respect.”

A city with life

Cody Kaufman is a young local bass player who frequents all the open mikes and often sits in with the professional groups. He is well known for his musicianship and style. “This town is really better for all the music places, because now we can get out of the garages, play in front of an audience. The scene is giving kids better things than to do drugs and be hoodlums.”

His abilities are expanding to a point where he knows what he didn’t have when he was an emerging player. “I plan to open my own studio, to teach how to be a musician, not just how to play songs.”

Most nights the overflow of young heavymetal aficionados clogs the sidewalk in front of the White Cup. It is something rarely seen previously on Main Street. Kids are hanging out with guitars and harmonicas; some are flipping skateboards, most just talking and connecting with each other.

Reichert says that the investment in the young customers pays it forward. “It’s a whole new area for the young folks. It’s like a Petri dish for the future; seeding baby bands, artists and newcomers.”

All of this is feeding money and vitality to musicians, business establishments, city coffers and peripheral businesses. At this time the venues see the network cluster as genial and cooperative, grateful for the high quality of the musicians and positive about future business.

Cooley agrees with Dunn, who said he is amazed by the amount of righteous music in Cortez. “We are poised to become a musical destination place. Maybe not an Austin or Memphis,” added Cooley, “but definitely one that contributes to the economy and the arts. When a city has thriving artists in all genres, it has life and that’s something people seek, something we can be proud of.”

According to Chisholm, we are all beginning to be known by music genres. “Here at Mr. Happy’s we present jazz on the first Saturday every month, and karaoke is always a popular night,” he said. “The only genre that is a little hard for our customers may be heavy metal. But we have all sorts of wonderful folk, blues, and rock ’n’ roll.”

Blondies “runs at customer capacity most weekends for the four groups we book each month,” said Calhoon. Chisholm said a good open-mike night is 40 to 70 customers and “that’s about the turnout for the popular groups as well.”

According to Yglesia, “Even better is that the Internet isn’t going to put restaurants out of business, for obvious reasons. Under the circumstances, promoting the development and expansion of nightlife hubs should be a key economic development priority for cities.”

How growth and development should be managed within the scenic Dolores River Valley northeast of Dolores, Colo., has become a hot topic recently. Photo by Wendy Mimiaga

Regulations guiding development in the Dolores River Valley were lambasted as examples of government overreach, and praised as needed to protect water quality, at a public hearing Aug. 20 in the town of Dolores.

The hearing, which drew nearly a hundred people, was held by the Montezuma County Planning and Zoning Commission to gather input on some proposed changes to the county’s land-use code that would ease restrictions regarding setbacks along the river.

Dennis Atwater, P&Z chair and moderator for the meeting, said the original regulations, called the Dolores River Valley Plan, were developed by a citizens’ working group a decade ago and had been prompted by concerns about possible developments such as golf courses and condos along the river.

“The No. 1 priority of the plan is to protect water quality,” he said. “All of us that live here who aren’t on our own well depend on that water.”

Atwater said the Town of Dolores had passed a resolution dated Aug. 12 supporting protection of the Dolores River water quality as in the existing DRV plan.

The meeting was to take input on three specific proposed changes related to the existing 100-foot setback rule along the river:

• A definition of “structures”;

• A list of structures that would be exempted from the setback regulations. (Current rules state that, within the valley, all new commercial and residential construction must be set back 100 feet from the stream bank. The new rules would allow certain recreational structures such as patios and decks that are not over 400 square feet, have no plumbing and are not enclosed on more than one side.)

• Civil and criminal penalties for noncompliance with the rules.

However, many people who spoke did not address the proposed changes specifically, instead using the opportunity to talk about broader concerns.

Dolores Mayor Val Truelsen said not everyone’s opinions were relevant. “I greatly appreciate comments from the landowners on the Dolores River and people in the town of Dolores. Others should be ignored.”

But Greg Kemp of Mancos responded that such an attitude is “very shortsighted.”

“I’m not a water recreationist, but as a user of the water that comes from the Dolores River, my life depends on it, as does the livelihood of many thousands of people in Montezuma County. . . so in my opinion everybody who lives in Montezuma County has standing to express an opinion,” Kemp said.

