During the July 22 meeting of the Manitou Springs Open Space Advisory Committee (OSAC), the committee tabled a resolution brought by Ken Jaray and the community activist group Friends of Ruxton Canyon to urge the Manitou Springs City Council to acquire the land involved in the potential Jenkins development for inclusion in the City’s open space network.
Last month, Chris and David Jenkins canceled a planned July 16 presentation to City Council to donate 15 acres of privately-owned land in order to create a Ruxton Avenue access road and a parking lot. The proposal generated widespread concern and opposition from community members, who have banded together as the Friends of Ruxton Canyon. With their resolution, OSAC would have recommended that City Council acquire 57 acres from two parcels – 18 acres owned by the Jenkins family and 39 acres owned by the Walton family – in order to “ensure the long-term conservation of these lands.”
Manitou Springs City Councilor-at-large Judith Chandler urged OSAC to carefully consider the resolution. “I want to tell you that there are many ways of acquiring land, not limited to, but including eminent domain,” she said. “The City and the Council have a number of strategies that are at their disposal. I’m not saying we would acquire this land by eminent domain, but my thought is before you vote, think about what your motive is given the fact that Jenkins has kind of gone radio silent with their plans. The Jenkins have a number of options – they can do nothing, they can put the land up for sale or they can donate it if they want to. There are a number of options. They can also initiate a ballot initiative for a road and a parking lot. That would not happen until 2025 at the earliest, so I don’t want to have OSAC kneecap itself by just going with this resolution as written. I’m thinking maybe just put a pause on it until we know more of what the Jenkins plan is. OSAC, you have in your purview, and in your POST [Parks, Open Space, Trails] plan, and in your mission, to acquire land. You can reach out to people including the Jenkins and talk to them about acquiring this land via donation, so I just want you to think about what your motive is in bringing this to Council now and if you coalesce around a motive I will absolutely support that, but there are many ways of approaching this land acquisition that have not been discussed yet.”
Tim Beeson, OSAC chair, agreed with Chandler. “I just want to remind everybody that there’s nothing in this that hasn’t been written already in the POST plan or in other documents,” he said. “There’s nothing that will keep OSAC from attempting to move forward in order to see if there is any crack in the seams with the Jenkins Property. I really have to agree with Nancy [Wilson, OSAC vice chair] and Judith [Chandler] that tabling this won’t create any problem or necessarily any slow-down in what we’re doing.”
Steve Bremner, an OSAC alternate member, disagreed. “I agree that City Council is going to be the one who’s gonna have to make the acquisition,” he said. “However, we are an advisory committee, so we are advising City Council, and I see nothing wrong with us taking a stand on this and advising City Council to encourage the acquisition of that property. I don’t think we can just sit and wait for Jenkins’ next move. I think that’s a false avenue because the Jenkins are going to be aggressive. They were aggressive with that survey. They were aggressive with setting up that meeting on July 16. They want to move forward to develop all that property. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re going to just buy out the Waltons because the Waltons aren’t developers. The Jenkins are developers. I wouldn’t be surprised if they buy out that property and next thing you know, they put a proposition before the planning commissioning to go ahead and plat out that property and start developing.”
Morlan announces mayor recall effort
In addition to the resolution, some members of the community are taking more aggressive steps in response to the City’s handling of the proposed Jenkins development. “I’m going to say that today I started with the City the process of recalling Mayor John Graham because he has been working behind this community’s back for years,” said Linda Morlan during the July 22 OSAC meeting. “We have proof of it. We’re going to recall him.”
Jaray noted that Morlan’s comments were not part of his group’s efforts. “The Friends of Ruxton Canyon has not taken a position or suggested anything about a recall,” he told OSAC. “Just wanted to be clear that is not something that this neighborhood organization has talked about.”