Durango City Council Updates

• City Council voted 3 to 1 to direct staff to pursue the reauthorization of the city’s 2005 ½-cent sales tax with no increase  included in the draft ballot language. There is a proposed  increase in  the sunset period of the sales tax from 20 to 30 years. Councilor Gilda Yazzie voted against the measure and councilor Olivier Bosmans abstained.  
• City Council approved the $3 million purchase agreement for Buckley Park.  The City is buying Buckley Park from the Durango 9R School District and will permanently preserve it as a public park.
• Tri-County Head Start will be moving to a city owned property near the Durango Public Library and allow for 80 – 90 children to receive early education and care. The property where Head Start moves from will become a development for new workforce housing. The public-private partnership was approved at a City Council meeting in June.

Durango Economic Development Incentive Program

• The City of Durango has launched the Economic Development Incentive program to provide local businesses with new opportunities to invest in workforce and infrastructure.  The program is designed to be tailored to the needs of individual businesses that are approved through an application process.
• More information is available here: https://www.durangoco.gov/1788/Economic-Development-Incentive-Program 

DownTown Next Steps

• A temporary pilot program for Downtown Next Steps was approved for the 600 and 700 blocks of Main Avenue and will be installed this July through October with the aim of giving citizens the feel of the proposed changes. An effort to pause the project by City Councilor Gilda Yazzie was voted down by the majority of the Council.  The Downtown Business Improvement District had written a letter to Council requesting the project to be paused.