Letter: Eagle can’t handle all that traffic
What I am about is maintaining the quality of life in Eagle. The home rule information we have been receiving from the town states that it is important to preserve “Eagle’s Character.” Also, I consulted the Eagle Area Community Plan (EACP) and the section on “Vision” states, “Eagle will continue to be a high-quality livable community.”
That is why my biggest fear in developments, both approved and not approved, is traffic. What this boils down to is the numbers in some of the developments. At Red Mountain Ranch, the number of 97 units in the first planning area is way too large. At Hockett Gulch, the number of 500 units is way too large. The town board needs to start thinking about the existing townspeople and their quality of life, not what the developer says they need to make it work. If you want to maintain “a high quality, livable community,” you’ve got to make some tough decisions on the numbers and keep the traffic “livable!”
Traffic: No matter how many roundabouts you put in, no matter how many new bypasses and interchanges you put in, we cannot expand our roundabouts to deal with all the ensuing traffic generated from 2,100 more units in Eagle plus 400 more units to be built at Buckhorn Valley and 581 units going in at Sienna Lake behind Costco and all the airport traffic. Coming right off of the town’s website regarding Hockett Gulch alone, it states, “The site is anticipated to generate a total of 5,190
Affordable housing: I acknowledge the fact that the whole valley needs affordable houses, but Eagle cannot carry the brunt of all that housing because we do not have the roads to warrant that. The Eagle County Housing Needs Assessment prepared in 2018 recognizes a significant housing problem in Eagle County, identifying a need for 2,780 housing units in 2018 and projecting a total of 7,970 housing units needed by 2030. The problem is when “affordable housing is built, the price point for sale (and rentals) is usually not affordable, really. The costs to the town for infrastructure and maintaining roads, etc., will be monumental, too. It is a well-known fact that residential development does not pay its own way — the town of Eagle will.
I have talked with many people throughout the community regarding my concerns with the exponential increase in traffic that would result from all the development projects that are in progress and that are before the Planning & Zoning Commission and the town board. Everyone is very concerned that too much development is going to be approved and that traffic is going to greatly impact the quality of life here in Eagle. I understand there is a new independent traffic study that was just recently brought to the town and has not yet been reviewed. I would request that the P & Z and especially, the town board, not approve any more development projects until your engineers have had plenty of time to review the recent traffic study.
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Please, think about the citizens of Eagle.
Annie Egan
Eagle
