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Home My WebLink AboutDIXON CREEK & TIMBERLINE SUBSTATIONS - SPAR - SPA120005 - CORRESPONDENCE -to resolve the comments/concems that were addressed both in your written feedback and at the neighborhood meeting. Thanks, Lindsay Lindsay Ex, LEED G. A. Environmental Planner CDNS I City of Fort Collins lex@fcgov.com 970.224.6143 Thanks again for sending on the photos — I will send these to the design team with PRPA. I'll let you know when the project is scheduled to go before P&Z. Cheers, Lindsay From: Eric Sutherland fmailto:sutherix(a)yahoo.coml Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2012 10:28 PM To: Lindsay Ex Cc: maryshopperna comcast.net; plind ,lamar.colostate.edu; Bruce Hendee Subject: Re: Platte River Site Plan Advisory Review - Neighborhood meeting notes and presentation Lindsay, Thank you for sending these materials following the neighborhood meeting for the substation redevelopment I notice on your email list, there appear to be two addresses of people not associated with PRPA or the city of Fort Collins. Were there other people at the neighborhood meeting? Have there been any developments in the development review process since the meeting? Do you know when the item is scheduled to go before P&Z? I wanted to share some pictures I took up in Spokane, Wash on the day that the neighborhood meeting took place. The building featured in the pictures has a sub -station built within its walls. You can sort of see a different era there ... a time when our pubic works inspired creativity and investment. Alternatively, the PRPA plans remind me a little of pictures of Soviet Era military installations. But I know so very little about architecture. Spokane, by the way, has an impressive river district, just in case anyone is doing any comparative studies. It also provides numerous examples of the sort of landscape architecture we ought to try hard to avoid. Eric Sutherland (970) 224 4509 --- On Wed, 9/5/12, Lindsay Ex 4ex Jcgov.com> wrote: From: Lindsay Ex <lex@fcgov.com> Subject: Platte River Site Plan Advisory Review - Neighborhood meeting notes and presentation To: "'maryshopper@comcast.net"' <maryshopper@comcast.net>, "Eric Sutherland (sutherix@yahoo.com)" <sutherix@yahoo.com>, "Peggy Lindstrom (plind@lamar.colostate.edu)" <plind@lamar.colostate.edu>, "Bruce Hendee" <BHendee@fcgov.com> Cc: "Rowley, Scott (RowleyS@prpa.org)" <RowleyS@prpa.org>, "Dahl, Mike (DahlM@prpa.org)" <Dah1M@prpa.org>, "Daylan Figgs" <dfiggs@fcgov.com>, "'littlej@prpra.org"' <littlej@prpra.org> Date: Wednesday, September 5, 2012, 3:00 PM Good afternoon everyone, As you have expressed an interest in the Site Plan Advisory Review for the proposed concrete walls at the Dixon and Timberline Platte River Substations, I am sending on the neighborhood meeting notes from 8/29 meeting as well as the presentation that Platte River gave that night. Please let me know if you have any additional comments on the project; staff is currently working with Platte River Power Authority middle of town come forward with undue recommendations from city staff. So, please, if city staff has had anything to say about this development proposal, share it with the public. As far as the email addresses are concerned, part of this process ought to be connecting interested parties. The planning department ought not be the final arbiter or gatekeeper of communications. People certainly ought to be able to opt out of public processes, but the responsibility of the planning department to facilitate communication shouldn't be compromised by creating obstacles. Persons of interest ought to be able to self - identify long before a pubic hearing is held. (One more thing that the city has gotten completely wrong at times.) Eric Sutherland (970) 224 4509 --- On Tue, 9/25/12, Lindsay Ex <lex(a-),fcQoucom> wrote: From: Lindsay Ex <lex(a)fcgov.com> Subject: RE: Platte River Site Plan Advisory Review - Neighborhood meeting notes and presentation To: "'Eric Sutherland"' <sutherix(o)yahoo.com> Cc: "maryshopper(i�comcast.net" <maryshopper(a)comcast.net>, "plind(c),lamar.colostate.edu" <plind60amar.colostate.edu>, "Bruce Hendee" <BHendee a,fcgov.com> Date: Tuesday, September 25, 2012, 10:50 AM Hi Eric, Thanks for these photos! Based on a staff review of the proposed drawings, the proposed hearing for the project is no longer scheduled during October, and we are waiting to reschedule the hearing based on PRPA's ability to meet City staff's comments on the project. The other folks on this list have either provided comments