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Tri-Lakes enjoys a Rockin’ Sock Hop!

The Sock Hop was held Feb. 10 at the Tri-Lakes Center for the Arts in Palmer Lake. Photos provided by Pat Yorke of the Tri-Lakes Center for the Arts. For other TLCA events, check our community calendar, visit www.trilakesarts.org, or call (719) 481-0475.

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Below: Above: Lars Ebbesen (new TLCA life member) dances with Woodmoor resident Debbie Haltermann. In the background, disc jockey G. T. from 91.5 KRCC’s Vintage Voltage.

Below: Sarah Schweiss and Darby Watt enjoy a blast from the past. 

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Below: Excavation and installation of infrastructure for the widening of El Paso County’s Baptist Road by the Baptist Road and Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authorities has been slowed by snow storms and several utility relocation and environmental permit delays. This picture was taken on Feb. 28 at the southwest corner of the Leather Chaps Drive intersection as snow began to fall yet again. Photo by Jim Kendrick

The I-25 Baptist Road interchange expansion will be delayed by five months due to a delay in the right-of-way transfer, Mayor Byron Glenn told the Monument Board of Trustees at its Feb. 5 meeting.

In other matters, the board:

All board members and staff department heads were present.

Interchange delay: A substantial amount of right-of-way is required to widen Baptist Road from two lanes to eight between Jackson Creek Parkway and the new eight-lane bridge over I-25. Hammers Construction and Darryl Tiegs have sold the Timbers at Monument property to another investment group without donating, as promised, the right-of-way for construction of several westbound lanes of Baptist Road west of Jackson Creek Parkway. The sale will not close until the end of March.

The new owners will not begin transfer of the required right-of-way to the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) until some time after the sale is closed. Now, the soonest the interchange construction can be completed is the end of 2008.

This delay in transfer of critical right-of-way also has delayed the start of advertising for bids for construction of the interchange and the sale of the bonds to finance it, which in turn caused the Baptist Road Rural Transportation Authority (BRRTA) meeting that had been scheduled for Feb. 9 to be postponed until March 9 at Monument’s Town Hall.

The transportation authority had originally planned for construction to begin in December, immediately after voters approved a temporary 10-year, 1-cent sales tax to finance expanding the state’s interchange with road construction bonds. The authority is paying for the expansion because the state will not have Senate Bill 1 funding available for several years. When CDOT receives this funding, CDOT will repay the authority $16 million, the current construction cost estimate for the contract. The transportation authority will use CDOT’s promised reimbursement to pay off the remaining principal and interest payments from the planned sale of $21.5 million in bonds this spring.

Struthers Road delay: Construction of the rerouted and widened Struthers Road extension north from the Struthers Ranch development to the intersection of Jackson Creek Parkway and Baptist Road initially was delayed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect Preble’s mouse habitat. No grading or other ground disturbances were allowed from April 1 to Nov. 1 next to the mouse habitat on both sides of Jackson Creek immediately south of Baptist Road and east of the I-25 northbound off-ramp to where it crosses under I-25.

The county began grading next to the habitat after Nov. 1, with all grading and excavating to be completed by the end of March. Paving Struthers Road next to the habitat between April 1 and Nov. 1 is permitted by Fish and Wildlife.

Although grading for Struthers Road was authorized beginning on Nov. 1, construction has been further delayed by condemnation procedures required for the county to obtain two 5-acre lots along the western edge of the Chaparral Hills residential development. The owners have refused to accept the county’s offer for the right-of-way.

The current estimated completion date for the Struthers Road construction is late 2007. Any further delays may force some of this construction to be halted from April 1 to Nov. 1, which would delay completion by several more months at a minimum.

Baptist Road delays: Widening of Baptist Road east of Jackson Creek Parkway has already been delayed for several months for relocation of underground electrical utilities by Mountain View Electric Association. The longest delays came in reaching an agreement on where and how to move electrical lines at the northeast corner of the Monument Ridge development, next to the steep slope up to the Family of Christ Church’s western parking area. The utility has still not completed movement of all affected electrical lines, having been overwhelmed by the scope of new construction throughout El Paso County.

The Triview Metropolitan District sanitary sewer collection lines that will serve the proposed Promontory Pointe and Sanctuary Pointe developments are being buried below the new westbound lanes of Baptist Road between Gleneagle and Leather Chaps Drives. Triview initiated excavation several months later than planned. Then the Triview sewer line was not installed deep enough to ensure proper gravity flow of wastewater. Several heavier-than-normal snowfalls and hard freezes delayed the reinstallation. The affected westbound lanes still have not been completed.

Jackson Creek Parkway traffic delays: Reopening of the intersection of Leather Chaps Drive and Baptist Road has also been delayed by several months due to the incorrect Triview sewer line installation. This has substantially lengthened the time commuters have had to use Lyons Tail Road as a detour to access Jackson Creek residential areas. As a result, shoppers continue to face daunting traffic backups within the King Soopers center during rush hours if they attempt to exit the center onto Jackson Creek Parkway between Baptist and Lyons Tail Roads. No traffic lights are planned for this King Soopers center access or the Lyons Tail Road intersection to help resolve the problem.

