Frisco council members make a case for more retail

84720 Resource 78724 78558 78558 1108162340522 1108162340522 Controlled Trouble in Paradise?

Town of Frisco takes its own counsel

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<a href="http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20050210/NEWS/102100001/-1/ARCHIVES01" target="_blank"> here</a> about the Town's position and<a href="http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20050210/NEWS/102100002/-1/ARCHIVES01"> here</a> for the citizen's comments, <a href="http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20050210/OPINION/102100031" target="_blank">here</a> to see today's editorial, <a href="http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20050209/OPINION/102090037" target="_blank">here </a>to see yesterday's opinion that a referendum might be next, and <a href="http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20050210/LETTER/102100028" target="_blank">here</a> for a viewpoint by citizen and business owner, Paul Connelly.   9 application/xml false CMC Colorado Mountain College Frisco Colorado Frisco Town Council Frisco council members make a case for more retail Here is why the Council did what it did http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20050210/NEWS/102100001/-1/ARCHIVES01 Residents voice opposition to retail development The citizen's positions http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20050210/NEWS/102100002/-1/ARCHIVES01 Frisco's CMC conundrum So may questions, so few answers http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20050210/OPINION/102100031 A vote now saves one later The editorial that says the citizens will press a vote http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20050209/OPINION/102090037 Big box is wrong, but if it's to be, don't design it to be a focal point Paul Connelly's analysis http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20050210/LETTER/102100028 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1) 66.198.200.154 66.198.200.154 kdeshaies false true false false true 205866 false false true false false false true 78724 blog blogsite/SnowHome/web