A Friends of Falcon update
By Kevin Curry
Advocating for “Responsible Development” is a core principle of Friends of Falcon, but what does that mean? Simply put, it means development should do two things. First, it needs to balance development impacts and existing land owners’ rights, ensuring that densities and uses are compatible with surrounding areas. Too often, it does not. Second, development should include required infrastructure to minimize impact on existing owners — impacts that often do not show up until after the development is complete. Whereas, the provision of water and related infrastructure is required and strictly regulated, the Land Development Code and county procedures are such that traffic infrastructure impacts are not always taken into account properly and then mitigated. Three proposed developments in Falcon help illustrate these points.
Looking at responsible development, two of the three proposed developments (The Ranch and Autumn Hills) include plans to build urban density housing adjacent to existing 5-acre homes. Requests to modify those plans to allow for better density transitions have so far gone unsatisfied. Of more concern is the “death by a thousand cuts” from traffic increases. At issue is how the traffic impact from proposed developments is assessed. Traffic impact from proposed developments looks at both direct impact on adjoining roads and what is called “off-site impact” on nearby roads; however, each proposal is assessed individually, without regard to collective impact from other proposed developments.
The Ranch proposes 2,100 homes with an impact to Highway 24, Meridian Road, Stapleton Drive and Woodmen Road among others. Autumn Hills on the southwest corner of Stapleton Drive and Meridian Road proposes about 500 homes, with both direct and indirect impact on those roads as well. Finally, Falcon Reserve on the northwest corner of the same intersection proposes 160 homes also with impacts to those roadways. Those 2,700 homes will increase Falcon’s estimated population by nearly one-sixth and will inarguably stress existing roadways and intersections to the breaking point; yet, since each development is considered on its own, the collective impact goes unaddressed. Instead, developers pay nominal fees in lieu of roadway improvements and then move on with development, leaving residents to deal with the impacts and leaving the county to install the necessary infrastructure, often long after it is really needed.
So what are existing homeowners to do? The answer is simple. Make your voices heard. Attend Planning Commission and Board of County Commissioner meetings to plead for more responsible development and for impact mitigation, including building the required infrastructure at the outset. More importantly, make your voices heard at the ballot box. Find out where candidates stand on those issues and vote for those that will help best protect your interests. In the end, development is both inevitable and often vital, but it needs to be done responsibly. To help stay informed on issues like this and others, visit the Friends of Falcon website at https://TheFriendsOfFalcon.org.