Monument Ridge utility installation delay: After El Paso County connects Struthers Road to Jackson Creek Parkway and widens Baptist Road east of Jackson Creek Parkway, the improved northbound and eastbound lanes adjacent to the new Monument Ridge mixed-use development will have to be excavated and nearly all of the new curbs along the Struthers and Baptist frontages will have to be removed. Because of timing problems, the Monument Ridge developer will not be able to install the commercial area’s underground utilities, acceleration/deceleration lanes, and three controversial right-in/right-out-only accesses before the county paves these two road segments.

Monument Ridge access delay: The county has not approved these controversial accesses onto Struthers and Baptist Roads. The county’s Transportation Department objects to the northern access on Struthers because vehicles are likely to create traffic safety issues by crossing through both Struthers Road northbound through lanes, then break into the double left-turn lanes in order to go west on Baptist Road. Vehicles exiting Monument Ridge at the western access onto eastbound Baptist Road may cross through both eastbound through lanes in a very short distance to get into the left-turn lane for the Jackson Creek Crossing intersection, the unmarked southeastern access to the King Soopers shopping center between Family of Christ Lutheran Church and 1stBank.

Some motorists will compound the hazard by then making an illegal U-turn to go west on Baptist. They will be turning hastily in front of westbound cars that will find it hard to slow down to avoid a collision as they descend the steep slope from the Leather Chaps Drive intersection. Jackson Creek Crossing is the unmarked access to the King Soopers shopping center from Baptist Road.

Jackson Creek Crossing delay: The Board of Trustees intends to annex Baptist Road from the county after completion of all the improvements, paid for by a Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority (PPRTA) 1-cent sales tax and BRRTA traffic impact fees for new building construction. Monument is not a participant in the PPRTA or the BRRTA temporary sales taxes. However, most of BRRTA lies within the Jackson Creek portion of Monument.

Baptist and Struthers Roads will be major collectors after construction is completed. County standards for major collectors specify a minimum spacing between traffic signals of at least one-half mile. The town wants to construct a full motion (four-way left turns) intersection at the eastern access to the King Soopers center. However, the county will not approve this requested signal because the Jackson Creek Crossing intersection is less than a quarter-mile east of the existing Jackson Creek Parkway signal.

In addition, the county will not accept ownership of the widened roads until about a year after construction is completed to ensure that all aspects of the contracted work meet warranty specifications. After that, the town must take ownership of Baptist Road in order to no longer be bound by this county’s prohibition of the traffic signal. The town would then excavate the county’s median at the Jackson Creek Crossing intersection that would prevent left turns from the three adjacent commercial developments onto Baptist Road. Once the median is removed, the town would build a full-motion traffic signal for this intersection.

The town’s position is that the full-motion traffic signal between Jackson Creek Parkway and Leather Chaps Drive is needed to provide safe access to Baptist Road for the King Soopers shopping center and the adjacent proposed Jackson Creek Market Village shopping center to the east, as well as Monument Ridge.

The Jackson Creek Market Village center was approved by the board even though it will have no accesses of its own. The Market Village center must rely entirely on the two existing King Soopers center accesses because it will be so far below the grade of Baptist Road.

Without this full-motion signal, there would be no direct access from Monument Ridge to westbound Baptist Road.

Way cleared for Baptist Road improvements on the west side of the interchange: Glenn said that the plan for donation of land for right-of-way for widening Baptist Road between I-25 and Old Denver Highway "has been pretty much taken care of." The owners of the Diamond Shamrock property will lose their existing access to Baptist Road on the southwest corner of their property due to construction of new lanes and curbs. A new road will go north from Baptist Road through the middle of the cattle pastures between I-25 and the Santa Fe Trail. A new east-west access road will be built a few hundred yards north of Baptist Road. This access road will connect the west side of the Diamond Shamrock station to the new north-south road.

Glenn concluded his roads report by saying that if there are any further Baptist Road construction delays beyond May 1, "the mouse will get in the way, and then we’re up the creek."

Trustee Gail Drumm reported that a second high-speed commuter rail line had been proposed to connect Denver to the Utah border along I-70 . Drumm said the Front Range Commuter Rail Association will add this proposal to its $2.5 million feasibility study for commuter rail lines along the Front Range from Albuquerque, N.M., to Casper, Wyo. CDOT will contribute 10 percent of this funding.

The Rocky Mountain Rail Authority web site explains the relationship between the various authorities promoting this plan:

"Rocky Mountain Rail Authority (RMRA) is an organization formed by Inter-Governmental Agreements between Colorado cities, town, counties and transportation districts. RMRA will work with the Colorado Department of Transportation to conduct the Rocky Mountain Corridor study. To be a member of RMRA you have to be a governmental agency.

Front Range Commuter Rail (FRCR) was formed in 2004 as a non-profit corporation to promote the high-speed rail line along the Wyoming-Colorado-New Mexico Front Range. The scope of the region’s transportation needs have grown to include the Colorado I-70 mountain corridor and the name Front Range is not accurate. Official forms have been filed for FRCR to do business as the Colorado Rail Association (CRA). Businesses, other corporations, and individuals are encouraged to join CRA to help us with our important work. CRA will coordinate the election that is being planned for November, 2008 to put in place the building of the RangerXpress System."

During public comments at the start of the meeting, the board and town staff first discussed the unresolved problem of the traffic light at Jackson Creek Parkway and Leather Chaps Drive. At the Jan. 16 BOT meeting, the Monument Police Department reported that District 38 school buses were forced to run red lights at this intersection when through or left-turn signals would not turn green. Control cameras that detect vehicles at the intersection apparently are not sensing their presence during and after snowstorms.

