Hi Everyone,
I just wanted to give you a quick update on a number of issues that have come up in the past several months surrounding our Union Meadow Park. I expect late April and early May to be a very active time as we attempt to close a deal on the city land.
Union Meadow Web Site: I have run up against a huge technical problem with our Compuserve website and their tech support hasn't been able to come up with a solution. So Wayne Hume is donating space on his companies web site for our project. The new url is http://www.vintage-reproductions.com/union.htm
December Informal City Council Vote: Due to the our email campaign and the national recognition that we got from being one of Scenic America's Last Chance Landscapes, Councilman Jim Null led a unanimous vote in favor of our project and creating a park out of the city portion of the land. While informal resolutions are not binding, this is major step in the right direction for our project. Everyone down at city hall knows that we are coming!
December Meeting With Councilman Null, Group Support Managers Zelenok and Group Support Manager Butcher: Steve and I met with the three folks from the city shortly after the December resolution. While we expected to be discussing the city property transfer, most of the conversation focused on SCIP01. The intersection of Austin Bluffs and Union suddenly jumped to the top of SCIP's focus. So most of the discussion focused on the intersection. It was agreed that the city folks couldn't focus on the land transfer while they were all working on SCIP01. However, if we didn't oppose their tax proposal, the land would be transferred to us shortly after the election. Finalizing this deal is going to be a tough task for our neighborhoods. So be prepared to put the heat back on council late in April or early in May. Transferring management of the land from Public Works to Parks and Recreation is proving to be really difficult. There is still opposition within Parks and Recreation to having the land. So Councilman Null is thinking that transferring the land to our ABCA group and then having the Palmer Foundation watch over a conservation easement may be the best plan.
Other Open Spaces: Hopefully, you have heard about the huge success by the other neighborhood open space group. High Chaparral got all 73 acres of their land in a block purchase that included Blodgett Peak over near Rock Rimmon. This is really good news for us not only as a city, but also because their success moves us up in the ladder of projects. Each of these projects had been going for several years. So there wasn't much chance that we were going to get in front of them. Now, there are two main citizen's groups working in the city; us and Red Rock Canyon. Red Rock Canyon is a huge project with lots of messy details. So I expect our project to get a fair amount of attention as a much easier diversion.
Another issue for our neighborhoods to keep an eye on is the breaking of the Palmer deeds. As you know, the Palmer and Perkins families setup deeds protecting much of our city park system. Garden of the God, Palmer Park, Monument Valley Park and Cheyenne Canyon all fall under this protection. The Fine Art Center wants to expand the museum down towards Monument Valley Park in some kind of weird land deal. They are apparently going to court with three ways in which they think they can break the Palmer deeds. I think we all love the Fine Art Center and their goal of expanding is wonderful and well intentioned. However, the longer term issue is that if you break the deed, then it can be broken along Austin Bluffs Boulevard and encroach upon Palmer Park. I urge everyone to stand behind all the land conservation deeds and encourage the Fine Art Center to find another way to grow.
TOSC Advocacy Committee: Our project is now getting a lot more attention with several of the other projects successfully completed. So we made a short presentation and answered a lot of questions from members of this very active group. TOSC has been very positive supporters of our project. Lee Milner has opened several doors to city official for us. We have a resolution from the Committee to the entire TOSC board in support of our project. I will be presenting our position at the next board meeting.
Scenic America/Scenic Colorado: Since our project was chosen as one of their Last Chance Landscapes, Steve and I have become part of Scenic America's efforts to start a Scenic Colorado division. The group has deep political ties throughout the region including the El Polmar Foundation and has begun working on formalizing their existence and goals. I just learned that we are among their major goals for this year.
We will be hosting several hikes for TOSC this spring to focus more attention on our project. Also, I think there will be a BBQ possibly at Palmer Park for all of us to intermingle and encourage action on our project. I'll let you know more soon.
Scot Hume