By Owen Woods | owen@alamosacitizen.com
DOWNTOWN Alamosa’s historic courthouse will soon be home to Valley-Wide Health Systems’ new mental health services and growing medical offices as the nonprofit healthcare provider builds a sustainable footprint in the central corridor.
In a project narrative submitted to the Alamosa Planning Commission as part of a request for a parking variance to the property, Valley-Wide plans to house newly acquired mental health services following a merger with Southeast Health Group based in the Lower Arkansas Valley of Colorado. The two entities announced a plan to merge last December in effort to cover Southern Colorado with their combined services.
Now Valley-Wide, with the requested parking variance approved, is moving forward with what it believes is a perfect location to house its expanding medical services.
“Jania (Valley-Wide CEO Jania Arnoldi) sees this project as a win-win for both Valley-Wide and the city of Alamosa,” Joe Aldrich, Valley-Wide director of facilities, said in his letter to the planning commission making a case for the parking variance.
The courthouse, located at 702 Fourth St. in Alamosa, has sat vacant since 2017. Earlier this year, Valley-Wide entered into a contract to purchase the property.
Presenting to the planning commission, Aldrich said Valley-Wide Health plans to “develop a mixture of business space, medical offices, and other occupancy types that will, in our opinion, enhance the Central Business District in alignment with the city’s long-term plan for the downtown area.”
After the merger with the Southeast Health Group, Valley-Wide inherited several services that it now needs proper space for. The merger, Aldrich said, “necessitated a capital expansion” to house those services.
He said Arnoldi identified the old courthouse property as a potential place for those services through her involvement with the city’s economic development and downtown committees.
“We believe that we are one of the few organizations in the area that has the resources, personnel, vision and values to repurpose this historic landmark into a beneficial and complimentary piece of the central business district,” Aldrich said.
Promoting urban density and walkability is one of Valley-Wide’s goals and one of its arguments for requesting the parking variance. Aldrich wrote that on top of available parking nearby, the medical transportation systems available to patients “should reduce the parking expectations for the building,” and “not unduly burden the neighborhood.”
In the narrative, Aldrich laid out that in Alamosa’s Uniform Development Code, medical offices are required to provide one parking space per 150 square feet. He said this highlights that Alamosa has “some of the strictest parking requirements for medical office buildings for municipalities of Alamosa’s size and character.”
He compared Alamosa to seven other municipalities with similar, but less strict parking requirements: La Junta, Salida, Pagosa Springs, Buena Vista, Leadville, Monte Vista, and Canon City. None of these examples require anything less than one space per 200 square feet.
“By reducing the emphasis on parking space requirements, the property can be repurposed to accommodate a mix of uses that prioritize pedestrian-oriented design and encourage a vibrant, accessible streetscape. This approach contributes to a more sustainable and livable community,” Aldrich said.
The planning commission agreed and Valley-Wide now moves ahead with its reincarnation of the historic downtown courthouse.