This is the only signalized intersection that Monument owns. All other Monument traffic signals, except the pedestrian-activated crossing signals for the Santa Fe Trail on Second and Third Street, belong to the county (Baptist and Higby Roads) or CDOT (state Highway 105.)

"The problem is when it’s snowing and the air is not clear and you’re in a light-colored car, the camera does not pick up your car so the light doesn’t change," said Town Manager Cathy Green. "They are the cheapest such cameras you can buy. So we didn’t really come to a solution other than that didn’t seem to be the first priority on Triview’s list."

Triview Metropolitan District has been responsible for reviews and approvals of all proposed development plans as well as construction, inspection, acceptance, and maintenance of Jackson Creek infrastructure since the Regency Park annexation about 18 years ago

During the past year, Monument has started requiring staff reviews and approvals of all these items. The town staff also has taken steps to upgrade the standards and regulations for construction within Triview to match those required elsewhere in Monument by town ordinances.

Director of Development Services Tom Kassawara said Triview promised to look into the possible purchase of better cameras to control traffic lights at this intersection. "You get what you pay for," he said.

Trustee Steve Samuels said that the CDOT traffic lights at the Baptist Road interchange also often do not sense cars. Kassawara said the town cannot replace the I-25 control cameras because it does not own them.

Kassawara said owners of all the properties adjacent to the Highway 105 and Knollwood intersection had told him they have had their land surveyed and have prepared the correct legal descriptions and deeds necessary to donate land to the state for a new traffic signal. The owners also had told him that they had provided this documentation to CDOT, which should have met CDOT’s final requirement to approve the start of signal construction, yet no work has been done. He reiterated that CDOT is responsible for approving the required warrants and constructing traffic signals for state highways. He added the town has no control over CDOT accepting and approving the adjacent landowners’ legal documents or initiating construction.

During the first public comment period, Steve Meyer, the town’s representative to the El Paso County Highway Advisory Commission, reported that CDOT had eliminated the right-turn-only arrow cycle that used to allow motorists to turn right from the northbound I-25 Baptist Road off-ramp onto eastbound Baptist Road while the westbound lane had a green light. Traffic is once again heavily backing up down the ramp onto the shoulder northbound I-25, endangering commuters at rush hour as vehicles pass them at 75 mph. Meyer said he had asked the county’s project manager for the Baptist and Struthers Road construction project, Andre Brackin, to get CDOT to turn the cycle back on. Meyer added that the control cameras for the interchange also occasionally fail to detect vehicles on the off-ramps.

Meyer suggested, if there is no oncoming traffic, that motorists turn on their bright lights for five seconds, then off, then back on for another five seconds to ensure that the interchange traffic light control cameras detect their presence. This technique will also work for the control cameras at other intersections, including the problematic Triview signal at Leather Chaps Drive and Jackson Creek Parkway.

A few days after the BOT meeting, Meyer said CDOT had extended to 70 seconds the maximum allowed green-light period for vehicles exiting the northbound off-ramp onto Baptist Road by right and left turns. However, the right-turn only cycle will not be restored.

Meyer said he has been maintaining the web site www.MonumentMatters.org, with the help of staff, to replace the temporarily inactive town web site, which is under repair

Meyer also said that he had recently discovered that the town has no mechanism for any form of code enforcement, particularly for required snow removal by homeowners on residential sidewalks and school bus stops. Also, the various Jackson Creek homeowner associations have no ability to fine residents for not clearing snow. He suggested more aggressive enforcement of business license requirements to raise revenue to pay for a code enforcement officer.

Glenn asked the staff to have Triview District Manager Larry Bishop enclose a mailer in the next cycle of Triview utility bills to remind homeowners of their civic responsibility to help protect neighborhood children and put an ad in the Tribune requesting residents to comply with the town code. Drumm said the town plows the snow onto the sidewalks, making it impossible to keep them shoveled. Meyer said many of his neighbors shoveled more than 5 feet of snow off their sidewalks, "so it can be done."

Skateboarder Ryan Whisenhunt and Public Works Director Rich Landreth requested permission to move forward with plans to have the area skateboarder committee help clean up and reopen part of the town’s currently closed park after worn-out structures are removed. The board approved the request by consensus.

Kassawara gave a "refresher course" on the RV parking issue. He said that after Wal-Mart announced its Marketplace construction plans, some members of the town’s Planning Commission and Board of Trustees said that overnight RV parking at Wal-Mart would be an unacceptable eyesore and a potential source of crime. Other members who own RVs, or who have parents who are RV owners, said that Wal-Mart would not promote their national program encouraging people to sleep in their parking lots if it was a crime problem. There was no consensus on the issue on either panel at that time.

The owners of recreational vehicles often park overnight in Wal-Mart parking lots throughout the nation. This is encouraged nationally by Wal-Mart for folks who usually shop in these stores before hitting the road again. There are popular Internet sites listing Wal-Marts that allow RV parking, which owners refer to when planning trips. Wal-Mart asks RV occupants to check in with store security personnel before staying overnight.

A Wal-Mart spokesman told Vision Development, the Marketplace developer, and town staff that the corporation would not voluntarily comply with a request from the town to prohibit overnight RV parking before the town approved construction. Wal-Mart said it would conform, without protest, to a prohibition that was town-wide and applied equally to every large retail store with similarly sized lots and multi-family housing parking lots, as well as the Conoco and Diamond Shamrock truck stops. Limited on-street RV sleepovers in residential areas are allowed by the town code.

