Here is a map of the new 80905 ZIP code and the remaining ZIPs in the Colorado Springs area:

Here is a copy of the letter the Postal Service sent to residents and businesses in the affected areas:

 zip-change-notice.pdf

Below is a series of letters exchanged between the Postal Service and U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn over the ZIP code boundary decision:

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Just maybe, Silent Rain Drive should be called Raging Torrent Road.

For the last four years, life there has been anything but tranquil as its name implies. Neighbors have been feuding. Several have moved, blaming busy-body neighbors for harassing them until they left.

 Here is a map of the street on Colorado Springs’ northwest corner:

Two next-door neighbors will be in Municipal Court on June 23-24 over noise complaints filed by longtime resident Jean Raubolt.

Raubolt bought her home in 1982 and has complained that it has deteriorated in recent years. In 2004, she tried to organize a group of neighbors to police the area and get neighbors to keep their properties neat and clean. The group disintegrated quickly, however.

 In the meantime, Raubolt has been a one-woman code enforcement army, walking the neighborhood with a pen and paper, jotting down addresses of houses with weeds or tall grass or other issues.

Bridget Weyer says she has been harassed by Raubolt since buying her home in February 2007. She will be in court over two noise violations filed with police by Raubolt.

Here is a photo of Weyer’s split-level house, next to Raubolt’s one-story gray rancher.

Raubolt became upset when Weyer hosted a barbecue on June 1 and called police. She also filed a noise complaint over drum-playing by Weyer’s daughter, Jenna, in their basement. Here is a photo of Jenna on the drums.

Colorado Springs Police Commander Robert Ownbey said Raubolt had 13 calls for service last year. Here is a look at the calls:

She has 13 calls for service in 2007.  
– vandalism to mailbox
– harassment, threats (business flyers being distributed)
– trespassing
– traffic hazard, speeding motorcycle
–  reckless driver on motorcycle
– speeder on motorcycle
– trespassing, business flyers left on door
– speeder/reckless driver, kids riding noisy scooters,
– damage to property, scooters drove thru her front yard
– harassment, threats 
– noise complaint (Jenna Weyer playing drums)
– noise complaint (Bridget Weyer neighborhood welcome barbecue)
– noise complaint (Jenna Weyer playing drums)
 
Ownbey said police will be watching the outcome of the trials. If the charges are dismissed, police will not be so quick to write up complaints by Raubolt. Police will continue to respond to complaints and investigate them. But she will find it more difficult to file a complaint, he said.

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Sturgis Road is a pretty typical Colorado Springs neighborhood from the 1960s. Modest ranchers and split-level houses with mature trees, tidy yards.

Here is a look at it from www.FlashEarth.com

Folks there say Stephanie and Jeff Newbern are th e”guardian angels” of Sturgis Road. They take care of three widows on the block and a man disabled for years and unable to do much home maintenance.

Here are some photos of Sturgis. It’s a place where houses are mostly well-kept. It’s an idyllic spot – see the tire swing in one front yards – where neighbors wave at each other, watch out for strangers and help their neighbors.

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Manitou Springs has been locked in battles with neighbors over development for years. Three prominent cases recently went in different directions.

The town’s fight with Bruce Brian is over. Brian paid $20,000 in 1992 for three acres within the city where he wanted to build a house. The city blocked him and in 2005 Brian gave up and sued for an illegal taking. He won at trial in 2007. Rather than let a jury set the selling price, the city bought Brian’s property for $113,ooo. Here is a map from www.FlashEarth.com showing the location of Brian’s property:

Tom McGee angered the town in 1989 when he bought 99 acres extending from the south city limits to the summit of Iron Mountain and asked to be annexed and provided with utilities so he could develop his land. The city blocked him and fought him in court. He retaliated in 1991 by building a house on the tip top of Iron Mountain. But now the two sides are talking to see if they can settle their differences.

Here is a photo of McGee’s house:

No progress is evident in the dispute between Manitou and Stephen and Wendy Beisel, who own 70 acres adjacent ot McGee. The Beisels have similar desires to develop their land and has been equally frustrated in their efforts.

Here is a map of the area and the approximate property boundaries:

Here is a 2006 photo of Stephen and Wendy Beisel on their property.

Beisel is due in municipal court Tuesday, June 17, on charges he illegally drilled a well on his land without a permit from the city of Manitou. Beisel argues the city doesn’t have jurisdiction to regulate drilling outside its city limits. And he said he had a valid well permit from the state engineer. Manitou enacted a watershed ordinance in 2003 which attempts to regulate wells drilled in its watershed. The ordinance is designed to protect the flows of its historic spring waters.

