Lanny Coleman is a long-time Falcon resident who has watched the area grow to its current state from the days when the only structures in the area were Falcon Fire Protection Districtís Station 3 and El Paso County Colorado School District 49ís first building off Falcon Highway. He is concerned about the rate of growth and the negative effects it could have on the local environment. ìMy major concerns are keeping the dust down and how these developers are filling in natural drainage areas with dirt, and all that has to go someplace,î Coleman said.When the Falcon Highlands neighborhood was under construction, Coleman said the dirt and dust was so bad when the wind picked up that he could not see across the street from his house. With the Meridian Ranch and Banning Lewis Ranch subdivisions continuously under construction for quite some time, he said he has been seeing a lot of excess dirt and is not sure where it will go.ìIf they are hauling it away, are they hauling it into wetlands in the area?î he said. ìAre they filling in the natural drainage areas with the dirt?îìBefore a developer is even released to do grading work, the county engineers do a very, very, very detailed review of the proposal to ensure that it meets our standards and requirements,î said Nina Ruiz, planner II with El Paso County Planning and Community Development. ìMost of the time, we are going to have them do a drainage report to show where the water will go, a grading and erosion plan that shows what the grading will look like, the contours and elevations, and construction drawings that show the roads and other improvements to the area.ìThere is a whole lot of review before the developers start doing any sort of grading on the site.îColeman said he is not against development, but feels the current method he has seen appears to be denuding the countryside altogether instead of working with the natural features to keep the area looking nice and functioning properly.Ruiz said maintaining the natural landscape is part of the review process. The developers must provide a natural resources report, including how they plan to preserve them. ìIf there are wetlands or endangered species in the area, they have to show us how they will deal with that,î she said. ìWe send the applications out to several review agencies like the Colorado Parks & Wildlife, El Paso County Environmental Services; and, in some instances, we require a clearance letter from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.îThere is ample review prior to any work that begins, but Ruiz said the county regularly sends inspectors out to the construction sites to make sure the developers are building in accordance with the approved plans.Developers are required to provide financial insurance to the county prior to any grading; if for some reason the company goes under after they have started the work and cannot afford to finish it, the county will fix and stabilize the ground, she said.The county has a warranty period, which allows the use of insurance funds if the developers are not meeting county requirements for construction standards.ìWe are seeing larger developments than we were seeing before, so the developers are opening up much larger areas to develop at once,î Ruiz said.That mass-scale development method is what concerns Coleman, in particular when it comes to drainage and air quality.Marla Luckey, environmental health program manager with El Paso County Public Health, said developers go through a permitting process either at the state level if construction is larger than 25 acres or appears to exceed six months of work; or the county level if the construction activity is greater than 1 acre but fewer than 25 acres. Those permits include air quality controls, she said.ìDevelopers have to have mitigation plans in place during the permitting process for how they plan to address air quality issues during construction,î Luckey said. ìRarely do we see violations. Our inspectors go out and actually try to find dust. Typically, some of those dusty activities only happen for a day or two. We do sometimes call a contractor to say, ëHey, are you aware the residents and neighbors are complaining about the dust, can you tone it down for a few days,í if the wind is supposed to be really bad.îIn general, the contractors are seasoned and know how to keep the dust down as much as possible, she said.ìThe expectation is not that there is no dust produced, though,î Luckey said.Ruiz said she understands Colemanís concerns and feels the county is already doing what they can to address them. ìWe as the county will not let somebody just move forward and violate our regulations,î she said. ìBut if someone is concerned about something or notices something, they can call our inspection staff. If somebody brings something to their attention, they will go out and look at that specific concern.î
