Side Streets ~ Neighborhood people and issues

Archive for February, 2013

BIG WHITE FENCE A RED FLAG FOR NEIGHBORHOOD TROUBLE

February 18th, 2013, 12:01 pm by

A tall white fence surrounds the home of Michele LaPierre on Cheyenne Road. Neighbors complained that it blocked their views when backing onto the busy road and was too tall. City planners agree and have ordered it lowered or removed.

Driving up Cheyenne Road, the tall, white fence surrounding the perimeter of a little century-old bungalow gives the place the look of a compound, complete with its security gates front and back and white shutters across the front windows.

The white fence is more like a red flag, actually, signalling trouble in the southwest neighborhood bordering Ivywild and the Broadmoor neighborhoods, where old homes sit on long narrow lots amid mature trees.

Big trouble has been percolating around the big white fence and it has involved angry confrontations, calls to police, code enforcement officers, restraining orders, trips to court and, inevitably, attorneys.

The fence will again be the center of attention Thursday before the Colorado Springs Planning Commission as its owner, Michele LaPierre, appeals a city decision that it must be lowered — it is eight feet tall — or moved back from property lines.

LaPierre says she built the fence not long after buying the home in 2007 to replace a dilapidated fence and to shield her home from what she called “stifling” neighbors who made her uncomfortable by looking into her home.

And she insists it is only six feet tall, as allowed by city code.

Michele LaPierre argues the two-feet-tall lattice work, decorative lights and planters atop her fence should not be counted in the height of the structure. City planners disagree.

“It’s a six-foot fence with a two-foot lattice on top,” LaPierre said repeatedly.

Her attorney wrote a lengthy and detailed explanation why the fence deserves a variance from city codes: the old fence was a dilapidated eyesore; she wants to be a foster parent and needs a fence; Cheyenne Road is dangerously busy. And she argues there are plenty of fences in the neighborhood that violate code.

City planner Erin McCauley was more succinct in rejecting the variance.

“Our codes say anything over six feet tall . . . must meet setback requirements,” McCauley said.

Michele LaPierre’s fence runs the entire perimeter of her property from the street to the alley. City planners say it violates codes and must be lowered or set back.

That means the fence must sit 25 feet from the street and five feet from the property lines on each side and in back.

LaPierre said the fence ought to stay because it improves neighbors’ property values.

“We’re so surprised there is no compassion from the city,” she said. “We’d hate to take the fence down.”

McCauley is puzzled LaPierre is even appealing, saying it was her understanding she had moved back to California and was selling the house.

When I spoke to LaPierre, she said she was, indeed, living in the Bay Area. But she said emphatically she is not selling her home.

Michele LaPierre asked me angrily if I saw a “For Sale” sign in her yard. Honestly, the huge fence makes it impossible to see her yard.

“Do you see a for sale sign in my yard?” she asked angrily.

Then she said she may be forced to sell if the city insists on making her lower her fence.

“We don’t know we’re welcome there,” she said. “We’ll just completely move out of the state and sell everything we own. We’re pretty upset. Pretty devastated by this process. They are not sympathetic.”

I called some neighbors to try to figure out what is going on.

That’s when I learned of the ugly confrontations, police and all.

Next-door neighbor Rolf Miller described five years of turmoil, which he attributed to a dispute over a hedge of 15-foot-tall lilacs that ran down their shared property line.

Miller said he maintained the hedge for years and was surprised when LaPierre mentioned she wanted a fence.

“She wanted to put up a fence with vines on it and wanted to cut down this beautiful lilac hedge I’d been taking care of for years,” he said. “I came home one day and the hedge was gone.”

Then the fence went up, constructed two feet over the property line in his yard, Miller said.

“We made her get a survey and it ticked her off,” he said. “She had to pay to move the fence.”

Miller said the relationship deteriorated when she hung “No Trespassing” signs along the fence, facing the windows in his home.

Miller said he and his wife had to call police when she began confronting and screaming at them. Finally, last fall, he sought a restraining order at the suggestion of police.

“We went to court-ordered mediation,” Miller said. “The judge made her take down the ‘No Trespassing’ signs. He said she couldn’t talk about us anymore or harass us. And as part of the agreement, she agreed to move.”

LaPierre disputed Miller’s account of the disagreements. She blamed him and said he’d violated their mediated agreement not to say disparaging things about each other.

I tried to ask her about the five-point contract filed with the court showing signatures of the Millers, LaPierre and her attorney on Nov. 30, 2012.

I asked her about paragraph two, which states LaPierre was moving as “a condition of this agreement.” It set a deadline of De. 20, 2012.

