HomeMy WebLinkAboutTHE GROVE AT FORT COLLINS - PDP - 16-10B - REPORTS - CORRESPONDENCE-HEARING (24)J Terry Podmore
June 5, 2011
Presentation to Planning and Zoning Board — June 16, 2011
Good evening, Mr. Chairman and Members of the Board. My name is Terry
Podmore and I live at 733 Gilgalad Way in Fort Collins. I am a member of
the Windtrail on Spring Creek Homeowners Association and a Professor
Emeritus in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Colorado State
University.
My purpose this evening is to address the problem of the Larimer #2 Canal
and its potential impact if the proposed Campus Crest development takes
place. The placement of buildings close to the canal on the south side of the
site creates the risk of a canal breach from increased seepage leading to
catastrophic failure.
It has been proposed that the canal be moved to the south to avoid this
danger. However, the canal relocation does not appear in the ODP and is
only referenced in the PDP. The City Manager, Darin Atterberry, has stated
that the canal relocation is unrelated to the Campus Crest project. Nick Haws
of Northern Engineering has informed me that the Campus Crest
development and the canal relocation are two separate projects when we
spoke at the Campus Crest Open House held at the Hilton Hotel. Linda
Ripley stated at. the neighborhood meeting held on May 23`d that there was
no guarantee that the canal relocation would take place prior to the
construction of the Campus Crest project. Therefore, the impact of the
Campus Crest construction must include consideration of a possible canal
breach.
The canal company has stated that it takes 12 hours to stop the flow of the
canal by closing a control gate at the Poudre River. The canal length from
the Poudre River to Shields Street is approximately 8.2 miles. With a typical
cross section of 100 square feet, the canal volume is 4.32 million cubic feet
or 32.3 million gallons. In the case of a canal breach, this water would be
released on to the site. This volume of water assumes that the canal flow can
be shut off instantaneously if a breach occurs.
In case of any delay, the canal would keep on flowing and releasing water. A
typical canal flow was given as 150 cubic feet per second by John Moen, the
manager of the canal company. Consequently, for every hour of delay before