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Archive for the 'Colorado Springs' Tag

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ON SECOND THOUGHT . . . maybe new houses, road could SAVE the neighborhood

November 4th, 2009, 6:34 pm by Bill Vogrin

For years, residents of Mesa Springs neighborhood fought to prevent Colorado Springs from extending Centennial Boulevard south from Fillmore Street to connect with Interstate 25 at Fontanero Street.

They feared their 50-year-old neighborhood of modest homes would be wrecked by Centennial. They saw it creating a Bermuda Traffic Triangle between Centennial, Fillmore and I-25.

Here is a look at the area from FlashEarth:

mesaspringscentennial

 But now a developer has contacted the city about building upwards of 500 homes — either single-family, townhomes, condos or apartments — on 47 acres on the west edge of the neighborhood.

The property owner is MVS Development of Albuquerque, N.M. They hired NES Inc., a land planning and landscsape architecture company in the Springs, to get the land rezoned.

Ron Bevans, an NES project manager, said the owners want the city to approve a broad rezoning plan. Part of the project would include consolidating a 17-acre landfill on the site into an 8-acre open space that would be capped.

Here’s another look from FlashEarth:

mesaspringsflash

The project, which Bevans described as in its infancy stage, would include building a big chunk of the Centennial extension.

Curb and gutter exist for a half mile or so south of Fillmore, said James Mayerl, a city planner who is reviewing the MVS project. And Mayerl said the new project might be the impetus for actually completing Centennial.

In fact, the city is studying the transportation plan for the corridor, looking for ways to take pressure off the intersection of Fillmore and I-25. The long-planned Centennial extension would be a  key piece of any plan.

Bevans said his clients do not have blueprints or a builder for the project. They simply are preparing the site for eventual development and alerting neighbors that the process is underway.

Many neighbors are apprehensive about the proposal. They already suffered the loss of 127 neighborhood homes when I-25 was realligned a decade ago and the sound wall erected. And they recently suffered the closure of their neighborhood school, Zebulon Pike Elementary.

But some neighbors, like Carol Gravenstein, view the project and the extension of Centennial as a way to resurrect the school if enough new families move into Mesa Springs.

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LIFE’S A VACATION, unless you live near a rental

November 1st, 2009, 4:26 pm by Bill Vogrin

Colorado Springs has appointed a task force to determine whether it should license, regulate and tax vacation rental homes.

Turns out there are 60-80 homes sprinkled around the city that are advertised around the world in Web sites as vacation rental properties.

vacationrentalwebsite

They are favored by parents of Air Force Academy cadets when they come for parents’ weekend or graduation.

Many families looking for a reunion site prefer vacation homes over hotels or bed-and-breakfast inns.

Folks with special needs, like sterilized kitchens or quiet places for elderly or children, often choose vacation rental homes over hotels.vacationrentalwebpage1

 

Problem is, they bring a parade of strangers into neighborhoods. Strangers who soak up parking spaces and sometimes hold late parties. A few people living near vacation rental houses have begun complaining to the city about the situation.

So Dick Anderwald, the city’s land use and planning chief, created the Vacation Home Rental Task Force Committee to study the issue. He appointed neighborhood activists, vacation rental home owners and city planning staff to the task force.

Here’s the agenda for the initial meeting in September:  vacationrentals. Please note that the roster of task force members changed after this was printed. Michael Clark and Autumn Hyser dropped out.

One of the task force members, Jackie Ayers, owns the “Old Colorado Springs” 1902 Downtown House W/ Private Hot Tub - Colorado Springs  Here’s a look at her house from the Web site:

1902downtownhouse

She also manages a vacation rental for another owner. Ayers said the task force is an over-reaction to the complaints of a few people, including two task force members who live near vacation rental homes — one on the Westside and one in the Broadmoor.

Anderwald apparently agreees. He said the issue appears to be confined to a small area of the city and the task force likely won’t produce new rules and regulations.

However, owners of vacation rental homes likely will start getting tax bills from the city for sales taxes they have not been paying.

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WHAT’S A BROKEN PROMISE WORTH?

October 25th, 2009, 4:54 pm by Bill Vogrin

In 2005, developers began building Saddleback Ridge Condominiums in northwest Colorado Springs along Centennial Boulevard in Pinon Valley. 

 As they were promoting their project to prospective buyers in 2005-06, their plans showed a swimming pool and clubhouse to be shared with Canyon Reserve Townhomes, to be built adjacent to the west.

In fact, several of the investors in the condos also were investors in the townhome project. So it made sense to them to build one pool/clubhouse to serve both complexes.