“He filed a restraining order and we were able to stop it,” LaPierre said, repeatedly interrupting me as I tried to ask her about the dispute.

“He’s the terror of the neighborhood,” LaPierre said of Miller. “He’s wicked. If we’d known how he was, we’d never have invested in that house. My neighbors love me.”

In fact, three neighbors wrote the city to cite adverse impacts due to the fence. And Ken Lewis, code enforcement administrator, said his office received complaints from other neighbors besides the Millers. Neighbors complained that it blocked their views when backing onto the busy road, was dangerous for pedestrians and was too tall.

The three-year battle over the red-brick wall built by Holger and Sally Christiansen around their Old North End Neighborhood home ended when a judge ordered it lowered to comply with city building codes which set a maximum height of 6 feet.

The whole thing reminds me of the beautiful red brick wall Holger and Sally Christiansen built around their home on North Cascade Avenue in the Old North End Neighborhood in 2007.

The wall was too tall and sat too close to property lines in violation of city codes.

The city ordered it moved or lowered. There were hearings, lawsuits, a three-day trial.

Three years later, after tens of thousands of dollars were spent and gallons of stomach acid generated, guess what? The couple lost and the wall was lowered. Brick by brick.

It will be interesting to see how this fence dispute is resolved.

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SIGN PAINTER DOUBLES AS IMPORTANT HISTORIAN

February 16th, 2013, 12:00 pm by

The Heins for Signs billboard was a familiar sight in the Pikes Peak region for 50 years, advertising the work of Ray Heins.

Ray Heins paints a Nativity scene to replace one stolen from Immanuel Lutheran Church on Pikes Peak Avenue in this December 2000 file photo. Heins had painted the original scene 50 years earlier. Carol Lawrence / The Gazette

Ray Heins has always considered himself just a sign painter.

During a half-century of work, he painted billboards, cars, trucks, racetracks — anything that needed a sign.

And he meticulously photographed his work.

Now, the discovery of his photo catalog by his granddaughter, Cindy McCombe Spindler, has folks at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum celebrating Ray’s life and work. It’s a tribute that caught the modest painter by surprise and lifted his spirits as he nears the end of his life in hospice care.

In fact, he was shocked the museum wanted to acquire a collection of his work to be used in research and future display in the museum and online.

Turns out Ray was more than just a great sign painter. He was a pretty darn good historian, too.

“It’s really unexpected and fantastic,” said Leah Davis Witherow, curator of history at the Pioneers Museum. “It’s finding history in an unusual and unexpected way.”

The photos date to the 1940s and are valuable for several reasons, she said.

“His photographs document the lost art of sign painting,” Davis Witherow said. “This collection documents every change in technology, graphic style and sign format from hand-painted signs to neon.”

But they capture much more.

Ray Heins displays the cardboard cutouts he used as inspiration for the Nativity scene in this file photo.

“He seemed to be involved in every business in Colorado Springs,” she said. “We get to see how businesses like The Broadmoor changed their image and logo and style over time. And we get glimpses of businesses that no longer exist. In some cases, this is our one and only glimpse of these businesses.”

Davis Witherow said there’s value in Ray’s photos besides their immediate subject.

Sign painter Ray Heins photographed every billboard he painted and his photo catalog is a directory of most every business in the Pikes Peak region over the past 50 years. The Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum is acquiring a collection of his photos for display and research at the museum.

“The view beyond the billboards, behind the signs, is valuable,” she said. “He documents the development of Colorado Springs. It’s just plain fun.”

I learned of Ray’s work through Cindy, who thought folks might enjoy hearing his story. She was right. I loved seeing his photos and learning of his life. But I didn’t get to meet him. Ray, 92, is not up to visitors.

But I met his wife, Ethel, who at 89 is bright and cheerful and happy to talk about her husband of 22 years.

“He always says he painted every sign from Calhan to Cripple Creek,” she said with a smile. “He’s one of a kind.”

They met in 1990 after both lost their first spouses. The bulk of Ray’s career was already behind him. But he didn’t really retire until a hip surgery in 2002 left him with memory loss. He’d had other medical issues, such as knee replacement surgery from too much time climbing ladders.

And computer graphics had pretty much killed his business by then anyway.

(Danged Internet is killing a lot of businesses.)

“But he never stopped painting,” Ethel said. “He painted wolves and wonderful mountain scenes. And he carved canes.”

But signs were his specialty. Heins for Signs was his business name. And his portfolio of clients reads like a regional business directory.

It was a trade he learned after returning from four years in China, serving in the Army during World War II. Ray had come to Camp Carson for basic training.

