HomeMy WebLinkAboutUTILITY SERVICE CENTER OVERALL DVELOPMENT PLAN - 16 90D - REPORTS - CITIZEN COMMUNICATIONJUN=17-97 TUE 13:38 FORESTRY NRRT FAX NO 303 491 2255 P 02
June 17, 1997
Planning and Zoning Board
City of Fort Collins
FAX Message (Fax # 416-2020)
RE: Utility Service Center, Overall Development Plan, #16-90D.
Dear Planning and Zoning Board Members:
As a resident of the Martinez Park neighborhood, I am writing to express my strong reservations about the
development plan for the Wood Street facility. I feel it would be inappropriate to approve the plan at this
time for the followingreasons:
1) The utilities located at the Wood Street facility have yet to make a case for expanding facilities at the
present site as opposed to establishing one or more satellite sites. In response to repeated questions from
the neighborhood on this issue, the answer has been simply that a satellite facility is not cost effective nor in
the best interests of the city_ The utilities have offered no data to support this conclusion or even to explain
the_process used to arrive at it. What indicators were used to measure economic feasibility? Did they
consider any of the following: street repair costs generated by the hundreds of extra miles traveled per day
by heavy trucks, added vehicle maintenance costs and shortened vehicle life; the added costs of mitigating air
and noise pollution; added payroll costs for keeping city employees driving around town; added insurance
costs and greater risk of accidents; impacts on an already overloaded street system? If these indicators were
considered, who then made the value -based decision about what is in the best interests of the city?
2) . A stated goal of City Council and the Comprehensive Plan is to reduce the growth in vehicle miles
traveled by locating services closer to where they are needed. In contrast, this plan screams; "That's -fine for
all of you private citizens, but. we in city government can drive as much as we like!" Why should every
Power and Light and Stormwater vehicle crisscross the city when the majority of growth is occumug to the
south? If the goals of the Comprehensive Plan are worthwhile, then they should be adopted by city
departments. Quite simply, this utilities plan encourages more driving in large trucks.
3) This plan allocates a tremendous amount of valuable land to employee parking lots. This is truly a case
of "If you build it, they will come." At a time when county government and other city departments are
exploring ways to reduce employee driving and parking, this plan encourages them to drive to work
(presumably so they can get in city vehicles and drive back where they came from). In response to these
concerns, the neighborhood has received vague promises to discourage employee driving. A real
commitment to this goal should be written into the plan, which would then require much smaller parking
lots.
4) The Martinez Park neighborhood will feel significant negative impacts from increased city vehicle traffic
under this plan. Project planners characterize this problem as minimal. When traffic volumes on Cherry
Street already exceed city standards by 50%, calling increased heavy truck traffic a minimal impact simply
ignores the facts. This traffic issue is not simply a convenient stick to beat down a development.. Our
neighborhood has worked for years, independent of any development projects, to address traffic impacts on
--- our streets: The designers of this project assure us they will ask utility truck drivers to take alternative