Larry Berger of Cortez agreed. “Everything you do will affect us down here.”

Charles Unsworth, a valley landowner, asked why “equipment” was listed under the definition of “structure,” which under the proposed rule would be defined as “any building, equipment, device, or other facility made by people and which is fixed to land, including a gas or liquid storage tanks above or below ground, as well as manufactured homes and recreational vehicles.” This definition is taken from a floodplain resolution passed by the county commissioners in 2008.

Atwater said agricultural structures including fences and pumps are permitted within the setback area under the proposed rules. He said the idea of setbacks is “to avoid degradation of water and add another layer of protection,” and 50 feet is the minimal standard in the state.

“La Plata County has a 50-foot setback on the Animas River, but it also has additional restrictions on what homeowners can do,” he noted.

He said the working group’s original proposal was to establish the floodplain boundary as a setback, but that would have eliminated a “whole lot more of the valley.”

Julieta Unsworth expressed concern about listing an RV as a structure. Atwater said RVs would be allowed to stay in one place for 90 days, but she said they ought to be allowed to stay without restrictions. “Is it my land or is it your land is my question,” she said.

Marianne Mate, who served on the working group that developed the original rules, said, “When we looked at some of the science from other communities where there was too much density, things that were floating down the river were unbelievable – RVs, carports, cars, barns. I’ve seen chairs, parts of cars [on the Dolores]. Anything that could cut loose of the ground and start floating down the river is a structure.”

But Larry Fitzwater, who lives near Bear Creek, said trees also have the potential to fall and be carried down the river. “Are you going to cut all the cottonwoods and the spruce?” he asked.

Tony Littlejohn of Mancos said vehicles should be counted as structures because “they would wash into the river just like every other structure in a 30-, 50- or 100-year flood that could occur any day now. . . and we don’t need a lot of human-fabricated debris in the river.” He said cars are hard to remove from the river.

Atwater said the last hundred-year flood on the Dolores was in October 1911, and the river was flowing at 10,000 cubic feet per second or more. He said there have been five floods in the last 90 years that were at 7,000 or more cfs.

Pat Kantor, also of the valley and a member of the original working group, asked why poured concrete slabs aren’t included in the definition of “structure”, saying no poured concrete slabs or impermeable foundations should be allowed within the setback.

The floodplain slows the velocity of water coming down the river in the event of a flood, she said. “It absorbs sediment, replenishes the underground water and supplies nutrients to the soil. . . . The floodplain is really very important, and obstructing the floodway diminishes the natural capacity of the floodplain to save lives and keep the river environment flourishing.

“We looked to the future when we were making the plan,” she added. “It’s just not one concrete slab that’s not permeable [that would cause problems]. We’re looking at many. The more we develop, the more there could be, especially for a resort development, and every slab diminishes the ability of the floodplain to act as it should.”

Atwater said 22,788 acres have been identified as being in the valley, which includes 31 miles of river, 547 parcels surrounded by public land, and 392 different landowners. “Fortunately this community got ahead of the problem instead of behind it.”

Atwater said in contrast, some other places along waterways, such as Oak Creek Canyon in Arizona, are “built out.”

“I love the place but it’s way overbuilt,” he said. “Coconino County was way behind the curve. They reacted when it was too late. Telluride was way behind the curve. So should we do this now or should we wait 10 more years? I think we should do it now.”

Although the system of Transferable Development Rights that governs growth in the valley was not on the table for discussion, many people brought it up. In the Dolores River Valley, people are allowed one residential structure per every 10 acres they own outside the floodplain. That right is a TDR, and it can be sold separately from the land. For example, someone who doesn’t want to build a second home on his or her 20 acres can sell that TDR to someone who wants two homes on a 10-acre parcel.

Atwater said there are 620 TDRs available in the valley, but without those, another 2,495 more residences could be built. “Without TDRs, this valley could be built to 1000 percent of what it was in 2002,” he said. He said adding many homes into the valley could raise numerous concerns. “There is an incredible amount of chemicals that come off a house – just the roof alone.”

He also noted that rivers and riverbanks don’t naturally stay stable, but homeowners work to stabilize them, affecting the way the water flows and the way the floodplain is shaped.

