Tomorrow night, from 5:30pm-7:00pm, the Board will have a work session to review the Toll Brothers concept plan to build 305 homes (190 townhomes and 115 cottages) on the very edge of the Town Center. Some of these homes will abut the much-contested Tract H that serves as a buffer to the existing homes on S Pitkin / Karval / E Wiggins.

From 7pm onward, the regular Town Board meeting will occur. I expect this to be a pretty long meeting – although currently scheduled to wrap up at 10:30pm, only 15 minutes has been allotted for public comment, and I think people will be out en masse to talk about a few hot topics:

a) The proposed Rough Riders Rec / Community Center design (I’ve blogged about that here). This topic actually isn’t on the agenda for Monday, but with two public engagement meetings on the design last week, it’s at the top of people’s minds, and I’m sure some residents will speak up with feedback.

b) A resolution to rebuild a skate park at Autrey Park to replace the old skate park at the South Pool. Although this resolution sounds like it’s about ready to move forward, I’ve heard some concerns from residents around the new location and cost ($469K). Cover memo with specifics here.

And finally, what I expect to get the most public commentary:

c) Rezonement of the Anderson property (21.6 acres) for residential use rather than the current zoning as a Regional Activity and Employment Center. Boulder Creek Neighborhoods would like to build 62 ranch-style duplex homes (2.9 units / acre). In addition to concerns around the type of homes being built (low-maintenance homes intended to attract seniors), there is some controversy surrounding the traffic access to Lanterns Lane – specifically, whether or not these homes should connect to 88th Street. The current proposal calls for building a paved road going to 88th, but this will be for pedestrian and emergency access only, not for regular vehicle traffic.

There has been a lot of debate about Weldona Way being open to 88th. Residents are split between wanting themselves to have easy access to 88th, and not wanting others to use Weldona as a shortcut to bypass Coal Creek Drive. This year, the Town installed speed bumps on Weldona to hopefully deter non-residents from using it as a shortcut. However, the new Lanterns Lane is likely to push even more traffic to Weldona (via Coal Creek) if it isn’t opened up to 88th on its own – and I’m guessing a lot of Weldona residents will be at tomorrow’s meeting to protest.

While I recognize that some people prefer direct access for convenience and others prefer limited access to avoid more traffic on their street, my initial reaction is that it would make more sense to open Lanterns Lane to 88th from the beginning, and let people buy homes there with eyes wide open to the through-traffic that will likely exist. If we start it off as emergency-access only, but then later decide to open it up to provide better access to Town Center, we’re pulling a bait and switch on those new residents. I would guess that a lot of the comments tomorrow will be along those lines, and I’m eager to hear what the affected residents on Weldona have to say.

On this topic, it should be noted that the Town hasn’t yet decided how this northernmost part of Rock Creek will connect to Town Center. The developer has a lot of contingencies in their proposed plans, but seems to have taken that access into account as best as possible given the uncertainty around what the Town decides to do. Full details of the development plans are here.

Finally, to kick off the presentations after public comment, the Let’s Go Colorado campaign will be presenting the details of their proposed ballot measure to increase state sales taxes by 0.62% to fund transportation projects statewide. While this is a statewide initiative, an increase in state sales taxes could further exacerbate the concerns around losing businesses by increasing our local sales taxes to fund the proposed Rec Center / Community Center at Town Center. (Estimated revenue for the first year of the initiative from Superior is $355K.) I don’t expect much public comment on this presentation, but I am interested to see what specifically they intend to do with the proceeds, as the “local priorities” slide of the presentation is a bit light on details. See the full presentation here.

I’m looking forward to hearing from residents tomorrow night on these and other topics! If you are unable to attend, don’t forget that all Town Meetings are livestreamed on the Town website and also available for playback anytime – go here for agenda, minutes, and videos.

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