Sign painter Ray Heins photographed every billboard he painted and his photo catalog is a directory of most every business in the Pikes Peak region over the past 50 years.

“When he came into Colorado Springs on the train, he said he looked out the window and said: ‘This is it!’ He fell in love with the place and he still loves it,” Ethel said.

After the war he came back and fell in love again. This time with Alma Buckley, a bookkeeper who was the fiancé of one of Ray’s Army buddies who died during the war. He’d written to console her and looked her up when he returned. They were married 44 years until her death in 1989.

Sign painter Ray Heins scales a huge barn to paint a sign on the roof.

In 1946, Ray took a job in a sign shop in Old Colorado City. Ethel said he liked the work, took a class and soon opened his own shop. While others went into neon signs, Ray stuck with paint and brushes and ladders.

And he took up photography.

While most photos are ones he took of his work, Ray’s catalog has photos of himself climbing the corrugated steel roof of a huge barn. And on a ladder painting a sign for Seven Falls, his old station wagon, emblazoned “Heins for Signs” parked nearby.

There’s even the Gazette Telegraph logo he painted on a truck. And many more.

“He painted fire trucks to race cars,” Ethel said.

Cindy said he tells her that he’s most proud of a large Nativity scene he painted for his beloved Immanuel Lutheran Church on Pikes Peak Avenue. It was featured many times over the 50 years or so it has been displayed. The last time was in 2000 when thieves shockingly stole his painting of Jesus, Mary and Joseph from the manger scene.

Ray went to work recreating the 5-feet-by-4 painting.

Davis Witherow said she met Ray in the fall before he entered hospice care.

And she’s thrilled she had the chance to tell him how much his work means to the community and will live on at the museum.

“It was important to me to let him know how valuable his life and work are to the community,” she said. “He had a real passion for his work. He’s an artist. And he is very modest.  He didn’t see how he was contributing to the bigger picture of our history.”

Ray Heins

And that’s exactly what he told Cindy, his granddaughter.

“I didn’t expect to be remembered,” Ray told her as part of her oral history project on his life. “I don’t have royal opinions about myself. I had all these blessings in life. I have been around the world. I should have been killed many times. I came back and became a silly sign painter.

“By honoring me and my life, Colorado Springs is giving me a beautiful ending to my life.”

Though he suffered with age and lost his business to computer graphics and large vinyl presses that made hand-painting obsolete, Ray remains a positive, happy person.

“Nobody has enjoyed life any better than Ray,” Ethel said. “He’s a happy guy. I’ll miss him.”

Heck, I never met him and I’m gonna miss him.

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NO BOUQUETS OF ROSES AT ARVESON SHRINE

February 14th, 2013, 12:57 pm by

The house located on the grounds of the “Saint Rose Arveson Shrine” at 36th Street and West Pikes Peak Ave. was declared uninhabitable Monday, Jan. 28, 2013. Officers from the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak region including Sgt. Ryan McFadden, right, and Ben Schar wore hazard gear when going in the house. Photo by Carol Lawrence / The Gazette

Rose Arveson

On this day of love, happiness and bouquets of roses, there is none at the west side shrine once world famous for sending blessed miracle healing roses to the faithful.

Rather than the scent of roses, the over-powering stench of human waste and death permeates the “Saint Rose E. Arveson Shrine” at 36th Street and West Pikes Peak Avenue.

No longer do desperate people seeking cures wander the hillside shrine offering prayers at the statue of Christ or before the large etched mural of Rose Arveson, who died in August 1963, giving birth to a legend.

Her daughters, Dorothy and Pauline, claimed a miracle occurred after her funeral when six roses placed on her casket wilted, died and were resurrected. They said the roses bloomed 10 days later.

Then, they claimed, a petal from one of the roses cured a severely arthritic friend.

Dorothy and Pauline spent the rest of their lives erecting the shrine and campaigning for the Catholic Church to declare her a saint due to her healing powers.

The story of Rose was spread by tabloid newspapers, triggering pilgrimages from folks hoping to be healed of various diseases and afflictions.

 

This etching of Rose Arveson was a centerpiece of a shrine built by her daughters, Dorothy and Pauline, who spent their lives trying to win sainthood for their mother.

Over the years, the sisters claimed the spirit of “Little Saint Rose” had cured people of cancer, heart disease, AIDS and blindness.

For those who couldn’t make the trip to Colorado Springs, the sisters shipped out roses blessed in their mother’s name. Roses went out by the tens of thousands to people around the world.

But sainthood never came, officially, to Rose. Dorothy worked as an accountant from the modest family home she shared with Pauline.

And as the sisters aged, their efforts to promote their mother and the shrine faded.