Here is a look at the two complexes from FlashEarth:

saddlebackridgecityview

The Saddleback Ridge group had paid $1.6 million for 26 acres and then sold nine acres to Canyon Reserve or $1.2 million.

They were ambitious projects. Saddleback would have a dozen buildings with 96 condos while Canyon Reserve planned 18 buildings, mostly four-plexes, with 70 townhomes.

 Unfortunately, the projects were launched just as the housing market was collapsing.

 Soon, the developers found themselves struggling to sell their units. Money started getting tight, management of the projects changed repeatedly and somewhere along the way, the pool and clubhouse was dropped.

 Here’s a look at Saddleback Ridge as its appears looking south along Centennial:

saddlebackridgefenceview

This  is the view looking north. Canyon Reserve is off camera to the left: saddlebackridgewideview

 

 As you might imagine, folks in Saddleback Ridge who wanted a pool and clubhouse were not happy when the pool never materialized. Some recalled one of the project managers, Charles Schoninger, promising the pool would be built. Even if he had to pay for it himself.

 So the owners are trying to hold him to his promise. The Saddleback Ridge Homeowners Association is suing the developers over the missing pool and clubhouse. They want over $500,000 in compensation. They feel they were cheated and their property values have suffered due to the lack of the promised amenities.

 But the HOA isn’t just going after the developers’ companies. The HOA is suing them individually, trying to hold them personally responsible.

 That’s because they claim Schoninger made personal guarantees that the pool and clubhouse would be built. The HOA has sworn depositions from real estate agents and owners making that claim.

 Schoninger said he is broke and resents being singled out from the group of developers. He blames his partners for mismanaging the project, forcing him to step in and try to salvage it.

 He said partners involved in Canyon Reserve are particularly to blame.

 The townhouse project ended up in foreclosure and now is being operated by the Santerra Financial Group, which bought it out. Only six four-plexes have been built although the group intends to complete the project as the economy improves.

 Here’s a look at the plan for Canyon Reserve from its Web site. The plan does not include a pool or clubhouse, which Santerra managing partner Bob Elliott said would be a mistake to build. He said his townhome owners don’t want the amenities or the expense of maintaining them. The pool would have been built across from Building 4.

canyonreserve

Below is an artist’s rendering of the finished Canyon Reserve:

canyonreserve2

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NO PARKING ZONE - Flying Horse residents demand their neighborhood park now

October 21st, 2009, 5:42 pm by Bill Vogrin

A big reason Maureen and Jeff Storch bought a home in the new Flying Horse neighborhood of Saratoga back in 2007 was because plans called for a near six-acre park across the street from them on Crane Canyon Loop.

paradeflyinghorsebanner

Here’s a look at an architect’s blueprint of Saratoga from the Flying Horse Web site:

saratogadrawing

So-called  “Frogs Leap Park” would have something for all four of their children, ages 3, 8, 10 and 11. There was to be a playground, basketball court, baseball diamond and walking trails.

saratogadrawingcloseup

“We bought a house right on the park,” Maureen Storch said.

Except for one problem. Two years later, there is still no park. Just weeds.

Here’s a look at the field after the developer, Classic Homes, rolled out some artifical grass in an effort to appease neighbors upset that the park had not been built yet:

saratogaastroturf

Storch and other neighbors say they were promised a park in 2007 and can’t understand why Classic is building parks in adjoining Flying Horse neighborhoods but not in Saratoga.

saratogamap1

Doug Stimple, chief executive officer of Classic, explained that Saratoga was conceived as a commercial development. Not residential.

When the developer decided to convert it to new homes in 2006, it didn’t have financing for a neighborhood park, which cost about $400,000.

 Before the company could complete a refinancing package, commercial credit markets froze solid. He said the parks being built in Syrah, Solera and Calistoga neighborhoods of Flying Horse all were designed and financed with the original package and those funds cannot be transfered to Saratoga.

Want to see how Saratoga has progressed? Here’s an early look from GoogleEarth:

saratogagoogle

This is later from FlashEarth:  saratogaflash1

 

Storch also is upset that Classic has not landscaped a detention pond behind her home. Here’s how it looks today in a patched-together panorama:

saratogadetentionpond1

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IF I CAN’T SEE THE PEAK, NOBODY CAN!

October 14th, 2009, 5:17 pm by Bill Vogrin

 Folks in the Carriages at Charleston Place are feuding over their mountain views.

carriageswebflag

When Classic Homes developed the 80-unit townhome complex 10 years ago, they offered “view lots” for a premium of $10,000. Here is a look at the area from FlashEarth:

carriagesflashwide1

 Chuck and Ilse Young paid because they valued their spectacular view of Pikes Peak and the Front Range.

