HomeMy WebLinkAboutTOPANGA AT HILL POND PUD - PRELIMINARY - 2-87H - CORRESPONDENCE - ADJACENT OR AFFECTED PROPERTY OWNERS (2)., , j • • �, ��1fi
HILL POND HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION
1901 Winterberry Way
Fort Collins, Co 80526
July 22, 1993
Ted Shepard, Project Planner
City of Fort Collins Planning Department
P.O. Box 580
Fort Collins, Co 80522-0580
Dear Ted:
On Monday, July 26, the Planning & Zoning Board will meet to consider the Topanga
at Hill Pond Preliminary P.U.D. Residents and Board members of the Hill Pond
Homeowners Association have attended the June 8, 1993, Neighborhood Meeting for
the conceptual Review for this P.U.D. We have met formally and informally with
members and residents of the Prospect/Shields Neighborhood Association (PSNA) and
have talked directly with your office about this project. We have reviewed the July
10, 1993 letter to you from the PSNA as well as the Staff Report from the Planning
Department on the project.
After careful consideration, the Hill Pond Homeowners Association Board has
concluded that it cannot support, and in fact strongly opposes the developer's current
request to develop this property. We too believe that the P.U.D. fails to adequately
address the neighborhood compatibility test of:
- intensity of use
- relative scale, bulk and building height to surrounding residential
areas of the neighborhood
- increased automobile traffic
- increased bicycle/pedestrian traffic on a portion of the neighborhood
streets and Spring Creek Trail
- additional air, noise and light pollution in the neighborhood and the
Spring Creek Trail
The Hill Pond Homeowners Association Board endorses the position of the PSNA in
it's letter you of July 10 with regard to the above issues. For purposes of brevity, but
surely NOT for lack of resolve and determination, we will not enumerate that position
to you here. We will, however, add some comments as to how the Hill Pond residents
may be additionally or differently affected with respect to compatibility.
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Hill Pond, which lies directly south of the proposed project, consists of approximately
half the acreage and an identical number of dwelling units, but is home to only 29%
of the number of people proposed to be housed in the Topanga project. Instead of
being a monolithic unit as is this proposal, we are extremely diverse by most
statistical measures: age, sex, income, family. We have single family residential units
as well as condominium dwellings. We are business people, care-givers, professionals,
retirees and students. We feel this diversity is vulnerable and jeopardized by the
intensity and lack of diversity of the proposed P.U.D.
We are concerned by the developer's failure to provide a more gradual transition of
building size and setback from our north side, the project's south side. While
provisions (building height, on-site landscaping and burming to mitigate appearance,
are evident in other areas of the project, no significant plans are evident to the south.
In order to accommodate other considerations, the largest buildings have been placed
along that side and backed up directly onto Hill Pond and the Spring Creek Trail. Most
of the natural vegetation to our side is deciduous and without foliage for the entire
time of the year that the project will have the maximum amount of tenants. Therefore
the light, noise and visual pollution has not been mitigated for Hill Pond residents.
Another grave concern to Hill Pond residents is the increase in general auto traffic
being introduced directly into the immediate neighborhood AND to the specific
problems that will exist when the student population there tries to gain access and
egress from the one entrance. Hill Pond residents are currently severely impacted by
Shields traffic and are working with the City Transportation Department to alleviate
this problem. There seem to be no solutions at hand and it is a given that it will get
worse by a magnitude with the proposed intensity of this P.U.D. Additionally, our
situation will already be impacted by the recently approved developments just to the
south of Hill Pond, the Preserve, the new City Senior Center and the Center for
Advanced Technology.
We do not dispute the advantages of developing this and other sites like it. A City
Council goal to "Preserve and enhance the city's core areas" is an admirable goal. The
question is what kind of development does it take to ensure that the intent of this
goal is met. If we undermine our core neighborhoods, if families lose faith and move
out, if we inhibit the free flow of traffic on our key arterials we will certainly diminish
the attraction of the core areas. Hill Pond, Wallenberg and the Sheeley areas are
wonderful examples of how to preserve the core areas. Approval of the Topanga
P.U.D., with it's monolithic and intense population, will severely impact these
neighborhoods and our quality of life and will have an ADVERSE affect on this core
area of the City. The Hill Pond community strongly opposes this development.
i erel ,
Rick Steadman, Presi ent
Hill Pond Homeowners Association