By: Laura Carno
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 31, 2018
Contact: Laura Carno SpringsTaxpayers@gmail.com or 719-492-0211
SPRINGSTAXPAYERS.COM OPPOSES COLORADO SPRINGS PLAN TO REMOVE OLD NORTH END TRAFFIC LANES WITHOUT A VOTE FROM CITY COUNCIL
Colorado Springs — SpringsTaxpayers.com –an organization committed to holding local government accountable– announced today its opposition to the planned removal of traffic lanes on Old North End Neighborhood (ONEN) streets without the review and approval of the Planning Commission and City Council .
According yesterday’s news release from the City of Colorado Springs, and an email to many ONEN residents sent on behalf of Kathleen Krager, City Traffic Engineering Division Manager, the City will narrow roads in selected ONEN areas to one lane of traffic in each direction, without the review and approval of the Planning Commission and City Council. The release indicates that these, and other changes, are “underway.” A similar effort by Krager in 2016 met with strong opposition across several neighborhoods and was rejected by the Planning Commission, which voted against the proposal in June of 2016. The current plan is a unilateral effort by Traffic Engineering to implement what it couldn’t get past citizen and city review two years ago.
In a 2008 appeal by ONEN residents (see page 372), language was required to be added to the Colorado College Master Plan to ensure changes of this magnitude would be approved by the Planning Commission and City Council prior to implementation. The language was also subsequently added to the bottom right-hand corner of each page of the Colorado College Master Plan, CCMP. The language reads:
ADDITIONAL PLANNING COMMISSION AND CITY COUNCIL REVIEW AND
APPROVAL IS NEEDED PRIOR TO ANY PHYSICAL CHANGES TO PUBLIC
IMPROVEMENTS, INCLUDING CASCADE AVENUE, BEING IMPLEMENTED.
SpringsTaxpayers.com has been contacted by numerous ONEN residents, including some who participated in the 2008 Planning Commission and City Council meetings related to the appeal, who demand the City immediately stop any planning and implantation of changes to the Colorado College Master Plan without the review and approval of the Planning Commission and City Council. In email exchanges between residents and City officials, ONEN residents were told that approval is not needed because it is a City project, not a change to the Master Plan.
“Trying to implement these lane reductions by calling them City projects instead of changes to the Master Plan is avoiding the spirit of the 2008 appeal agreement, if not the letter of the agreement,” said Laura Carno, founder of SpringsTaxpayers.com. “City employees work for the citizens —not the other way around— and they have a responsibility to abide by the commitments made to them in the 2008 appeal.”
For more information about SpringTaxpayers.com, please visit our website. For questions or interviews, please contact Laura Carno at SpringsTaxpayers@gmail.com or 719-492-0211.