The Shrine of Saint Rose E. Arveson was a mess on Feb. 13, 2013, and the stench was overwhelming near the house. Photo by Cary Leider Vogrin.

The shrine took on a spooky quality in recent years. Weeds grew unchecked. The statues decayed. The elderly sisters were seldom seen by neighbors who  grew concerned as a stranger appeared. It was a man no one recognized, and he moved in with the women.

Police were called to check the welfare of the women, but they were never allowed in the house. Same for Code Enforcement and Adult Protective Services.

Readers called me in 2010 and I tried to talk to the sisters and the man, but they wouldn’t open the door.

The Shrine of Saint Rose E. Arverson was not a welcoming place on Feb. 13, 2013. Beyond the “Beware of Dog” sign was a notice on the door declaring it unfit for human habitation. Photo by Cary Leider Vogrin.

When officials finally did get inside recently, they were shocked at what they found. The house had become a toxic waste site, according to Ken Lewis, code enforcement administrator.

His officers were with police Jan. 28 when, in response to neighbor complaints, they went to investigate horrible odors wafting from the house.

Lewis said officers decided the overwhelming smell of death gave them probable cause to enter the house. So they crawled in a window and were stunned.

“There were dead animals and human waste everywhere,” Lewis said. “The place was filthy. It’s one of the worst we’ve ever seen.”

Officers from The Humane Society of the Pikes Peak region and code enforcement officials wore hazard suits as they cleared dead animals from a house located on the property of the Saint Rose Arveson Shrine at 36th St. and West Pikes Peak Avenuen on Jan. 28, 2013. Photo by Carol Lawrence / The Gazette

Inside, they found 69-year-old William E. Schwartz, who appeared to be suffering a leg infection and had to be carried out, Lewis said.

Then officers of the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region went in, wearing hazard suits and facemasks, to rescue some cats living inside and clear out the carcasses of dead animals, Lewis said.

Turns out, Pauline Arveson died in April 2008 at age 82 and Dorothy died in March 2011 at age 81 leaving Schwartz alone in the house.

Statues on the grounds of the Shrine of Saint Rose E. Arveson are crumbling from neglect.

“We’d been trying for a long time to get in the house,” Lewis said. “Dorothy almost let us in one time but she said she didn’t want to anger (Schwartz).”

When Dorothy died, Lewis said, the first responders found her body on the porch because Schwartz didn’t want anyone in the house.

I wondered what would become of the house and shrine and Schwartz.

Lewis said his officers went back on Friday and condemned the place.

“It’s a health hazard,” he said. “We put it on the dilapidated building list.”

It’s so bad, he doesn’t believe the house can be saved.

“It would require a biohazard cleanup,” he said.

Lewis knows neighbors don’t want to be stuck with a rancid building, so he intends to start the process of asking the city attorney to go to court and ask for a receiver for the property, assuming there are no heirs to take control.

“Somebody has to take responsibility for the property and take the house down,” Lewis said.

It could take months, but Lewis said it will be a priority for his office because not much can happen until a receiver is appointed.

As for Schwartz, Lewis said he remains hospitalized. And once healthy, he is facing three counts of misdemeanor cruelty to animals, filed last week in El Paso County District Court, according to court documents.

Looks like it will take another miracle to save Little Saint Rose’s shrine.

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CAMERA LOST IN 2006 RETURNED BY FACEBOOK FRIENDS

February 12th, 2013, 9:12 pm by

Ellen Ritt, left, and Aaron Johnson relaxed atop Little Giant Peak in September 2006. The couple dropped the camera down a steep gully and never expected to see it again or the nearly 90 photos on its memory card. But the power of social media reunited them with their photos.

Ellen Ritt thought she’d never see her camera again after it plunged down the side of Little Giant Peak near Silverton in September 2006.

After all, Ellen and her husband Aaron Johnson watched as it tumbled hundreds of feet down a scree-filled gully toward a crater near the abandoned Shenandoah Dives mine far below.

This photo of a crater showing mine subsidence was retrieved from the camera lost by Ellen Ritt and Aaron Johnson in September 2006 during a hike of Little Giant Peak near Silverton. Photo courtesy Ellen Ritt.

“My husband started to run down the gully and I was screaming: ‘You are going to kill yourself.’ It was very treacherous and very loose,” she said. “So we headed down the ridge and gave up on it.”

But Ellen, who works for Wells Fargo in Denver, didn’t count on state mine inspector Bruce Stover spotting the silver digital camera amid the talus in August 2012.

And she never dreamed the power of social media would deliver her photos back to her.