 Jim and Evelyn Mills also paid and ever since have cherished their views of the mountains. 

 But when Classic landscaped the development, pine trees were planted in the yards around the townhomes, built as 40 duplexes.

 Ilse Young said she soon realized the pines were going to grow too large and obscure her views. Here is a look at her home taken shortly before she moved in.  

carriagestreesbefore

 So Young said she contacted the developer and the homeowners association, or HOA, and was given permission to replace the pines with ornamental crabapple tress that can be more easily pruned. Permission was needed because the trees and yard are common areas to the HOA.

 Mills recalls the request because he was the HOA’s first board president. In fact, he is on the board today.

Over the years, the Youngs and the Mills routinely hired an arborist to keep their trees pruned and shaped up.

But this year, when they asked for permission, the HOA board denied their request. The HOA board didn’t want to spend the money to prune every tree. And the board didn’t want to let the Mills and Youngs do it themselves.

Mills said Betty DeJong, vice president of the board, led the opposition. Mills said DeJong told him that her views were being blocked by one of those pine trees. Unlike the ornamentals, the pines can’t be as easily pruned without destroying their appearance.

Here is a look at the bushy trees from FlashEarth:

carriagesflash1

 Mills recalls his conversation with DeJong like this: “She told me: ‘If I can’t prune mine, you shouldn’t be a able to prune yours.’ I was shocked.”

 DeJong said she was simply making a point that it would set a bad precedent to let one or two homeowners prune their trees. Then all 80 homeowners would start pruning and things would be a mess.

Here’s a look at the trees today:

carriagessigntrees2

Mills and Young say they simply want to shape the trees and take off the new growth, just as they always have.

The Youngs have a special urgency to their request. They are trying to sell their home and being able to advertise it as having “mountain views” would enhance the value.

But the HOA board has ruled.

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PARK AT YOUR OWN RISK

October 11th, 2009, 4:33 pm by Bill Vogrin

In older neighborhoods around Colorado Springs where streets are narrow and garages are not universal, parking can be a hot issue.

It can even be a problem in newer California-style subdivisions where greed-obsessed developers squeezed big houses onto postage stamp-sized lots with driveways so short you can’t park without blocking the sidewalk. Here’s an example as seen from FlashEarth:

columbiastetson

In older neighborhoods, some houses don’t have driveways and folks are forced to park on the street, between curb cuts for their neighbors’ driveways.

That’s the case on Columbia Street in the Patty Jewett Neighborhood. Not only do folks with no driveways have problems, it’s dangerous for folks who do. Try backing out of a driveways onto a crowded, narrow and busy street.

Here’s another look from FlashEarth at Columbia Street.

columbiaflash

So Jason Weyant called the city and asked for help. Weyant lives in the hous eon the northeast corner of Columbia and Wahsatch Avenue, above. He worries he will hit a partked car or someone snaking their way down the street trying to back out.

 Here’s a look at Columbia, facing east.

columbiast2

Weyant asked the city to simply designate one side of Columbia as a no-parking zone. He figured that would make it safer for motorists and folks like him trying to come and go.

Notice the cars parked up against driveways? According to Springs codes, it is illegal to park within 5 feet of a driveway. For all practical purposes, it would be illegal to park along most of Columbia and a lot of streets in the city because there isn’t enough room between driveways.

columbiast3

  The city’s response to his request for no parking? No way!

 Traffic engineers say the city would never abolish parking on an entire block, one side or the other, without written agreement from everyone on the block. Fat chance of that ever happening.

Part of the problem is the goofy way streets were designed a century ago. Check the image below from FlashEarth. It shows how some streets, like Corona, were built about 55 feet wide while side streets like Columbia were just 28 feet. Wonder where they parked their horse-and-buggies and kept their jet skis?

columbiaflash1

But the city didn’t just blow Weyant off. They tried to help by putting up a couple “No Parking” signs on either side of his driveway to remind people of the law.

columbiastcloseup

Weyand said he’s grateful for the signs and may circulate a petition to ban parking on one side of the street. It will be interesting to see how that turns out.

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TRAFFIC CONCERNS in Rockrimmon and Wagon Trails

October 4th, 2009, 4:00 pm by Bill Vogrin

============ UPDATE   BELOW –  UPDATE BELOW ============

Remember the smashing fences in Rockrimmon? You know, the folks who live at the bottom of the hill where Vindicator Drive meets Rockrimmon Boulevard? They’ve lived with cars crashing into their yards for years.

Below is a map from FlashEarth.com of the area:

fenceflash

Two families - Mitch Logue and Donald and Colleen Kunecke, wanted the city to install guardrails to prevent future incidents like this one below:

fencewreck2

I’ve written about it a couple times. Here is a link to a previous blog about the problem.

