To the editor:
City Council will be asked to vote on the rezoning request at the Trading Post at its Feb. 1 meeting.
Please attend in person, asking people to write a note to City Council expressing their opinion of the zoning request and subsequent warehouse that is proposed to be built at one of the southern entrances to Garden of the Gods.
Some talking points:
• From Plan Manitou, Policy HN-4.2 Tourism Impact — “Ensure tourism-related businesses and activities have minimal impact on neighborhoods by preventing future tourism businesses within residential areas and identifying strategies to mitigate traffic, parking and other impacts related to existing businesses on neighborhoods.”
• Any zoning change will be in perpetuity and goes along with the property, no matter what its future use;
• Potential for zoning “creep” on Beckers Lane and other parts of the city;
• Any warehouse would be a blight to the entrance to the crown jewel of regional attractions;
• There are far more appropriate sites for a warehouse other than at the entrance to the Garden of the Gods;
• Certain residential property devaluation in the area;
• Unprecedented commercial zoning in immediate proximity with low-density residential zoning on Beckers Lane;
• Increased truck traffic on Beckers Lane. The warehouse will serve a central distribution hub for the owner’s seven shops in Manitou and Colorado Springs;
• Threats to wildlife that inhabit the area;
• Threats to micro-mobility users of Beckers Lane; and
• Would City Councilors want such a development at the end of their blocks?
We need to turn out in numbers at the meeting and write to council members and the mayor to express our disapproval of the proposed change.