That’s what happened Tuesday after Marti Liebowitz, a certified hypnotist at Harmony Through Hypnosis in Colorado Springs, saw a photo I had posted on my Side Streets Facebook page. It was a picture of Ellen and Aaron atop the mountain taken from the memory card in their camera.

Waterfalls photographed by Ellen Ritt and Aaron Johnson in September 2006 during a hike of Little Giant Peak near Silverton. Photo courtesy Ellen Ritt.

“I saw the photo and I recognized Ellen’s face,” Marti told me. “It’s amazing. I was like: ‘I know that face.’ So I wrote her on Facebook. It was so funny.”

Funny and shocking, actually, how quickly the mystery was solved.

And it might have remained a mystery had Stover not been observant as he did his job.

“I found it as I was doing an inspection of an abandoned mine last August in the Dives Basin near Cunningham Gulch,” Stover said. “I was at about 12,800 feet in a very remote location when a little bit of metalic reflection caught my eye. It was buried in the rocks. Covered with scree. It was pretty bashed up.”

Unlike disposable cameras he has found in the past, Stover decided to take the digital camera back to his office to see if he could view any photos and identify the owners. He was able to see beautiful shots of mountains, lakes, waterfalls, abandoned mines and old mule trails.

And then there were a few frames showing two people he believed were seasoned hikers, based on their gear and appearance. But that’s all he could tell.

“The camera sat on my desk for months,” said Stover, who said he’s a mining geologist, not a detective.

Little Giant Peak is in the right center of this image from Google Earth.

That’s where the story might have ended. But recently Stover saw a report on KUSA 9News in Denver about hunters finding a camera and reuniting with its owners.

Stover sent the memory card to KUSA’s Dave Delozier, who posted it on his Facebook page, asking for help identifying the hikers.

One of my Side Streets Facebook friends, Susan Brown, was the missing link. She saw Delozier’s post on a friend’s page and shared it on her own page, where I saw it.

Stover was shocked Ellen was found so quickly.

“Isn’t that amazing?” he said laughing. “We’re all bees in the hive with our technology. As soon as one bee finds honey, every bee in the hive knows where the flower is. We’re all interconnected. Worldwide.”

Mostly, Stover was just happy.

“I’m just glad they got their camera back,” he said. “And their memories.

One of the photos retrieved from the camera lost by Ellen Ritt and Aaron Johnson in September 2006 during a hike of Little Giant Peak near Silverton. Courtesy Ellen Ritt.

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MATTRESS RECYCLING BUSINESS GETS OUT OF NEIGHBORHOODS AND GETS BIG BOUNCE

February 11th, 2013, 12:01 pm by

Tim Keenan started a recycling business in his home. Six years later, Colorado Mattress Recycling has grown into a business with a dozen or so employees. It fills a 14,000-square-foot warehouse on Fillmore Street.

Once Tim Keenan got his business out of his garage, to appease his homeowners association, and out of the Hillside neighborhood, to appease code enforcement officers, and relocated into a true warehouse, it really took off.

Now, six years later, Keenan’s business has a new location and new name: Colorado Mattress Recycling. And it’s enjoying a big bounce with about a dozen employees and plans to expand in other cities and, perhaps, even out of state.

While his focus is mattresses — he charges just $5 for dropoffs — Keenan recycles just about anything.

Sometimes, he recycles things beyond what anyone would expect.

Colorado Mattress Recycling has grown into a business with a dozen or so employees. It fills a 14,000-square-foot warehouse at 410½ Fillmore St.

He recycles “broken” televisions into working models that hang on his wall.

And the fluids he drains from machinery become diesel fuel he puts in his big pickup truck.

Then there’s the human recycling Keenan performs.

Of all the items Keenan recycles — the wire, cotton, polyester, quilt, polyurethane foam and even coconut husk — it’s the people that may be his biggest success.

Keenan hires men from halfway houses and shelters and gives them work in his warehouse, tearing down beds and mattresses, baling the materials and shipping them out.

“We take guys nobody else wants,” Keenan said. “They are some interesting guys. Everybody’s got a story.”

He also employs family, including his mother, Laura Keenan, who seems a little shocked at her son’s success.

“I remember when he came to us and told us what he was going to do,” she said. “Of course we wanted to encourage him. But we wondered how he’d make a living.”

Now, she’s a believer, working full-time with him at the warehouse. Her son has convinced her of the value of taking someone else’s trash and turning it into cash.

“It’s exciting work,” she said. “There’s always something to do. And I wouldn’t call it a ‘cause’ but we do believe in recycling.”

Keenan, who will be 28 in March, was attracted to the business when scrap metal hit $200 a ton.

