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Gold Hill Mesa Commercial URA
Sample Email
See the Plans & Overview Here
Item 11B-E on 10/24/2023
City Council Meeting
Show up or Call-in. See below for call-in information
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On Tuesday, October 24th, City Council will hear a presentation to approve the Gold Hill Mesa Commercial URA which includes a tax appropriation that will last 25 years. Aside from the real problems with this development which are lack of sufficient study by the EPA and an independent liquefaction, inundation and impoundment study of the ENTIRE Gold Hill Mesa area, this should be a bond that voters can decide not a multi-million tax appropriation by City Council to fund a developer who has gone way over budget. Below is a sample email we asked you to send (or write your own just be sure to copy us for transparency). It's also important to attend or call-in Tuesday, 10/24. It is Item 11B-E and should be after lunch but you can follow along via Facebook or the City website to see where they are.
Here is the call-in to comment information:
Item 11B-E During the meeting, those who wish to comment should submit their name, telephone number, and the topic or agenda item for comment via Samuel.Friedman@coloradosprings.gov in addition to calling +1 720-617-3426 United States, Denver (Toll) and entering this Conference ID: 759 228 77#
To: allcouncil@coloradosprings.gov
Cc: westsidewatchcos@gmail.com, cheyennecentralcos@gmail.com, Natasha_Hutson@bennet.senate.gov, Erin_Minks@bennet.senate.gov, marc.snyder@coleg.gov, zubeck@csindy.com, breeanna.jent@gazette.com, news@krdo.com, news@koaa.com, news@kktv.com, news@fox21news.com, chelsea.brentzel@krdo.com, akeith@kktv.com, andy.koen@koaa.com, asack@kxrm.com
Subject: Gold Hill Mesa Commerical URA
Dear City Council,
First, I object to an appropriation of my the people's tax dollars be given to fund poor fiscal management of the Gold Hill Mesa Commercial URA. At a minimum, if I did agree with this development moving forward at all, I would object to approvals because it's administratively reappropriate millions of public tax dollars. It should be a bond where there people can vote if they want to continue to fund this development.
Most importantly, the EPA has never done a full study on this land, and the Colorado Geological Survey denied approval until a liquefaction study of the ENTIRE area be done. The 2020 CTL Thompson Report has many concerning issues including but not limited to they did not identify the exact location of the borings and only reported results for 3; they also did not test for chemicals in those borings. For the cone penetrometer study, they only reported data for 1.5 of the 4. CTL Thompson works for the developer. We need the following independent studies to get a unbiased and accurate understanding of the conditions of this land which would include:
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An independent liquefaction study.
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An independent inundation study.
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An independent impoundment study.
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Road infrastructure and ingress/egress is improved to reduce the blue sky conditions 8 hour and 20 minutes (optimistic) evacuation times world experts presented along with the level of service failure on Highway 24 impacting Manitou, Cedar Heights, Pleasant Valley, Old Colorado City, Skyway, Broadmoor, Harlan Wolf, Ivywild and Cheyenne Canon residents.
Their plan calls for a 3,000 seat amphitheater mentioned in the press in May 2023 and noted in their commercial sales documents, but it is not mentioned anywhere in their formal presentation. They sales material show 21, 627 vehicles per day on 21st street and 38,000 vehicles per day on Highway 24 which is an increase of 10,000 cars/day on 21st and 20,000 cars/day on Highway 24. The 2010 Evacuation study showed level of service failure (i.e. gridlock) on these roads, and we are already facing non-survivable evacuation routes with blue-sky times of 8 hours and 20 minutes per the world evacuation experts. They also note they will be almost doubling the current number of homes adding another 550-650 homes (they use both numbers in their presentation) to the 628 already planned. Not only is this "mini-downtown" dangerous for all of the existing residents, it will not be safe for visitors which outnumber residents 3 to 1 in our peak tourist season.
Gold Hill Mesa is a Superfund site that also happens to be located at a critical choke point or tens of thousands of citizens. We need to halt, get all the proper, independent studies and address our road infrastructure before we further risk public health and safety.
Please do not approve the revised URA or the tax appropriation.
Thank you,
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