Durango tries to hang onto its steam: the credit crunch has stalled development, but big projects remain in the works.

• Author: Lewis, David
• Position: [WHO OWNS COLORADO]

Without a doubt, Durango is one of the coolest burgs on Planet Earth.

How cool is Durango? Durango is Aspen without all the phonies. It's Vail without underground bumper cars, Steamboat Springs minus the construction, Beaver Creek sans snobs.

In a highly competitive field, Durango might be the slickest little city in Colorado, especially if you like skiing, hotels, history and trains. It has the picturesque Strater Hotel, built in 1887, with 93 authentic Victorian-furnished rooms; the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad & Museum; the Durango Mountain Resort; and the Animas River, one of a handful of free-flowing rivers in America. Durango also has developers who actually seem to give a damn.

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Durango, alas, also has contracted the same economic sickness afflicting Manhattan and Malaysia, Reykjavik and Bangkok. On the bright side, if you think progress has become too swiftly progressive, you surely will like Durango's rapid slowdown.

How slow a slowdown, you ask? In October 2007 Durango permitted 248 new dwelling units. In October 2008 it had permitted 78, a 69 percent slump. In October 2007, it had issued nine commercial permits, compared to four permits in October 2008, a 55 percent decline.

"Our permit activity is down; our sales tax revenues are down. It's not as bad as many other cities we're aware of--the Front Range cities actually are in more of a bind than we are--but the national economic problems have come home to roost locally," planning director Greg Hoch says.

There appear to be two sources of slowing. One is simple prudence. Another is the credit crunch, or whatever one calls the stark fear that's gripping banks.

"I definitely think our downturn in building activity is related to the lack of available financing," Hoch says. "There's a reason why the headlines are the way they are, not only nationally but locally."

Two real-life examples:

The 1111 Camino project was going to be a no-lose sort of development, a small condo development on the Animas River on the site of an unimpressive office building. When it is built, the complex will feature a sawtooth-shaped design that gives most tenants a view of the river and a few others a fine view of downtown. Delaying the deal was particularly painful given the two-year wrestling match its owners engaged in with the city council (height restrictions aimed at 1111 Camino and one other project; the near-miss of a...