The Town of Frisco, Colorado seems to enjoy airing its laundry. Battles between citizens and whatever council is in place tend to take on dramatic airs. But, these people feel strongly about why they moved here, and why they remain here. Earlier this week, the Town of Frisco had a hot item on its agenda. Basically, the issue was how to handle 9/4 acres (called the 10 acre parcel) behind Safeway and Walmart off of Summit Boulevard and adjacent to I-70. The Town Manager, Michael Penny, and his staff, had prepared a fairly detailed presentaion explaining the financial history, current status, and future prospects for the Town. The upshot was that, in order to insure future financial viability, the Town should sell the parcel to one or more big box retailers to generate sales tax dollars. There you go. In one paragraph, you got the gist of fours hours of hearing public testimony and a vote. However, as you might have guessed, the reason the meeting was so long was tha the public was so vocal. About 150 citizens showed up (alright, the paper said 100, but I was there - and counted). All but one voice some form of opposition to the proposal of any retail use for the site. About half wanted to see the new campus for the Colorado Mountain College located there. Many just did not want anything there, or minimal use like sports fields. People even asked that the Town increase their property taxes instead (Frisco has the lowest mil levy in the County of communities that have property taxes - Silverthorne has none). Others suggested cutting back on the wish list developed during the 90s when the economy was doing so well. Some of the testimony even carried veiled threats - on the order of "if you vote against us, you won't hear the end of us." At the end, it appeared clear that the Council members had made up their minds well before the meeting, gave their individual rationales, and voted 5-2 in favor of authoring the Town Manager to put our requests for proposal (RFPs) to solicit companies/developers for a retail use for the site. Emotions have not calmed over this, and today, an editorial questioned the veracity of the decision. You can read here about the Town's position and here for the citizen's comments, here to see today's editorial, here to see yesterday's opinion that a referendum might be next, and here for a viewpoint by citizen and business owner, Paul Connelly. |
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