{"id":31345,"date":"2023-10-03T00:04:40","date_gmt":"2023-10-03T06:04:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/gov-polis-holds-listening-session-with-local-leaders\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:39:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:39:27","slug":"gov-polis-holds-listening-session-with-local-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/gov-polis-holds-listening-session-with-local-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov. Polis holds listening session with local leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Gov.
Gov. Jared Polis met with local leaders at Frida\u2019s Mexican Restaurant and Cantina on Monday to discuss an assortment of issues. Pictured, clockwise, are Lt. Gov. Dianne Primavera, Durango City Councilor Olivier Bosmans, La Plata County Commissioner Clyde Church, Rep. Barbara McLachlan, Fort Lewis College Board Member Adam Red, FLC Student Body President Brittany Bitsilly, Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs Executive Director Kathryn Redhorse, FLC Vice President for Diversity Affairs Heather Shotton, Polis and Councilor Jessika Buell. (Reuben Schafir\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Reuben M. Schafir<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Gov. Jared Polis stopped in Durango on Monday for a lunch with local leaders.<\/p>\n

Lt. Gov. Dianne Primavera, all three La Plata County commissioners, most of Durango City Council, Rep. Barbara McLachlan and Fort Lewis College President Tom Stritikus were among those in attendance at the listening session, which lasted just under an hour.<\/p>\n

Unbound by any specific agenda, the governor listened as attendees highlighted areas of concern that should or could be addressed at a state level.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe focus of our administration for the next session is housing costs,\u201d Polis said in a brief introductory statement.<\/p>\n

Polis made SB23-213, known as the \u201cLand Use Bill,\u201d the centerpiece of his 2023 legislative priorities. The bill was gutted after outcry from local governments objecting to the state\u2019s seizure of local control with respect to housing density and development zoning. The bill ultimately failed to pass.<\/p>\n

La Plata County commissioners did not support the bill, although they said they did support many of the provisions in it. Commissioner Marsha Porter-Norton told Polis that the initiative would have more support if it were broken down to include regulations that impacted urban and rural areas differently.<\/p>\n

\"Gov.
Gov. Jared Polis met with local leaders at Frida\u2019s Mexican Restaurant and Cantina on Monday to discuss an assortment of issues. Attendance included, from left, Durango City Councilor Olivier Bosmans, La Plata County Commissioner Clyde Church, Fort Lewis College Board Member Adam Red, Lt. Gov. Dianne Primavera, Councilor Gilda Yazzie, Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs Executive Director Kathryn Redhorse, FLC Vice President for Diversity Affairs Heather Shotton, FLC President Tom Stritikus, Gov. Polis and Councilor Jessika Buell. (Reuben Schafir\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Reuben M. Schafir<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

She also called on Polis to push for changes that would limit developers\u2019 liability for construction defects<\/a>, which can drive up the prices of otherwise relatively affordable condos.<\/p>\n

Several people made note of History Colorado\u2019s report on the Fort Lewis Indian Boarding School in Hesperus. The full report was released Tuesday, and was prompted by a bill that McLachlan brought to the Legislature.<\/p>\n

FLC Student Body President Brittany Bitsilly was also in attendance. She said housing was among the top issues facing the college\u2019s student body.<\/p>\n

McLachlan brought up the need for more day care resources in the area. She also named the elephant to which several attendees had previously alluded.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you very much for coming \u2013 rural Colorado is forgotten a lot. A lot of people tell is it is further from Denver to Durango than Durango to Denver,\u201d she joked.<\/p>\n

In a brief interview with The Durango Herald<\/em> after the event, Polis had little in the way of specifics with which to respond.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s important to build connectivity with fellow cities on the Western Slope like Grand Junction, with the Front Range,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s really exciting to see a lot of those connections being built, and we\u2019re excited to spend a whole lot of time here visiting a couple preschools and Durango High School.\u201d<\/p>\n

rschafir@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

of a visit through Southwest Colorado <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1020,132,819,28,453,1680,265,629,3528],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-31345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-durango-city-council","tag-fort-lewis-college","tag-gov-jared-polis","tag-headlines","tag-housing-and-urban-planning","tag-la-plata-county-commissioners","tag-politics","tag-southern-ute-indian-tribe","tag-tom-stritikus"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31345"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81409,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31345\/revisions\/81409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31345"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=31345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}