But his HOA in Stetson Hills wasn’t thrilled when Peterson Air Force Base started dropping off old beds at his home and he began stripping them in his garage.

So he moved to a house in Hillside that happened to have a commercial warehouse in the back. He thought it was perfect until a neighbor complained and the city informed him recycling is only allowed in industrial zones.

That was in 2010. Keenan moved to a small warehouse, expanded and then moved again.

In August, he settled in a 14,000-square-foot warehouse at 410½ Fillmore St., behind a pawn shop. It didn’t take long before it was brimming with old mattresses, box springs and more.

His crews hustle in the cold warehouse, stripping out the springs, separating foams and cloth, even picking out tiny brass eyelets for recycling. A huge baler compresses the materials into 1,200-pound bundles that are shipped off. He sells materials across the country.

Tim Keenan, owner of Colorado Mattress Recycling, said one of the hardest parts of his job is finding buyers for all the byproducts of the mattresses. Besides cotton, polyester, quilt and polyurethane foam, the mattresses yield coconut husks call “coir” and another product called “shoddy.”

One company buys the steel springs to be melted into rebar.

He has a foam buyer in Utah. He sells raw cotton to a couple ginning businesses.

There is coconut husk, called “coir,” that he sells.

Another material known as “shoddy” becomes carpet pad and automobile insulation. Foam salvaged from beds also gets reglued into carpet pad and into automobile upholstery.

Keenan keeps the names of his buyers private. They are a valuable trade secret and the key to success as a recycler. Same with the institutions that supply the bulk of his beds, like the Air Force Academy and retail bed stores.

“It’s hard to sell some of this stuff,” he said. “That’s the reason nobody else is doing this. The hardest part is finding buyers.”

It’s the hardest part now that he no longer has to worry about HOAs or code enforcers or upset neighbors

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HOA GOES BANKRUPT FIGHTING OBAMA SIGN

February 11th, 2013, 12:00 pm by

Sam and Maria Farran. Photo courtesy The Washington Post

Homeowners associations can get into big trouble by picking the wrong fight with the wrong homeowner.

Want to infringe on someone’s First Amendment rights? Think you can bully someone into taking down a political sign because they disagree with your politics? HOA boards need to be careful who they pick on.

Check out this story in the Washington Post.

It tells how an HOA board in the Olde Belhaven community in Washington D.C., picked a fight with Sam and Maria Farran over an Obama for President sign they put in their yard  in 2008.

The sign was  four inches taller than the maximum limit allowed by the association’s rules. One HOA board member, Don Hughes, took a hardline stance against the couple. He wrote a letter threatening to ask the HOA board to put a lien on their townhome unless they complied.

But Sam and Maria Farra refused to take it down. They argued their right to display the sign was protected by the Constitution. The board initiated fines in the hundreds of dollars. The couple sued, calling the fines vindictive.

Now, more than four years later, the HOA is being forced to pay Sam and Maria Farra’s legal costs as well as their own. The tab is $400,000 and the legal battle has ruined the HOA’s finances.

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SHOWDOWN FOR TOO TALL TOWNHOMES

February 9th, 2013, 2:00 pm by

Single-familiy homes on Whereabout Court are dwarfed by the Dublin Terrace Townhomes behind them. The townhomes were built contrary to approved plans with larger-than-permitted buildings because the developer was trying to provide unobstructed views to potential buyers.

Will the “Too Tall Townhomes” finally get knocked down to size?

Or just knocked down?

Or will they remain abandoned, inflicting financial and visual pain on the surrounding neighbors?

It’s been almost a year since questions over the size of three new buildings in the Dublin Terrace Townhomes complex erupted, even prompting Mayor Steve Bach to personally inspect the northeast Colorado Springs complex.

The city says the developer of the Dublin Terrace Townhomes raised the grade and built structures not approved for the site, contrary to the development plan.

The controversy eventually resulted in the bankruptcy of the developer Todays Homes and its parent company, Unity Builders Group of Calgary, Canada. And it threw into limbo 10 units — seven in two buildings that are finished and furnished and ready for sale and three units in one building with no roof.

In January, city planners rejected a request from the court-appointed receiver to allow the buildings to remain, as-is, with additional landscaping to buffer the neighbors’ view.

Planner Rick O’Connor’s rejection set up a showdown on Feb. 21 when an appeal is to be heard before the Colorado Springs Planning Commission.

Seven townhomes in two buildings are finished and furnished and ready for sale. But three units in a third building are in the early stage of construction. The building doesn’t even have a roof and weather is rotting the wood.

