The TOPS Working Committee holds three or four public meetings each year. These are split between each of the major parts of town with the goal of soliciting input from the surrounding neighborhoods. In actuality, most of the people who show up are already sponsoring ongoing projects. There were a couple of new ideas extended at this meeting. First, the Division of Wildlife is giving up their lease to Colorado Springs Public Utility land south of town. This area along Fountain creek has sustained extensive flood damage because of the insufficient water retention in areas like ours, but still sustains a substantial collection of wildlife that now includes Elk. The other new suggestion is that some of the houses damaged by landslides caused by City Planning allowing building up the hill from the houses should be purchased with TOPS money and torn down to make open space parks at the toe of the hills.
When I arrived at the meeting, several of the committee, staff and regular attendees of the meetings talked to me about the disastrous December meeting. Terry Putman indicated that the Transportation Division of Public Works will allow the 13 acres of city land to have a conservation easement put on the land that will prevent future development in the core part of the valley. Once this easement is completed, it will be a huge victory for our group. Also, we will be working on other details in the next week or two with a number of folks involved in the TOPS process.
At the start of the meeting, Parks and Recreation staff presented a summary of the current TOPS status.
TOPS Budget Status
Total TOPS Projects = $17,337,183
Total appropriated projects
= $15,813,058
Balance = $1,524,125
Matching Funds (Lottery and
GOCO) = $14,523,950
Total Obligations = $19,104,259
Open Space Projects
Stratton -- 306 acres -- $4.65
million
University Park -- 73 acres
-- $1.35 million
JL Ranch State Park -- 1607
acres -- $6.36 million
Steve Castle and I presented a very brief introduction to the property for a few TOPS members and people in the audience who are not familiar with our project. I asked that we be placed on the February 9th agenda. This will be an important meeting for as many of us as possible to attend. I also emphasized that we are working towards lowering the cost and stretching the time horizon of the project to match TOPS funds which will become available in 2001. Finally, I emphasized that there are three main reasons for this project. First, it is a visual buffer for 50,000 cars/day driving down Union. Second, it is a very rare wetlands area in Colorado Springs. Third, hundreds of folks in the NE part of town use the trail.
Other groups that are comparable to our project are High Chaparral and Peregrine. While both of these areas are very nice, their price tags are huge compared to ours. In addition, the development is pending on both parcels with plans going through City Planning as we speak. High Chaparral is valued at $3 million and a price has not even been proposed for Peregrine yet. The Peregrine property is getting a lot of attention from the committee. High Chaparral has been coming for 2.5 years and has not made very much progress yet. We are well positioned cost wise to succeed in the TOPS process.
The two big projects of the future are Big Johnson Reservoir and Red Rock Canyon. Both of these groups have well funded organizations behind them and sustained support from the Trails and Open Space Coalition. Red Rock Canyon is a $15-20 million project.
Over all, the meeting was much friendlier that our previous presentations and I am encouraged with the status of the conservation easement. We will continue to work with the church and other land owners in the next few weeks.
Scot