Your neighbor’s security lights got you down? Don’t move to Palmer Lake. Especially stay away from Star View Circle, which boasts unobstructed panoramas of the 500-foot Christmas star on the side of Sundance Mountain. Here is a photo taken in 1936, shortly after it was built. It was taken from the town’s Web site www.ci.palmer-lake.co.us/ under its history tab.

The star is lit during the Christmas season, on Fourth of July and Memorial Day, during times of war including on Sept. 11, 2001, and to mark the deaths of important residents. Here is another view, from the town Web site, of it lit:

It’s not hard to see from Interstate 25, heading north into Monument. Below are maps taken from www.GoogleEarth.com showing its location. The last photo shows the approximate location of the star on the side of Sundance Mountain.

CHRISTMAS STAR in Palmer Lake is a post from: Side Streets

The Aiken Audubon Society wants the city of Colorado Springs to take ownership of its 18.6-acre Redwing Sanctuary near the intersection of Pikes Peak Avenue and South Academy Boulevard.

The sanctuary was a marsh until development changed drainage and caused it to mostly dry up. Spring Creek still flows through and migratory birds still use the sanctuary as a rest stop. Wildlife frequently visits, as well as homeless who cap in the open space.

Here is an aerial view of the open space from www.GoogleEarth.com website. The nine acres to the south of the sanctuary are owned by a church that fronts on Airport Road.

BIRD SANCTUARY needs watching is a post from: Side Streets

Parking meters were installed at the First & Main Town Center by property managers to encourage moviegoers at Cinemark 16 and IMAX Theatre to use the free remote lots, leaving the closer spots for shop-and-go customers of the restaurants and shops.

Property managers  had security guards issuing tickets to those who didn’t feed the meter. The tickets threatened to “boot” any car that accumulated seven unpaid tickets. Here is a typical boot.

Nor’wood Development Group’s property manager stressed that no car has ever been booted. And they have discontinued the meter program pending further review. An assistant city attorney said there is nothing in city ordinance granting any private group the authority to ticket and “boot” a car.

Here is a copy of the tickets that were issued.

METERS are not city-owned is a post from: Side Streets

Attorneys, who are next-door neighbors on East Dale Street, are fighting over parking. It’s not a very civil dispute with name-calling and other unpleasantries. In fact, one attorney insists what is going on is downright criminal.

Below is a map from the El Paso County Assessor’s Web site of the two properties: the law office building at 111 E. Dale St., owned by attorney Leo Finkelstein, and the Dale Street Cafe next door, owned by attorney David Zook. Next to it is an image from www.GoogleEarth.com with lines showing the two buildings and the disputed parking lot.

Zook says his deed to the cafe included an easement granting him the right to all nine parking spaces in the back and side of his building. Attorney Jean Miller, who rents office space in Finkelstein’s building, says she is entitled to park in the spaces.

Below are photos of the lot. The first looks south from Dale Street. The second is facing west across the back of the cafe. The fence is on Finkelstein’s property. The third looks north up the driveway. A white line on the asphalt shows the property line between Finkelstein and Zook.

Zook is threatening to seek criminal trespassing charges against Miller for driving across his property to reach the spaces on Finkelstein’s property. Below is a photo Miller took last week showing Zook’s white sedan blocking her dark SUV against the fence. Zook, a former El Paso County prosecutor, said the photo is evidence of her third-degree criminal trespassing.

BACK AWAY from that parking space is a post from: Side Streets

Don Pinello, 78, owns much of the block between Cascade Avenue and Tejon Street from Fillmore to Taylor streets. Some of his two dozen area properties are highlighted below on a map from the El Paso County Assessor’s Web site.

Pinello is convinced a 25-foot strip of land on the northern border of his property was wrongly taken from the family in 1955 in a property line dispute. He is determined to prove that the courts, El Paso County officials and private surveyors have conspired to deprive his family of the land. This aerial photo from www.GoogleEarth.com shows the Pinello family home where he lives and the disputed strip.

Below is a copy of a two-page letter the El Paso County attorney’s office wrote Pinello explaining there is nothing more it can do to help him.

PROPERTY line dispute is a post from: Side Streets

The B Lazy M Ranch sits south of Florissant, surrounded by Mueller State Park on three sides. Its 20 homes sit on 35-acre lots amid elephant rock outcroppings, forests, ponds and wildlife, with Pikes Peak as a backdrop. Since 2001, it also has been home of a war between homeowner Jan Jackson and the homeowners association over various issues.

Here is a view of the ranch from http://www.googleearth.com/, looking east.

The ranch has a website, http://www.blazym.com, where it displays photos and posts meeting agendas and various documents related to the homeowners association.

Below is a map showing directions to the gated community.

Jan Jackson and her husband bought a house with a barn and corral in 1999. They bought the house next-door, below, a few years later and moved. But they still own both properties.

Jackson’s ire toward the B Lazy M homeowners association was ignited when they questioned the size of a corral on the property at her first home. Then she accused the HOA of illegally storing water in this pond on Hay Creek.

The pond dam is 19 feet high and 200 feet long. It holds about 30 acre feet of water. It was built in 1963 to water cattle on the 1,600-acre ranch. After the ranch was developed into a subdivision in 1977, the HOA maintained it to water a few remaining cattle, to stock for fishing and as insurance against wildfires.

When the dam needed repair, the HOA issued a special assessment, which Jackson protested, to fix it and to buy water rights to fill the pond.

B LAZY M Ranch HOA smackdown is a post from: Side Streets

Retired chiropractor Bill Burson chiseled and glued a plaster plaque of the 10 Commandments into a large rock behind a bus stop in hopes of deterring men from using the bench as a toilet.

Inspired by a renewal of his Christian faith, Burson then chiseled and painted what he calls the Passion of Christ onto another rock near the bus stop. It shows three crosses on Mount Calvary where Christ was crucified, and the empty tomb where he was buried.

The rocks are in a grassy area behind a bus stop outside his former chiropractor office at 716 W. Brookside St., just east of the intersection with South 8th Street.

Here is a map taken from the El Paso County Assessor’s web site and a larger view from www.FlashEarth.com of the bus stop.

…

JESUS bus stop is a post from: Side Streets

Below is a map from the 1992 Downtown Action Plan showing how buildings of various heights were to be clustered in the future.

A map of downtown Colorado Springs shows plans for the City Auditorium block.

The penthouses of the 12-story CityWalk tower now enjoy a panoramic view of Pikes Peak in this Gazette photo by Christian Murdock. But owners of west-facing condos fear the planned 26-story Cooper Tower will obliterate their views.

An image from www.GoogleEarth.com  shows the location of the CityWalk tower, the City Auditorium block and Pikes Peak.

WHOSE view is it anyway? is a post from: Side Streets