An attorney for the receiver, Andrew Checkley of MLP Receiverships in St. Louis, responded in documents that moving the buildings or demolishing them are not viable options for Pittsburgh-based PNC Bank, one of the nation’s largest banks, which owns the loans and is facing claims exceeding $1 million, including mechanic liens.

In the documents, the receiver continued a year-long debate over the height issue, arguing the city has wrongly assessed the height. The receiver insists the buildings are just four feet higher than allowed, not upwards of 11 feet as the city claims.

And Checkley raises the possibility that PNC might simply walk away, leaving the buildings to rot, unless the city agrees to let them stay.

“(PNC) has no obligation to foreclose or to take ownership of the property,” Checkley wrote. “This is the worst-case scenario for all parties involved. Unfortunately, given the finances of the project . . . and the competing demands of the interested parties, it may be the most likely scenario.”

Checkley warns that vacant and abandoned buildings erode property values, reduce the city tax base, anger neighbors and “may attract irresponsible social activity.”

Quite a scare tactic. It’s one voiced months ago by Todays Homes and now by Checkley and it has the attention of neighbors who are angry at the suggestion and fear being steamrolled by bureaucrats who don’t care about the neighbors.

“They don’t care about anybody but the bank,” said Bill Sheridan, whose single-family home on Whereabout Court, just across the fence, is dwarfed by the Too Talls.

Bill Sheridan, left, and Tom Fendon survey the Too Tall Townhomes in this September 2012 photo. They and dozens of other neighbors stand to lose thousands in equity in their homes as the buildings rot in bankruptcy.

Similar frustration is felt by Tom Fendon, who lives in a Dublin Terrace Townhome in one of the 56 units in about 15 completed and occupied buildings in the complex.

“It doesn’t get any better,” Fendon said. “It doesn’t look good as far as getting this taken care of. Meanwhile, all the people here are losing money as far as property values go.”

Of course, their positions reflect how hard this problem is to fix.

Sheridan is adamant the Too Talls must come down, insisting property values of the homes on his street all suffered when the behemoths went up.

Fendon, however, said its his neighbors in the other townhomes who are suffering the most.

“Most of us are under water,” he said. “This affects 51 townhome owners. We can’t sell because everything has stopped. There are only eight or nine homes across the fence affected by this.”

Deciding what happens next isn’t the only question Fendon wants answered. He still wants someone held accountable at City Hall.

“I walk through the community and ask myself the same question,” Fendon said. “Why was this allowed?

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CONVENIENCE STORES TRIGGER CONTROVERSY IN NEIGHBORHOODS

February 4th, 2013, 12:01 pm by

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This is the tale of two convenience stores. One story is complete and the other has not played out quite yet. But I was intrigued by the parallels.

A year ago, a hundred or so angry Springs Ranch residents packed a public meeting to try to stop a convenience store from being built in the neighborhood.

They felt betrayed because they believed a YMCA was planned for the vacant 5.6-acre lot. Instead, the YMCA planned to use proceeds from the land sale to finance a new facility elsewhere.

Residents listed fears of increased traffic, crime, loitering, fumes and the proximity to Sand Creek High School in opposing a Kum & Go convenience store and gas station at North Carefree Circle and Peterson Road.

“It was all very dramatic,” said neighbor Lou Morales, who said the Springs Ranch Community Association and its 18 sub-homeowners associations met and strategized and argued on behalf of residents. Some vowed to appeal if they lost. Some actually moved away.

But the effort ultimately failed and Iowa-based Kum & Go won approval in November. I wondered why neighbors calmed down so.

“Kum & Go listened and cooperated with the neighborhood,” Morales said. “They made changes.

“In the end, everybody was resigned that Kum & Go was coming in. Nothing would stop it.”

A few months behind the Kum & Go in the planning pipeline came plans for a 7-Eleven convenience store and gas station on a 15.3-acre lot at Roller Coaster Road and North Gate Boulevard.

Instead of “Oh, thank heaven!” the neighbors in Flying Horse gulped and exclaimed “Oh good Gawd!” and sprang into action.

Leading the opposition is Mark Henkel who said neighbors feel betrayed because they expected boutiques and high-end shops.

“We don’t want a place that has height markers on the inside of the door,” Henkel said, referring to common door markings used by police to determine the height of robbery suspects exiting a store.

Like the folks in Springs Ranch, they organized, raised awareness and turned out en masse for public hearings.

They insisted they were not opposed to commercial development on the lot. Just a convenience store.

“A convenience store is a magnet for crime,” Henkel said, arguing that Colorado Springs is being saturated by convenience stores.

(Personally, I’m amazed how many rental lockers are available in the area. And payday loan places and pawn shops. But that’s just me.)