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Henry W. Yankowski, leader of Pikes Peak Regional Building, is a building code expert and historian. During his career as a builder and in 20 years as a government building regulator, Yankowski has collected old codes from around the country.

He scanned and shared a copy of the oldest codes in his collection – 1788 Salem, N.C.

Here is a copy of the cover of the 11-page code book.

You can read the code book, which is written by hand, by following this link: salem_building_code1788.pdf.

Of course, some codes from 1788 no longer apply, such as those regulating placement of “Necessaries” — toilets of the day. And it wasn’t good enough to build them away from other homes “so that they do not molest the neighbors.” The code went further into outhouse design issues, mandating: “For the necessaries, a deep hole must be made because the ill odors derive mainly from exposure to the sun.”

It does not specify one-holers or two-holers. Nor does it require stars and moons to be cut into the door.

Also, the Salem codes regulated wages paid for construction. Consider the following passage taken, grammar and spelling mistakes and all, from page 8:

“Brothers who want to build must hold to the wage rates fixed in the community if they employee outsdie workers. The shall not pay higher rates except in an emergency.” 

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A dispute over a vacant lot known in Widefield as Sertoma Park has gotten ugly. First, neighbors led by Joe Berkhoff confronted a developer, Ron Hall, over his plan to build a assisted living center on the property.

Berkhoff led a loud campaign to rally neighbors to oppose Hall. Berkhoff challenged the way the property was sold and has vigorously demanded it remain open space. In the process, he has personally attacked Hall, who became angry and lashed back.

On April 24, 2008, Hall had crews place four concrete barriers in front of the garage doors of 70-year-old Anna Maria Stevens, who is Berkhoff’s aunt. Stevens and her late husband bought their home in 1970. It backs up to the vacant lot and for all those years they drove across the lot to access their backyard.

In 2000, they built a garage with doors facing the lot, even though the original plans filed with the county showed the doors on the other side, with access from the front of their house, not the back. They have used the vacant lot as a driveway ever since.

Hall decided to punish Berkhoff and his family for opposing his plan by enforcing his property rights and barricading Stevens’ garage. Here are photos taken by Stevens’ son, Bill Stevens, as the barricades were put in place. When the four barricades were moved, Hall’s crews came back and placed a total of 16 in front of the garage doors. 

Below, Anna Maria Stevens stands amid the 16 concrete barricades. She can no longer access her garage. And a truck and van parked in her backyard are stuck behind the barricades.

Here are some maps of the park and the area:

Here is the original architect’s drawing of his assisted living center project. Since this drawing was created, he has modified the building to eliminate the second floor so neighbors’ views are not blocked. He also relocated parking to move it closer to the center of the complex, away from neighbors’ yards. And he has reduced the number of units in a concession to neighbors’ concerns.

Also, Hall agreed to remove the barricades to restore Stevens’ access. He promised to have crews move the barricades on Monday, June 9. But he said they may return if the attacks on him from Stevens’ relatives resume.

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A Colorado Springs accountant, Antonio Villa, has avoided a return to jail for now. He has until July 31 to complete court-ordered demolition of additions he made to his house without permits or inspections.

He spent nearly a week in jail in January, and was fined $20,300, for contempt of court after he failed to comply with demolition ordered by a judge in May 2007, and for failing to even show up at court status hearings.  The fine was the culmination of a $100 a day penalty the judge imposed to get Villa to comply.

Villa says he is being harassed for building additions to his home without getting permits or inspections.

But after avoiding jail on June 2, Villa said he will not risk returning. In the future, he will get all the necessary permits when he contemplates an addition.

Here is a look at his house from www.FlashEarth.com

Villa was ordered to remove the workshop, patio enclosure and office, as well as the large parking lot he built. Here is a view of the front of his house from Circle Drive. The office addition, built from plywood, is on the left.

They said he needed permits and used unsafe construction practices, such as using 4-by-4 posts in five-gallon buckets of cement as a foundation. They also say he illegally tapped a neighbor’s sewer for a bathroom he built.

There was no permit for the curb-cut on Winnepeg Drive or for the parking lot, which he built for customers of his accounting business, which the city said was not allowed in a home. The city said his additions violated “setback” rules — the amount of space a building must sit from a street or property line. Here are photos of his office and parking lot, deemed illegal by the city.

At a hearing June 2,  Villa risked going back to jail if the additions were not torn down.

He started removing the office on May 28 in hopes of satisfying the judge. Here, a worker began demolition of the office that day.

By June 2, he had completed the removal of most of the additions. Here’s a photo of his yard, where they stood. In the second photo, his office is visible as well as steel walls of a building he intends to erect in his parking lot.

Villa said he is being harassed and discriminated against by the city and courts. He blames a contractor for bad advice about the need for permits and for poor construction of his additions.

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