After those discussions, Wal-Mart’s plans for the Marketplace were administratively approved by the town’s Development Services Department without public hearings, and the RV parking issue was dropped. Wal-Mart’s building plans and parking lot configuration conformed to design guidelines approved in 2003 as part of the Marketplace master plan.

RV parking issue resurfaces: The board recently asked the staff to draft wording to prohibit RV parking after the Marketplace Wal-Mart opened. A public hearing on a draft ordinance amendment was held at the Nov. 8 Planning Commission meeting.

The proposal would have added this sentence to the section of the town’s zoning ordinance in the section on "exclusive use for parking spaces" for commercial and multifamily housing parking lots: "No off-street parking lot shall be used for overnight parking of recreational vehicles from dusk to dawn."

The additional sentence was approved by a 5-2 vote, with Commissioner Carl Armijo and former Commissioner John Kortgardner opposed. Both noted before the vote that they owned RVs.

At the Dec. 4 BOT public hearing, the word "occupied" was added before "recreational vehicles" to eliminate possible confusion regarding RVs parked in the lots of RV sales and repair centers. The staff’s proposal was not intended to preclude an accessory use like temporarily parking an RV in a lot for Christmas tree sales, which would be covered by the issuing of a temporary business license. Kassawara said sleeping in an 18-wheeler is not the same as sleeping in a recreational vehicle. The trustees and staff discussed several concerns on both sides of the issue.

If the town were to allow overnight parking of occupied recreational vehicles:

The proposed amendment was continued again on Dec. 18 and Jan. 16 so that all seven trustees and Police Chief Jake Shirk could attend a public hearing.

Kassawara said the board might wish to add an additional amendment directing creation of oversize parking spaces for RVs, which can use as many as six ordinary spaces.

During the public hearing, resident Steve Meyer said an exception should be made for RV occupants at the Diamond Shamrock and Conoco stations, as there is no prohibition for truck drivers sleeping in their vehicles. He said another exception should be considered for RV occupants who stay in their vehicles at commercial lots when highways are closed for snow. He said that there would be no one to enforce security other than Wal-Mart.

Resident Shawn Morris said he has stayed overnight at the Diamond Shamrock and Conoco stations when he couldn’t drive his RV back to his house through snow.

Campground owner Ernie Biggs said he "objected more" to the existence and competition of the Air Force Academy’s campground but was "adamantly opposed" to prohibiting RV parking at Wal-Mart as a private property issue. He said , "There’s a lot of RV (owner’s) that really detest the cheap houses that you guys live in. They pull in with a million-dollar rig and all these little $250,000, $300, $400,000 houses, they kind of look down on them. There’s more and more of that happening all the time. At one point in time in my campground last summer I had 22 rigs and all of them cost over a million dollars. What to somebody looks ugly, to other people looks beautiful." He added that board members should not try to force their views on others.

Some of comments from the letters and e-mails submitted from across the country to the town were:

During the board’s discussion, some of the trustee’s comments were:

Chief Shirk said that allowing RV parking to continue would not be a public safety problem. Business owners can ask problem RV owners to leave their parking lots as well as their stores as a trespass issue. Police would get involved if they did not leave.

Monument Marketplace manager Rick Blevins said that the center’s covenants have already established RV parking areas. He added that the Marketplace’s designated RV parking areas are not currently prohibited by the town’s code and also comply with the Regency Park zoning code.

After just under an hour of discussion on numerous options and the complications that each could create, the board voted down Trustee Miller’s motion to add the single-sentence RV parking prohibition to the ordinance (1-6), with only Trustee Tommie Plank in favor.

Another motion to allow occupied RVs to park overnight at commercial lots, with the following six conditions, was proposed by Trustee Dave Mertz:

This motion failed by a 3-4 vote with Easton, Mertz, and Plank in favor and Drumm, Miller, Stevens, and Glenn opposed.

Kassawara reported the costs the town would be assessing for development of the proposed YMCA facility on Jackson Creek Parkway, between Lewis Palmer High and I-25, north of Higby Road. The YMCA had requested waivers of several fees, including what they said were $63,000 in planning fees, because the YMCA is a nonprofit organization that will be providing community services that the town cannot afford to provide. The YMCA will also discount its fees for those who cannot afford standard fees.

Kassawara said the actual costs to the YMCA will be:

The Tri-Lakes Fire Protection District will also charge the YMCA an impact fee of $15,750.

Kassawara said a portion of the traffic impact fee would be waived because the YMCA would pay about $30,000 for its share of the cost of a new traffic signal north of Higby Road at the intersection it will share with Lewis-Palmer High School for their new parking lots.

Kassawara said, "Refunding impact fees is not something that is generally done. It tends to create problems for those who pay the impact fees when somebody else is getting away." The fees are also part of his department’s revenue in the 2007 budget and would have to be replaced from another unspecified source. He noted that the town had donated $4,346 to the Colorado Juniors Volleyball Gymnasium that offset the construction materials use tax that was collected. Treasurer Pamela Smith said the town must make a donation if it chooses to do so because it cannot waive fees.

Glenn said it was fair to make a similar type donation of $46,935 to the YMCA that offsets the use tax. Trustee Tim Miller supported Glenn’s proposal. Trustee Steve Samuels suggested that "in fairness" the donation be limited to $4,346 because the YMCA is a business that makes money but will pay no taxes to Monument.

