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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLIND PROPERTY - PDP - 39-94B - CORRESPONDENCE - CITIZEN COMMUNICATION (9)Page 6 Sincerely, Joseph W. Bleicher For Neighbors in the Country Club Heights Subdivision Enclosures: August 5, 2002, letter to City on Lind Project Development Plan April 7, 2003, letter to City on Maple Hill Hearing cc: Mr. Ted Shepard Mr. Cam McNair Mr. Dave Stringer Mr. Matt Baker Mr. Craig Farver Mr. Tom Dougherty: Tom Dougherty Construction Ms. Yvonne Seaman: Centex Homes Mayor Ray Martinez, City of Fort Collins Mr. Thomas Bender: Chair of the Larimer County Commissioners Page 5 evaluated; we strongly believe NCR 11 should not serve as a construction route for the Lind Project until after the frontage road is completed. SPEEDINGfYRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT Safety on NCR 11 remains a major neighborhood concern. Speeding and reckless driving are problems not just for neighborhood residents but also for the large number of cyclists, runners, and walkers from outside the neighborhood who use NCRl 1 on a daily basis. Heavy construction vehicles such as concrete trucks and dump trucks require more time to stop and are more likely to cause serious injury to these users. There is very strong neighborhood support for the reduction of speed limits along NCR 11. At a minimum, we would like to see reduced speed limits in the areas of the entrances for construction traffic ( this could be limited only to actual construction hours). We would also like to see an agreement reached by law enforcement agencies (city/county/highway patrol ) as to who will be responsible for enforcement of speeding and reckless driving violations on this portion of NCR 11. Finally, we would like to see vigorous enforcement of speeding and reckless driving violations by the responsible law enforcement agency. CONTACT POINTS Finally, we would like to work closely with all parties to cooperatively resolve any construction related problems which affect our neighborhood. Prior to start of actual site work and construction, we would like to identify contact points for the different parties (neighborhood, developer, and local government) in the event that problems arise. Nick Yobbagy, Kirvin Knox, and I will continue to act as representatives in working with the developers and local government representatives on neighborhood concerns. In closing, we plan to continue to work cooperatively with all parties to preserve neighborhood integrity, quality of life, safety, and home values. We are especially appreciative of the efforts of the developer of the Lind Project and the representatives of the City of Fort Collins who have worked with us on these goals. Thank you again for the opportunity to provide comments. Please feel free to contact me on (970) 407-0531 for further explanations of our comments. Page 4 noted that the design of the Maple Hill development has fencing to the rear of the duplex units directly across from our homes on NCR 11. MAINTENANCE OF FRONTAGE ROAD AND 26-FOOT WIDE SEPARATION AREA We want to ensure that any responsibility for the maintenance of the frontage road and the 26-foor wide separation area would be fair and equitable rather than place an unfair burden on us. As residents, Larimer County now provides us with road maintenance, snowplowing, and cutting of the grassy area along the eastern side of NCR 11. Our neighborhood's March 7, 1997, Memorandum of Understanding with the developer of Richard's Lake states: "... the Developer and Neighbors agree to negotiate in good faith, along with the City and County to establish the specifics of engineering, maintenance ( i.e., landscaping, snowplowing ), and the financial obligations of the section of roadway from Richard's Lake Road south to Country Club Road." We want to undertake negotiations to resolve these issues using this guidance. We would like to note that only 17 homes ( with less than 40 total residents ) front along NCR 11. The parkway area is considerably isolated from us and represents a large area of land compared to the common situation where it might be a few feet of grass between the owner's sidewalk and the street. Further, the traffic projected for this highly visible arterial street is over 16,000 vehicles per day. We think our percent of use/benefit of the parkway would be very small compared to the large number of users from the neighborhood ( most of whom would be from the three new developments ) and from outside the neighborhood. We do want to assume a fair and reasonable share of maintenance; are there instances you can provide of other existing homeowners who have dealt with a similar situation? MITIGATION OF CONSTRUCTION TRAFFIC We believe that reasonable actions must be taken to help minimize construction traffic in our neighborhood. All such traffic now flows down NCR 11. We believe that if CR 52 was paved between NCR 11 and NCR 9, this could serve as an effective route for construction traffic for the Lind Project. City engineering staff thought there might be some other treatment for this dirt road which might make it suitable for construction traffic. We want to see this treatment or other alternatives Page 3 based on permits and/or time rather than leaving this open-ended as to when it would take place. We need some written commitment ( perhaps through developer agreements) so our homeowners feel they can remaining the neighborhood and make improvements to their homes rather than feel they should be selling their homes because of uncertainty. STREET OVERSIZING Our concerns on this project were discussed in detail in our April 7, 2003, letter on the Maple Hill development. We would appreciate any cooperation and assistance that the Lind Project developer can provide both to the City and our neighborhood during this project. PRIVACY FENCE AND/OR WALL -We are already experiencing the adverse noise and visual effects of the increased. traffic from the Richard's Lake development; these adverse effects will be greatly increased by the Lind Project and Maple Hill developments. As a result of these three developments, traffic along NCR 11 in our neighborhood is