Brief by Central Staff
Economics – October 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine
There’s an old joke that if you live around here, monetary wages may not be all that great, but you get some of your pay in scenery. To which there’s a frequent rejoinder: You can’t eat the scenery.
Edibility aside, how much is a mountain view worth?
They’re trying to answer that question along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia and North Carolina. The parkway, administered by the National Park Service, is a 470-mile mountain drive in the southern Appalachians.
However, the Park Service controls only the corridor, not the land in view from the road, and that land has become popular with developers who install condos, along with retirement and vacation homes.
Thus the Park Service and the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation sponsored a survey. Last year, 860 visitors were asked what they thought the views were worth. Along one stretch of road, travelers valued existing roadside views at $240 per person. Given 7 million visitors a year there, many of whom said they’d quit coming if the views continued to deteriorate, the views are worth about $1.7 billion a year.
Visitors were also asked how much they would pay to improve some views. The average came to $116 for an increase in the quality of roadside views, and $53 for an increase in the quality of scenic overlooks.
Central Colorado has so many spectacular views that it’s hard to make a selection, but we do have a few priceless favorites: Mt. Princeton as you come down the west side of Trout Creek Pass, the Blanca massif emerging as you cross Promontory Divide going south from Westcliffe, the blue peaks and green valleys rolling west from the top of Marshall Pass, to name three.
One old favorite, the view south down the San Luis Valley from the top of Poncha Pass, has been somewhat trashed in recent years, but it’s still pretty spectacular.
But how much would we be willing to pay to preserve them?
Seems to us that we already pay, in the form of lower wages and higher prices, and that by abiding here, we have agreed to continue paying for such wonderful scenery.
According to 1998 estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau, the median annual household income in Colorado was $43,402. In Chaffee County, it was $32,962, which means the average household in Salida or Buena Vista paid about $200 a week for the view.
Lake County’s views, even if they are of Colorado’s two highest mountains, cost only $127 a week by this analysis. Saguache County residents, however, pay $391 a week in foregone income for their views of the Sangres. From Custer County on the east side of the Sangres, the view is worth only $223 a week.
Aesthetically, we like both sides of the Sangres, but the numbers clearly demonstrate that residents pay more for the view from the west side.