Rick Blevins of the Jackson Creek Land Co. said that his company had donated 12 acres of land, worth over $2 million, to the YMCA three years ago to help it generate matching grants from other sources. The cost of the proposed building has risen from $10 million to $15 million.

After 25 minutes of discussion, a motion to donate $4,346 in town funds to the YMCA was unanimously approved. A motion to make a donation to the YMCA equal to the share of the traffic signal cost did not receive a second.

The board unanimously approved the fourth amendment of the Monument Marketplace planned development site plan. The amendment shows minor site plan changes that had been approved by staff since the third amendment was approved.

The fourth amendment also includes a waiver for building materials for the proposed Texas Roadhouse restaurant. Waived are the use of painted cedar siding in lieu of stucco and a forest green metal roof larger than 500 square feet. The Texas Roadhouse is on the northwest corner of the Marketplace between Wal-Mart and I-25 and will face south. The corporation had originally asked for clear stained cedar and an unpainted metal roof, which staff had denied due to lack of compatibility with the existing structures. Kassawara said the suggested variation would not detract nor add to the Marketplace’s "Colorado mountain theme."

Rowdao Drive was renamed Blevins Buckle Drive after Trustee Plank objected to the spelling. The spelling "Rodeo" was rejected previously by the Enumerations Office of the Regional Building Department because it had already been used elsewhere. Blevins gave a Blevins buckle, commonly found on many saddles, to the board in honor of the occasion. (For examples see: www.tandyleather.com/products.asp?dept=231 )

Glenn said he opposed the potential car wash which had replaced the gas station originally depicted on the west side of Lot 10 in Filing 14 on the southeast corner of the Marketplace due to lack of specific information on water usage. A condition of approval was: The car wash will require future approval by the board on this lot.

The board approved a number of continuing professional service contracts with the following engineering consultants:

The board also approved a design contract with Centennial Services, Inc., for the new Town Hall and Police Department building to be constructed at the southwest corner of Beacon Lite Road and Highway 105. The contract for design and cost estimates only is not to exceed $172,000 of the total authorized $2.9 million for completion of the entire project.

In other matters, the board approved:

The board went into executive session to discuss real estate negotiations at 9:10 p.m. No votes were made after the executive session concluded at 9:50 p.m., and the meeting was immediately adjourned.

You may have noticed our general contractor has not been very visible on BaptistRoad. We have experienced some construction delays due to weather and utility conflicts. Most of the work that has been done on Baptist Road over the last two months has involved utility relocations/installation by private utility contractors.

Also, we are under an environmental deadline to meet construction milestones for the new Struthers Road, so the general contractor has focused construction efforts in this area.

Construction in the area is focused on subgrade stabilization within the roadway section near Baptist Road. The presence of groundwater has made the ground too soft for road construction or loading with heavy construction equipment. The general contractor is installing large rock and geotextile fabric, which is a porous, synthetic cloth, to address this condition and should finish this phase of the work within two weeks. The rest of the roadway has been cut to preliminary grade and awaits utility relocations so that final roadway grading may commence. There is an April 30 deadline for construction of the roadway section on Struthers Road, due to the presence of the endangered Preble’s meadow jumping mouse. Construction on the new Struthers Road has been delayed due to ongoing right-of-way acquisition negotiations for two parcels that will front the road. All utility relocations and completion of the new roadway, as designed, are dependent upon the county obtaining possession of required right-of-way.

Click here or on the photo to zoom in and read the essays

Below: Creekside Middle School student Michaela Diamond and Monument Hill Sertoma’s Benny Nasser at the Feb. 20 Board of Trustees meeting. Diamond, one of nine winners of the Sertoma Freedom Week "What America Means to Me" contest, read her essay, "A Life Worthy of Freedom," to the trustees. Nasser noted that Sertoma has sponsored the essay contests since 1974. Mayor Byron Glenn declared the week of Feb. 19 to Feb. 25 Sertoma’s Freedom Week. Photo by Jim Kendrick

The Monument Board of Trustees gave final approval to donate town land for a regional senior center on Feb. 20.

Chuck Roberts, director of the Tri-Lakes Senior Alliance and a board member of the Tri-Lakes Health Advocacy Partnership, thanked the board for finalizing the paperwork to donate a town lot on Highway 105 east of Knollwood Drive for construction of a senior residence facility. He said this will be the first such facility in the Tri-Lakes area.

Roberts also said the Partnership submitted an offer earlier that day to purchase the Palmer Lake Bowling Alley on Highway 105, which the group would convert into a senior center. He asked the board to add a line item to the town’s budget for senior programs to help pay for operation of this new center.

The partnership is seeking donations for the senior center project, which can be made through Jay McKeown, Peoples Bank of Monument, 488-8900.

Mayor Byron Glenn said he supports town funding for the center as well as improvements for seniors in the town’s parks, noting that the senior population in the area has risen from 2,000 in 2000 to 7,500 in 2007.

In other matters, Glenn reported that the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments (PPACG) still has Baptist Road and I-25 widening, from Academy Boulevard (Exit 150) to County Line Road (Exit 165), on its Transportation Improvement Plan. This PPACG highway construction priority list is used by the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) to allocate state Senate Bill 1 funding of regional projects.

Glenn said Colorado Springs is now pushing for a high priority for roads to support Peterson Air Force Base war-time mobility requirements with construction of a new $35 million interchange at West Stewart Avenue and Powers Boulevard. This request is in addition to the already-approved priority for roads between Fort Carson and the Colorado Springs Airport.