Other neighbors told the Colorado Springs Planning Commission they were promised a “Broadmoor of the North” type commercial development on the site. Not a 24-hour gas station and Slurpee stop.

Of course, I figured Flying Horse would have about as much luck as Springs Ranch.

Imagine my surprise, shock actually, when the project failed to win planning commission approval. It failed on a 4-4 vote with Commissioner Robert Shonkwiler excused, according to minutes of the November meeting.

It was no surprise when developer Classic Co. appealed to the City Council.

Henkel and the neighbors were prepared to defend their victory. But they were puzzled when the council didn’t even bother to hear the appeal. Instead, the issue was immediately kicked back to planning commission for reconsideration.

“It didn’t seem right that they didn’t even hear the appeal,” Henkel said, noting that council members did not seem informed about the project.

I expect an interesting debate before the Planning Commission on Feb. 21. No doubt many in Flying Horse will be watching.

And, I expect, there will be some interested folks in Springs Ranch, too.

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SOMETIMES LIVES START BADLY AND THERE IS NO HAPPY ENDING

February 2nd, 2013, 12:01 pm by

The front page of The Gazette on Oct. 2, 1991, told of a newborn found in a trash can behind a Stratton Meadows home.

In December, news broke of a newborn found abandoned near a trash bin at a north side apartment complex.

It turned out the 17-year-old mother had concocted the story. The child was never abandoned.

It reminded me of another baby found in the trash in the Stratton Meadows neighborhood south of downtown Colorado Springs in 1991.

That baby would be 21 now. I wondered what happened to the child and set out to find her.

At first, it seemed the story had a happy ending.

But then it took a sad, ugly twist.

For a time, I never thought I’d find the young woman who started life in a trash can behind her family’s home. The Gazette never identified the child, her 15-year-old mother, her 19-year-old father or anyone else.

I located an attorney, now retired, who represented the mother in a fight for custody after the child was taken by social service workers. But he couldn’t remember much.

Finally, I put out a call on social media. Within minutes I heard from retired firefighter Tim Casey who was the medic on the truck that responded to a call for help the morning of Oct. 1, 1991.

Casey vividly recalled the day. First came the call that a female student was hemorrhaging at Harrison High School. The responding firefighters discovered the girl had given birth that morning. Another truck — Casey’s rig — was sent to her home with orders to look in the trash can for the baby.

“It was a beautiful day,” Casey said. “As a couple of guys chased off the dogs in the yard, I went over and opened the trash can.

“Inside was a neatly rolled plastic trash bag. I picked the bag up, got it to my shoulder height and the baby cried inside the bag.”

The sound shocked Casey, who nearly dropped the child. He was expecting to find just a body, not a living, breathing, crying infant.

“There was a beautiful little blonde girl inside the bag,” he said. “I opened my shirt, shoved her inside to get her warm and ran to the truck.”

An ambulance delivered the child to a hospital and Casey was called to sign her birth certificate as the first professional to make contact with the baby.

Later he learned the mother was a scared teen who hid her pregnancy from her family and friends then disposed of the baby believing she was stillborn.

“She thought the baby was dead,” Casey said. “And nobody had any idea she was pregnant.”

The incident was so unusual in Casey’s career that he later wrote about in a Jan. 30, 2012, entry in his blog.

An odd coincidence further tied Casey to the child: The driver on the fire truck that day was the uncle of the teen mother. Through the uncle, Casey learned the mother eventually married the father. They’d had a couple more children together and were able to regain custody of their first child. They even bought a house around the corner from her parents.

Then, in 2009, Casey received an email from the uncle.

“It had a photo of a beautiful girl in her cap and gown,” Casey said. “The email asked if I recognized the girl.

“The next sentence said: You pulled her out of a trash can 18 years ago.”

It would have been the perfect ending to a story that started as a near tragedy.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the end of the story.

About the same time as the graduation, the girl’s father surfaced in The Gazette in a “Crime Stoppers” feature.

There was his mugshot and a description of why authorities were offering $1,000 for information leading to his arrest. His alleged crime: suspicion of sexual assault on a child.

Yes, that child.

In fact, the father pleaded guilty to sexual battery on his daughter.

I spoke to the mother, who is heartbroken. She’d like the world to know she never meant to harm her newborn daughter. And she said she would have done anything to protect her from the father, if she’d known.

“We’ve had our ups and downs,” she said in a quiet voice, declining to reveal any more about her daughter.

Casey, now an author and lecturer, was shocked and saddened when I told him what I learned. He said he almost wishes he didn’t know the rest of the story.

“It’s just horrid,” he said. “I guess there aren’t always happy endings in life.”

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