or attended the neighborhood meeting. Though, in full disclosure, I should have Bcc'd everyone but myself and not exposed their emails out — sorry about that folks! Thanks, Lindsay P.S. Even though you suggest you are still learning, your digital photography skills far exceed mineO From: Eric Sutherland [mailto:sutherix@yahoo.com] Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2012 1:01 PM To: Lindsay Ex Cc: Bruce Hendee; Gerry Horak Subject: RE: Platte River Site Plan Advisory Review - Neighborhood meeting notes and presentation Lindsay, So, City staff had some comments??? Could you send those along? I don't recall seeing those in the materials sent along earlier. I will be talking about this project during public comment at the 9/27 PRPA Board meeting. Showing those photographs too. They turned out pretty well. I'm finally getting the hang of digital photograhy. Unfortunately, I am already now within the 3 day window for a CORA request for the staff comments and could be legally denied them prior to the meeting. I am assuming that since they represent communications between one governmental entity and another, they are subject to CORA and not exempt as work product. It would be nice if I did not have to incur the expense and inconvenience of a CORA request. That might seem a little paranoid, but we all should remember that the Dixon sub -station is the terminus of a power line that runs through a natural area. Recent events surrounding the rebuilding of that power line betrayed a frightening lack of competence and honesty on the part of the people we have tasked with managing our critical, multi -multi -million dollar electrical utility system, and not for the first time. Fort Collins is a community that spends 1% of major capital projects on Art in Public Places. When you look around town, you don't see any overhead power lines because they have all been buried at the cost to the ratepayers of millions of dollars. Alternatively, there are zoning districts in Fort Collins that would not allow any rectilinear structure of this scale to be constructed. Yet, we have seen an example in recent years of development proposal that would have built all -electric crap that robs sub -stations of valuable power right in the Lindsay Ex From: Eric Sutherland <sutherix@yahoo.com> Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2012 3:12 PM To: Lindsay Ex Cc: Bruce Hendee; Gerry Horak; Laurie Kadrich Subject: RE: Platte River Site Plan Advisory Review - Neighborhood meeting notes and presentation The point here is that the Platte River Power Authority board of directors is, by design, supposed to have a small, itty-bitty role in determining what happens as well. I know the point gets lost sometimes. At times I have felt that Fort Collins citizens might exercise greater influence over the policies and outcomes of investor owned utilities in the state of Colorado than their own public power provider. We elect state legislators from Fort Collins who vote on bills that impact places like, say, Grand Junction, but what happens here isn't always transparent to anyone. Thank you very much for the information. Also, as just one citizen, I would say that it would be an excellent use of the Fort Collins taxpayer dollar to have environmental planners in attendance at PRPA board meetings and not just to ask for money). The same is true for sustainability officers. Besides the fact that they are just fascinating insights into an extremely important governmental agency, there is a connection with nearly every other facet of pubic life in every meeting. Eric Sutherland (970) 224 4509 --- On Tue, 9/25/12, Lindsay Ex <lexWcgov.com> wrote: From: Lindsay Ex <lex@fcgov.com> Subject: RE: Platte River Site Plan Advisory Review - Neighborhood meeting notes and presentation To: "'Eric Sutherland"' <sutherix@yahoo.com> Cc: "Bruce Hendee" <BHendee@fcgov.com>, "Gerry Horak <ghorak@fcgov.com>, "Laurie Kadrich" <lkadrich@fcgov.com> Date: Tuesday, September 25, 2012, 1:20 PM Hi Eric, I've attached the comments for your information. We met with the applicants from PRPA the week after the neighborhood meeting, as we typically do 3 weeks after the submittal (see the Development Review Guide for more process information here). At this point, we are awaiting a resubmittal from PRPA on the staff comments. Please recall that as this project is a Site Plan Advisory Review, our comments are limited to location, character and extent on the project. If you would like me to send you additional staff comments after a resubmittal, I would be happy to do that.