Glenn said the trustees should get involved with the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority Citizen Advisory Committee and PPACG committees.

"We have to look out for the people using I-25 every day," he said. "It’s getting worse and worse, especially that part going south from here to Gleneagle." He asked the trustees to speak up for the need for these already-approved improvements for I-25 so that its priority is not overridden by this new proposal.

Four payments over $5,000 were unanimously approved:

The payment to Bosco Constructors, Inc., of $79,356.55 for expansion of the water treatment plant on the northwest corner of Second Street and Beacon Lite Road drew several questions. Though not the final payment, Public Works Director Rich Landreth said it’s about 98 percent complete, with about $30,000 remaining. He added, "We’re holding their feet to the fire" as Bosco works on "punch list" items. The Bosco project should be done, except for landscaping, by March 3. Town Treasurer Pamela Smith said part of the payment had been withheld until Bosco cleared up a problem with one of its subcontractors.

In addition, the town will hold $57,000 in retainage fees in an escrow account. These funds could be used to pay for possible repairs by another contractor during the warranty, should Bosco might not perform them at the town’s request–a standard practice for public capital improvement projects. When the warranty period is over, the town will return whatever funds are in the retainage account, if any, to Bosco with interest.

Town Attorney Gary Shupp reported that Town Manager Cathy Green rejected property owner Kalime Masse’s appeal of her denied business license application for a concrete batch plant.

Green had acted as hearing officer for the appeal on Feb. 12. Masse had sought to renew a long-expired business license for the abandoned Rockwell Ready-Mixed Concrete, Inc., plant on the northeast corner of Highway 105 and Washington Street.

Background: The Rockwell Ready-Mixed Concrete batch plant began operations in 1952. A building permit for an addition to the existing batch plant was issued to Bartlett Construction in 1984. After some initial work was performed, the Bartlett construction project was abandoned in 1985 without being completed. The plant was then abandoned in 1987.

The town purchased the 5-acre parcel, to be used as a town maintenance/equipment yard, at a federal marshal’s tax sale in 2001, and put down a $10,000 deposit on the property. Then-Mayor Betty Konarski urged the board to abandon the purchase and forfeit the $10,000 deposit to avoid a possible lawsuit by the former property owner Ross W. Clinger even though a federal judge had ruled that Clinger could not interfere in the sale of the property. The board forfeited the $10,000 deposit.

Masse then purchased the property at a federal marshals tax sale in 2002. Clinger never sued Masse, but Masse has filed two lawsuits against the town.

Masse then applied for a business license renewal the next year. She argued that her planned use was a continuation of operations under current zoning. However, the business license application listed a variety of possible industrial operations that might be performed other than as a concrete batch plant, including concrete recycling (grinding in a large tub grinder), and manufacture of Portland cement powder. She said her renewal was "grandfathered" because there would be no change from the previously planned and permitted use, and she did not need to submit new planning documents to show how she would renovate the abandoned facility. The renewal application was rejected by Town Clerk Anne Holliday because new planning documents were required by town ordinances.

Masse appealed the denial and the board held a special meeting in 2003 to hear her appeal. After a lengthy hearing including testimony from staff and public comment, the board unanimously denied her appeal of the business license denial. (see http://www.ourcommunitynews.org/v3n6.htm#rockwell for a report on this hearing.)

Green’s findings on Feb. 17 note the following:

Some of Green’s other findings were:

Shupp said that the next town hearing, if held, would be on the denial for a building permit for the Masse property. Should Masse appeal Green’s findings on the business license, mediation would be held under retired District Court Judge Matt Railey.

Kassawara said he met with Triview Metropolitan District Manager Larry Bishop, as directed at the Feb. 6 BOT meeting, to negotiate a solution for the poor performances of the Triview’s traffic signal at Leather Chaps Drive and Jackson Creek Parkway and the district’s snow removal contractor.

In a Feb. 8 e-mail to Kassawara, Bishop wrote, "The traffic light is state of the art and will be upgraded with new software as it becomes available. We will reset the cycle timing between the hours of 11:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. to 30 seconds, thereby in light traffic shortening the time a driver has to wait for the light to change." Bishop added that if this does not work, the district would "go to flashing red light in all four directions during the same time period."

Trustee Travis Easton said Triview has not provided a solution to the problem of D-38 school buses having to turn left against red lights when the camera sensors don’t see them and the red left-turn lights don’t change. Miller said the light is not state of the art. Kassawara said he would call Triview board Chairman Steve Stephenson if there is no further progress with Bishop and, "I’m sorry I couldn’t solve the entire problem."

Kassawara also reported there was still no progress on getting CDOT to begin construction of its long-planned traffic signal at Highway 105 and Knollwood Drive.

Steve Meyer, the town’s El Paso County Highway Advisory Committee representative, reported that county Department of Transportation Director John McCarty would meet with CDOT on Feb. 27 in an effort to change the timing of the traffic light at the end of northbound I-25 off-ramp for Baptist.

Vehicle backups extend down the ramp and a quarter-mile on the shoulder of the northbound lanes, with other vehicles passing within a few feet at 75 mph. Meyer said that CDOT has refused to lower the speed to 55 mph until the interchange expansion has been completed to reduce the severe risk to area commuters.

"It’s going to be a multi-car disaster," he said.

