HomeMy WebLinkAboutBALZERS SUBDIVISION, 624 S. LOOMIS - REPLAT - 51-02 - CORRESPONDENCE - CITIZEN COMMUNICATION (5)I am in favor of the concept of infill, and would like to see this occur as opposed to
extensive sprawl at the outskirts of town. However, the proposed alley development goes
beyond this philosophy, and puts landlord's motives of increased bedrooms and the
subsequent increase in revenue in direct conflict with the maintenance of the character of
this important, historical part of town.
What has become evident to me is these types of development proposals are being
presented one at a time (stealth development), which does not allow for review of the
total combined, cumulative impact that results. All infill projects within a neighborhood
should be required to go to the Planning and Zoning board as part of a larger planning
issue to determine their cumulative impact
I thank you for your time and consideration. I hope to hear from you regarding the issues
that are brought up in this letter, and am more than willing to provide additional input.
Please keep me posted on this and other proposed alley development projects within the
City of Fort Collins.
Sincerely,
Oa-c-_
Eric Odell
CC: John Fischbach, City Manager
Cameron Gloss, Planning
support additional vehicles. The alley associated with the Balzers project is a one lane,
dirt alley (and we absohrtely do not want to have this paved). The narrow lane already
causes significant issues when there are many cars using the alley at the same time. This
situation frequently arises, as there is already one existing duplex alley house and a
commercial business located in this alley.
The purpose and character of an alley are being lost here. Instead of maintaining this
enticing feature, we are in effect creating substandard, paved arterials through the centers
of blocks. This should not be allowed to occur.
Our safety concerns are perhaps the most compelling reasons not to allow additional alley
houses. I had to call 911 last summer, as there were 2 people who were not moving lying
in the alley. The emergency vehicles arrived within a short period of time, but due to the
narrowness of the alley, could not safely bring more than one vehicle to the scene. In fact,
all emergency vehicles parked on Myrtle Street, and personnel walked down the alley to
take care of the situation. Fortunately, the two individuals were ok, but if there had been a
more significant emergency, there is no way to bring an ambulance and additional fire
rescue vehicles down the alley to bend to such an emergency.
Additionally, another safety concern has to do with the access from the alley on to Laurel
Street. There have been numerous accidents caused by people trying to turn on to Laurel
going eastbound from the alley. In order to do this, the driver must cross a double yellow
line and do so with very limited visibility.
While the speed limit on the alley is posted as 10 mph, this is never patrolled, and even
less frequently observed. There are neighbors with infant children who play in the back
yard, but are potentially putting themselves at increased risk because of the fast driving,
and already excessive traffic Before allowing any more development to occur, we urge
the City to take on an extensive traffic study to model volume, speed, frequency of
vehicles.
At the public hearing that was held April 20 to discuss the Balaers proposed
development, at least seven homeowners from the immediate area were present to voice
their concerns. Before this hearing took place, I spoke with many other homeowners in
the area who were opposed to this development, but were unable to make it to the hearing
for personal reasons. In all of my conversations, I did not find a single homeowner who
was supportive of this type of development. We have been told that this area is currently
zoned for this density level of development, but I feel that this is inappropriate, and this
Level of zoning should be reconsidered.
At the hearing, we learned that the landowner of the Balzers subdivision plans to build a
duplex, with as many as 6 bedrooms for his 6+ tenants. Even if the `no -more 4ban-thr+ee-
unrelated' tenants per building rule is enforced, this still places an impossible, demand on
the in&astruchue and safety of the rest of the neighborhood. Additionally, if someone
really wanted to build a house that fit in with the rest of the historical homes, they would
build a 2 bedroom, one bath house that is probably less than 1000 square Sect.
Eric Odell
617 West Myrtle St
Fort Collins, CO 80521
484-5866
Fort Collins City Council
300 Laporte Avenue
Fort Collins, CO 80521
May 6, 2003
RE: Alley Houses
Dear City Council•
We recently received a notice in the mad of proposed re -platting of a lot that is down the
street from our house. For your reference, this was project # 51-02, Balzers Subdivision,
624 South Loomis Street Their intent is to subdivide their lot in order to build an
additional residential development in the back. This additional development would have
its primary access from the alley that rims North -South between Laurel Street and Myrtle
Street, between Loomis and Whitcomb streets.
The issue of allowing alley houses in the Old Town part of Fort Collins is of great
concern to me and many of my neighbors for a variety of reasons. We feel that this type
of development leads to the immediate degradation of the quality of life that many people
seek when purchasing a home and living in Old Town. There are safety, traffic, noise,
and occupancy concerns that we feel must be addressed before this particular proposal, as
well as other proposed alley houses within Old Town Fort Collins should be considered.
We strongly urge you and your Budding and Zoning departments to not allow any fiather
development of this sort to take place without fiather, extensive analysis.
One can take a walk down some of the alleys in this general area and can easily see the
way that the nature of the neighborhood drastically changes when alley houses are
constructed. The density of residential development essentially doubles as alley houses
fill in the back yards of previously charming Old Town homes. This has cumulative
impacts that need to be addressed.
Our specific concerns with this proposed development, which can likely be extended to
this type of development throughout Old Town are as follows. There needs to be
assurances that the existing infiastructure is sufficient to accommodate the number of
people and increased traffic that would follow this development I claim that the
mfizshmdm in the alley where the proposed development would occur is insufficient to
accommodate additional residents. Our sewer, which was replaced only last summer,
recently backed up causing a disivption and inconvenience for many of the
neighborhoods residents. The number of on -street parking spaces is limited and cannot