projected to eventually be over 16,000 vehicles per day. We are looking for the City to ensure adequate berming to help mitigate tire and other vehicle noise and also help mitigate some of the visual effects of traffic. We are also looking for the City to provide landscaping which will further help mitigate tire and other vehicle noise and also further help mitigate some of the visual effects of traffic. Even with this berming and landscaping, we believe a privacy fence and/or wall in the 6-foot height range may still be essential to help mitigate the adverse visual effects of the increased traffic. We envision that the privacy fence and/or wall would be on the eastern edge of the 20-foot frontage road and not be on the 26-foot wide separation area between the frontage road and the relocated NCR 11. The privacy fence and/or wall would help tie our neighborhood together with an attractive, integrated appearance. Further, it would provide visual blocking of most traffic and help minimize the problems with lights from the exiting vehicles shining into our homes. (We think the irregular locations and configurations of our driveways would render ineffective other methods of mitigating the effects of lights from exiting vehicles shining into our homes.) The privacy fence and/or wall would be 16 feet from the roadside edge of the parkway sidewalk and its appearance would be enhanced by landscaping. We've Page 2 monitoring and enforcing developer compliance related to construction. These are still ongoing neighborhood concerns which need timely and reasonable resolution with the approaching start of both the Lind Project and Maple Hill developments. Because of the interrelationship between both Maple Hill and the Lind Project on our neighborhood (e.g., traffic flow past our homes), you will note similar concerns were raised in our April 7, 2003, letter on Maple Hill. We want to again communicate our concerns, obtain current status of ongoing efforts, express our desire to participate in the decision making process, and request that we be informed of changes which affect our neighborhood. FRONTAGE ROAD Of greatest importance to our neighborhood is obtaining the earliest possible implementation of a frontage road along NCR 11, an effort that we began in 1996 with the developer of the Richard's Lake PUD. This frontage road would provide existing homes with limited, consolidated access to NCR 11 rather than backing directly out onto the road. Further, the frontage road with a separation area from the relocated NCR 11 would help mitigate the noise and visual effects of the greatly increased traffic from ongoing residential developments which have had an adverse effect on both the property values and quality of life in our neighborhood. In our August 5, 2002, letter we stated:" We need your support in ensuring the earliest possible implementation of the proposed NCR 11 improvements, especially the frontage road. A reasonable timeframe for these improvements needs to be established. To clarify earlier discussions, we need to obtain a finalized written commitment of the involved parties from the City and the developers. Furthermore, we need your support in ensuring that the Richard's Lake Project, the Gillespie Farms Project, and the Lind Project each contribute a fair amount of the funding needed to do the NCR 11 improvements in our neighborhood." This frontage road is essential for neighborhood integrity, quality of life, safety, and home values. Uncertainty about or unreasonable delays to implement the frontage road in a timely manner will be devastating to our neighborhood since we bear all the adverse effects rather than the developers or the City. The trigger in our agreement with the Richard's Lake developer was that improvements to NCR 11, including the frontage road, were to take place prior to the issuance of 201 ' building permit. We now have two other developments starting soon which will further increase the adverse effects on our neighborhood. We need some kind of trigger or milestone Joseph W. Bleicher 2509 N. County Road 11 Fort Collins, CO 80524 Phone (970) 407-0531 May 8, 2003 Mr. Cameron Gloss Hearing Officer City of Fort Collins 281 North College Avenue Dear Mr. Gloss: Our neighborhood, the Country Club Heights Subdivision, appreciates the opportunity to provide written comments on the development proposal referred to as Lind Project Development Plan. As development in the north has brought the city to the country, we have tried to work cooperatively to preserve neighborhood integrity, quality of life, safety, and home values. The Lind Project development is directly to the northeast of our neighborhood of 34 single-family homes on large lots that back onto Fort Collins Country Club from their locations on Country Club Road, NCR 11, and Richard's Lake Road. We are greatly affected by the ongoing Richard's Lake PUD (up to 682 units) to our north, the Maple Hill PDP (up to 667 units) to our east, and the Lind Project (up to 775 units). If our efforts on the frontage road and related issues don't come to fruition, we will experience severe adverse effects that will destroy the character of our neighborhood. We estimate the negative effect on home values for the 17 homes fronting NCR 11 to be $75,000-$100,000 per home (total of $1,275,000-$1,700,000) which represents a 25 percent decrease in home value. This is due to quality of life and safety issues from the effects of greatly increased traffic, construction noise/debris/dust, structural vibration and damage from heavy construction traffic, and both vehicle lights shining directly into homes and vehicle noise from acceleration and braking at new intersections perpendicular to existing homes. Further, other neighborhood homes on both Country Club Road and Richard's Lake Road which do not front directly onto NCR 11 would also be adversely affected to a lesser extent as would the Fort Collins Country Club, with over 500 local members. We earlier commented on the Lind Project in our letter of August 5, 2002, to the City of Fort Collins. We raised neighborhood concerns related to the frontage road for NCR 11, safety/traffic enforcement, infrastructure, city and county jurisdiction, and