“Setbacks are specifically for water quality. The TDRs are for density,” Atwater said.

Charles Unsworth pointed out that cattle and wild animals also contaminate the river. “You’re trying to say this river should be made pristine and it won’t,” he said, adding that in a flood the Dolores sewage-treatment facility would flood too.

Lightenburger said it was “bizarre” to limit decks to 400 square feet, a comment that was echoed by several other people who expressed resentment over the restrictions within the setback area.

Lightenburger asked why the town of Dolores has no setback, and suggested reducing the county’s to 50 feet.

Atwater was asked whether there is data showing that there is a significant difference between a setback of 50 and 100 feet.

He said there is such data and the planning commission and working group did look at it.

“As they looked at setback distances, considering the terrain, it seemed like 100 feet was the right distance. Riparian areas generally are 100 to 300 feet. We’re at the minimum of that. That riparian area is absolutely critical to the health of our environment and water.”

Fitzwater asked the percentage of people on the working group that lived upriver. Atwater was unable to say off the top of his head, but he said there were about 20 members on the working group, all from the local area. The group met 18 times over the course of about two years.

According to a list later provided to the Free Press by the county planning office, the group had 15 citizen members, three staff members and three consultants. Of the citizen members, at least eight owned land in the river valley at the time, according to people who served on the group, and two others lived in the town of Dolores.

Atwater said, “In some cases there are folks who don’t live in the valley who care more about it than those who do. That’s my opinion.”

Chris Majors, a rancher and accountant, told the crowd he was more interested in keeping density low in the valley than in worrying about setbacks.

“I served on the evil, evil Dolores River group,” Majors said. “To me, the biggest protection for ag irrigation water is reducing density. I’m a little concerned about getting hung up on the setbacks. I hope we can let people do what they want, with the exception of houses with septics, on the river. The biggest protection is the 10-acre lot size.”

Pat Kantor agreed. “I live on the river and I cherish it,” she said. “I own the property on either side of the river but I don’t own the river… Those of us who live on the river have an obligation to take care of that river for the health and welfare of the people who live here.” She said the Dolores is “the lifeblood of the county” and is crucial to its economy.

“I think the Dolores River Valley Plan has been successful,” she added. “Water quality is still good.”

But others said the TDR regulations are too restrictive, impinging on the rights of people who own small lots that are “grandfathered” because they were created before the current system. Likewise, they said, there is no provision for people who want to build within 100 feet of the river because their land is elevated well above the river level.

Many brought up the fact that no TDRs have been bought or sold since the regulations were adopted into the county’s landuse code in December 2008.

Some raised the possibility of extending a sewer line up the river. Atwater said the cost of doing so was found to be prohibitive in 2002, about $42,000 per lot.

“This is a very narrow valley so it would require some above-ground sewer line,” he said. “How would that work in a flood?

“You would have to have package treatment plants along the route, not a very good idea when you’re trying to protect river quality. And they are state-regulated. It’s beyond the county to enforce that.” The state, Atwater added, has done “a damn poor job” of enforcing such regulations. “The county has seen numerous complaints on smells and stuff coming out of those plants onto the surface.”

Josh Munson said he had lived here 10 years and that the valley plan should not be changed “on a whim.”

“And if it is to be changed, we should consider the long-term future of the valley,” Munson said, adding that the common good should take precedence over individual desires. He said the penalties for noncompliance should be increased.

Joel Kantor agreed, saying he had lived on the river 14 years. “As far as I can see it’s a surcharge for building on the river.” He compared it to “shoot, shovel and shut up.”

Atwater said under state law the commissioners can increase the penalties or remove structures.

Others asked whether warnings would first be given to noncompliant landowners. Planning Director Susan Carver said that could be done.

The planning commission is set to present a summary of the public input gathered from the meeting and from a survey on the county’s web site at the county commissioners’ next meeting on Monday, Sept. 9, at 2 p.m.

The commissioners have not yet said what deadline they might set for making a decision on the setback question or for considering TDRs, but they seem poised and eager to make changes in the original regulations. At previous meetings they have questioned the current setbacks, saying people need to be able to enjoy their riverfront property, as well as the TDR system, with Steve Chappell and Larry Don Suckla both saying they do not like TDRs.