Meyer also reported no progress has been made to condemn the Good and Salinas parcels for right-of-way along the new alignment of Struthers Road. If not resolved soon, Struthers Road construction will halt for six months, until November, due to Preble’s mouse disturbance restrictions.

Meyer added that McCarty, his Assistant Director Rich Kramer, and County Commissioner Wayne Williams would meet with Mountain View Electric Association officials next week to offer the services of county transportation crews to move the utility’s electric lines. The sewer installation under Baptist Road between Leather Chaps and Gleneagle Drive is stalled due to Mountain View’s inability to provide workers to move their lines, "hurting us more than the weather."

Landreth reported that the town’s substitute water plan for exchanging water to Monument Lake had been accepted by the state. The substitute water plan states how the town would augment flows in Monument Creek below the Monument Lake Dam when it withholds water in the lake for storage. Augmentation protects downstream users who have more senior water rights than the town when Monument Creek flows are not high enough for the town to own part of the flow. The town will purchase excess effluent from Donala Water and Sanitation District to compensate for the amount of water stored out of priority.

Landreth said more work must be done on procedures for accounting for these water exchanges as the next step for the town to gain storage rights in Monument Lake.

Town Clerk Scott Meszaros said the cost of a home-rule charter commission would be a minimum of $30,000 to $40,000.

The absences of Trustees Dave Mertz and Steve Samuels were excused.

The meeting adjourned at 7:32 p.m. The next meeting is at 6:30 p.m. March 5 at Town Hall, 166 Second St. Meetings are normally held on the first and third Monday of the month. Information: 481-2954.

Web site exclusive: the Monument Police Department 2006 Report as a PDF file. This is a 5.1 Mbyte file and will take about 30 minutes to download at 28.8. To view and print the file, you will need to download and install the free Acrobat Reader Program.

The Monument Planning Commission approved a preliminary/final planned development (PD) site plan for the YMCA’s Tri-Lakes Family Center on Feb. 21. YMCA plans to break ground April 12.

The commission also approved a preliminary/final plat for retail buildings in the Monument Marketplace and the exterior designs of three new Richmond Homes models in the Trails End development. However, John Laing Homes’ revision to the previously approved final PD site plan for Promontory Pointe did not win approval.

At the normal starting time of 6:30 p.m., it looked like there might not be a quorum as only three of the seven commissioners were present: Vince Hamm, Patricia Mettler, and Lowell Morgan. Vice Chair Cathy Spence rushed to Town Hall from the airport having just returned from a long trip out of town. The meeting began at 6:53 p.m.

The YMCA of the Pikes Peak Region plans to build a 45,000-square-foot building on the northwest corner of a 12-acre lot between I-25 and Lewis-Palmer High School on Jackson Creek Parkway, about a quarter-mile north of the Higby Road intersection, said Karen Griffith, principal planner.

The contemporary masonry, stucco, and aluminum building will feature a skylight the length of the building for sunlight and views, as well as a community room, recreational aquatics center, exercise room, gymnasium, locker room facilities, and a child-care room.

There will be 231 parking spaces (214 required), an outdoor synthetic turf soccer field, and a half-mile walking trail around the perimeter of the property. This is the first of two phases of construction.

The second phase would include a 21,095-square-foot building and second synthetic soccer field. The second building, which will be built in about 10 years, would house an eight-lane competition swimming pool, another strength-and-conditioning room, racquetball courts, an auxiliary gym, and more restrooms. The timing of the second phase depends on the nonprofit’s fund-raising and membership growth.

There will be two accesses onto Jackson Creek Parkway. The main access will be in the center of the property, opposite a new access planned for the north parking lot of the Lewis-Palmer High School. The other access will be right-in/right-out-only on the northeast corner of the YMCA property.

Griffith noted that a preliminary/final replat of the property also was submitted with the site plan, but it is being revised and will be submitted for review by the commission and Board of Trustees at a later date. Griffith described in detail how the proposal meets the town’s 10 review and approval criteria for a PD site plan. More than 71 percent of the site is composed of landscaping, and there are trails throughout the property that will connect to those proposed for adjacent parcels, she said.

New traffic light should improve safety: Director of Development Services Tom Kassawara discussed plans for the new traffic signal that is expected to help mitigate traffic problems caused by 55 percent of southbound morning school traffic on Jackson Creek Parkway. The new northern high school access is expected to substantially reduce student traffic at the Higby Road intersection. District 38 will share the cost of signal construction with the YMCA.

This signal, at the southern YMCA access, would operate "on demand" for the new high school and YMCA driveways so that it also makes traffic safer beyond the peak arrival and departure periods for the high school. The light would stop Jackson Creek Parkway traffic only when it senses a car ready to exit either facility. The proposed signal might be operational by the start of the next school year.

Griffith also noted that the YMCA traffic consultant’s study had concluded that a southbound deceleration lane on Jackson Creek Parkway for either of the two YMCA accesses is not required for the expected traffic growth, and the town’s traffic consultant concurred. The staff will re-evaluate the need for a deceleration lane if future traffic is higher than forecast by the study, Griffith said. She added that there would be an internal drop-off lane in front of the building for pedestrian safety.

No referral agencies submitted major comments or concerns about the proposal, and the Woodmoor Improvement Association approved the YMCA’s plans, Griffith said. The developer submitted a lengthy document describing in detail how the proposal met the numerous goals in the town’s comprehensive plan, she said.

