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Letters to the Editor

Compiled by Daily staff

Slippery slopeI couldn’t help laughing about Kaye’s latest tirade about honesty and integrity. First, there is her insistence that the major issue last November was Crossroads. It wasn’t. Kaye was one of the people who worked hard to make sure that the conference center was the major issue and was defeated. Secondly, there is an ongoing effort to portray the Crossroads proposal as having gone through far more hoops than any project than has ever been built. Vail Resorts volunteered to put their redevelopment of Lionshead under the intense microscope of a master planning process that took several years. Crossroads has gone through hoops, but this is primarily due to the developer’s insistence that the building be allowed to ignore zoning, ignore the buildings around it and be as massive as possible. Had this development kept to the five-six stories allowed by zoning instead of 10, stayed within the setbacks and been in character with the rest of the neighborhood, it would not have angered the public as it has.The proponents of Crossroads have continuously tried to portray it as within zoning, within the guidelines of the Vail Village Master Plan, and within the Urban Design Guidelines. If Kaye really wanted to discuss the issue honestly, she would own up to the fact that none of this is true.Crossroads represents a massive up-zoning, one that, if allowed to stand, could happen in any neighborhood anywhere in Vail. There are currently several other projects being proposed throughout Vail that represent up-zoning on a similar scale as Crossroads. The petitioners believe that these are conversations that should be held by the entire community, not decided by the vote of one council member.Incidentally, Kaye believes in citizen-initiated referendums, just so long as she’s in favor. I guess democracy works best if she’s the only one in charge.Josef StauferVailEditor’s note: The new building would not be 10 stories tall. It would have six stories on the Frontage Road side of the project and eight stories on the Meadow Drive side.Re-elect boardEagle-Vail residents and property owners, please join me in re-electing your current board of directors on May 2: J. Halburnt, Cindy Gilbert and Gail Crowder. When J. and Cindy were elected four years ago, the district was bleeding red. They had the guts to make the necessary cuts and tough decisions to turn the district around. Over the last four years, the district has shown a profit with these leaders in place. All of the financial information is public, so please check it out for yourself. Let’s keep the momentum going for Eagle-Vail. Don’t gamble on people you don’t know, re-elect proven results-getters J. Halburnt, Cindy Gilbert and Gail Crowder. For more information, go to http://www.eaglevailmetro.comJacquie GrieshopEagle-VailSinkhole of a projectThe Colorado Department of Transportation has now provided us more information about the sinkhole in the median of I-70 just west of Idaho Springs. They are actually dealing with a 15-by-100-foot vertical mine tunnel. Stabilizing this sink hole will be a costly effort in terms of time, money and environmental consequences. Furthermore, this is not the first subsidence event on I-70 through Clear Creek County that has been attributed to the remains of early mining activity – and hardly will it be the last. And for those of us who routinely travel I-70, the slowdown we see as this incident is repaired is only a glimpse of what we will be facing for 15 years if CDOT proceeds with widening plan through Clear Creek County.When I-70 was built through Clear Creek County in the 1960s, no environmental studies were required. We pay the price for that every time we deal with rockfall incidents, water quality problems, and subsidence – to say nothing of the wildlife and community impacts. It is time for the Federal Highway Administration and the Colorado Department of Transportation to step back and do an honest and thorough assessment of their proposed widening through this community.Jo Ann SorensenClear Creek County I-70 Task Force


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