Griffith proposed five conditions of approval:

Land Planner Rhonda Boger Linder presented the applicant’s digital animation tour of the property. She described how the building’s architectural theme and features will be attractive additions to the view corridors for I-25 and Jackson Creek Parkway. There are no issues with Preble’s mouse habitat, wetlands, or flood plains. She described each area of the large facility and how users will be able to see mountain views as they work out.

During the open public hearing, Lewis-Palmer High School parent Allen Tomaneck asked if there would be a dedicated left-turn lane for southbound students on Jackson Creek Parkway. Kassawara said the road would be widened for construction of a left-turn lane for students using the new high school driveway to the north parking lot.

Parent Colin Cassidy asked what the uses of the synthetic turf field would be. He said artificial turf is "untenable" for competitive games. Andy Barton, executive director for the Tri-Lakes Family Center, replied that the field would be used primarily for instructing 3-12-year-old developmental players. The synthetic field is safer and more usable year-round than grass, Barton said

YMCA project manager Ted Rinebarger said swimming and lifesaving lessons would be offered in the recreational pool that could be used by D-38 students, as well as multi-generational exercise programs and part-time jobs they could walk to. Sliding-scale membership rates will be available for low-income families, he said.

Spence expressed concern that there would be no deceleration lanes for southbound vehicles entering at either YMCA access on a road used primarily by high school drivers at peak periods. She proposed requiring this deceleration as a condition of approval for the site plan.

Traffic Engineer Chris Sheffer, of transportation consultant Felsburg, Holt & Ullevig, said Jackson Creek Parkway traffic won’t be high enough even when all lots are developed by 2030. However, he said his firm recommended adding two northbound left-turn lanes for the YMCA and a right-turn lane for the north high school parking lots at the signalized intersection. He added that the radius of the curb for the northern access would be larger than normal to allow easier right turns at higher speeds than Spence might expect.

The town can’t legally require the lane unless traffic studies show they are warranted, said Kassawara. The parkway will be widened to four lanes and provide passing room for cars to go around those entering the property from the north. He said 75 percent of southbound vehicles would use the northern access. The town can’t purchase and build a deceleration lane for the northern access on the frontage of the adjacent vacant property to the north without knowing the planned uses and parkway accesses future development might require.

If traffic grows more than expected, a deceleration lane could be added when the parkway is widened based on traffic studies conducted at that time. All property owners in the immediate vicinity would pay their fair share of the cost for widening and additional turn lanes through traffic impact fees.

The site plan was approved unanimously with no conditions.

After purchasing many of the lots in Promontory Pointe from land owner and developer Mount Vernon Estates Land Holding LLC owner Ray Marshal, John Laing Homes determined that the lots would have to be resized to better fit the single-family home models proposed for the project. Marshal retained ownership of 19 lots, including the large estate lots on the east side of the development next to the Kingswood development in the county.

Griffith said the plat and plan were very similar to the previously approved proposals. The total number of proposed lots on the 117-acre development was reduced from 284 to 274. This required approval of a new final plat and final PD site plan for the still-vacant parcel. The new plan also calls for a 1.57-acre internal park to be built by John Laing Homes, dedicated to the town and then maintained by Triview Metropolitan District.

The name of the north-south collector road that will be a northward extension of Gleneagle Drive from the intersection with Baptist Road through the center of the parcel to Home Place Ranch has been changed a third time. Triview’s district manager and board preferred a different name within the annexed land so that it would be clear that the parcel was no longer in the county. The Enumerations Office of the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department rejected the other three proposed names and directed the town to change the collector name to Gleneagle Drive to minimize confusion, particularly for emergency service drivers.

The streets and lots near Gleneagle Drive were redesigned so no homes have direct access to Gleneagle Drive, Griffith said. The county and several area residents had recommended against the common driveways, called eyebrows, which had been approved in the previous final site plan.

Elimination of controversial county backyard trail easement disputed: Griffith reported that since the first final plat and site plan had been approved, Triview had purchased a privately owned 50-foot-wide strip between the western perimeter of Promontory Pointe and the adjacent homes on the eastern perimeter of Jackson Creek. This strip runs north from Baptist Road to an existing Triview dirt utility access road. This dirt road extends east from Split Creek Drive in the Homestead development in Jackson Creek to the Triview water storage tank on the northeast corner of the Promontory Pointe property.

Background: In the first proposed final site plan, a 30-foot-wide trail and utility easement ran through the rear of all the back yards along the western boundary of Promontory Pointe, from Baptist Road to the northwest corner of the parcel. The lot owners would have had to pay taxes on this trail and utility easement (about 200 square feet each), even though the easement would have been isolated and unavailable for the owners’ private use.

Mount Vernon, the developer, was to install utilities under the trail, construct a split-rail fence on both sides of the trail and utility easement, and install the trail and landscaping before any building permits were issued for the affected houses. Triview was required to perform and pay for all future trail and fence repairs and maintenance on this part of the homeowners’ private properties. This information was to be documented on the plat, site plan, and in the parcel covenants. Prospective homebuyers were supposed to have been able to see the completely constructed fences, trail, and landscaping in place before ever looking at the lot.

County agrees to move trail: Triview purchased the 50-foot-wide strip south of its water tank utility road because it wanted a wider right-of-way for access to its utilities and maintenance of the trail. As expected, the El Paso County Parks Department agreed to move its trail out of the back yards of the adjacent Promontory Pointe l