Well the Colorado Springs traffic engineer, Dave Krauth, said the intersection won’t accomodate guard rails. But he’s interested in testing sophisticated new traffic sensors to see if he can stop some of the carnage.

The sensors track cars entering an intersection as the traffic signal is about to change. Traffic engineers call this moment the “dilemma zone.”

 The sensors can delay the change to allow the cars to clear without stomping on their gas and plowing over the curb and into a fence and yard.

There’s also news on another bottleneck in the city. This one is a two-lane stretch of Dublin Boulevard between Bridle Pass Drive and Powers Boulevard. Here’s a look from FlashEarth:

dublinflashoverview

Readers like Tim Little want to know why Dublin suddenly shrinks from four lanes to two and a stretch of pavement sits unfinished.

It’s a twisted tale of land that is annexed vs. unincorporated land stuck in El Paso County.

dublincitylimits

It is further complicated by rules about when a develop must build infrastructure like roads, curbs and sidewalks.

Krauth said the road will be widened as land is developed along the stretch. Already a short piece was widened but never attached to the intersection at Bridle Pass due to a property line issue.

dublinflashcloseup

The rest of the road won’t be widened until county land on the north side is developed and annexed into the city.

As a result, motorists are stuck with roads that look like this view to the east:

dublinroadclosed1

And this view looking west:

dublincurvewestb

================ NOW THE UPDATE ================

 

I now have an answer to the mysterious disappearing pavement.

dublinflashcloseup1

The new black pavement was installed by the developer of a townhome project adjacent to Dublin Boulevard. However, it ends about 400 feet from the intersection to the west.

Why didn’t the developer just finish the job?

Tim Mitros of city engineering tells me the pavement ends at a property line. Developers are required to install infrastructure — sidewalks, curbs, gutters even roadway – adjacent to their projects. But not for a neighbor’s land.

In the case above, the pavement ends at the property line of the next parcel and the remaining 400 feet will be installed if and when the adjacent land is developed.

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CHOPPERS INCOMING! Eh? What’d ya say? Can’t hear a thing.

September 30th, 2009, 7:25 pm by Bill Vogrin

Residents of Boulder Park, an historic neighborhood east of downtown Colorado Springs, is a beautiful area of classic old homes, mature trees and a busy neighborhood park.

For a century,  it also has been home to Memorial Hospital. It’s also home to the Olympic Training Center at the old Ent Air Force Base. Here’s a shot of the hospital taken from its web site.

memorialexterior

Below is a look at the neighborhood from FlashEarth.com:

memorialflash11

For the most part, they peacefully coexist.

But, like any neighborhood, problems arise.

For months, the neighbors, the OTC and Memorial have been discussing the hospital’s growing use of its medical helicopter, seen below in a photo from its web site.

memorialstar

In the five years since Memorial leased its own helicopter, dubbed Memorial Star Transport, the average flights have jumped from one a day to eight a day.  Learn more about Memorial Star Transport here.

Here’s a look at the chopper parked atop the hospital:

memorialstarrooftop

Neighbors say the noise and vibration is getting unbearable. They want the hospital to mitigate the noise by taking several steps. Ideally, they’d like the hospital to relocate the helipad from the roof of a seven-story building to a location off campus.

The helipad is visible with the white cross in the photos.

memorialflash2

 It’s about 90 feet above ground level. But neighbors say the wash from the rotors and the noise are too much. Here’s a slide from a report on noise created by Landrum & Brown, a Chicago consulting firm hired to study Memorial’s helicopter use. It shows where helicopter noise ranks against other sources:

soundcomparisons2

 Memorial agreed to spend $475,000 to install a 6,000 gallon fuel tank on the campus, which it hopes to have operational by November.

 By pumping fuel to the roof, the hospital will cut out about 25 percent of the flights to and from the pad. Helicopters must be refueled after each flight, requiring a trip to the airport after each delivery.

 But neighbors also want the hospital to spend $2 million or more on a “roll-off pad” to park the helicopter when it’s not in use. That would reduce upwards of 10 percent more flights made necessary when helicopters from other hospitals arrive to pick up or deposit patients.

 Here’s a drawing of a proposed roll-off pad created by the aviation consultants: 

 memorialrolloff1

The debate about Memorial’s helicopter operations comes amid a growing concern nationally about the safety of medical helicopters, which have become a $2.5 billion industry over the last 20 years, the Washington Post reports.

An excellent Washington Post investigation  published in August reported that working in medical transport helicopters is the second most dangerous occupation after commercial fishing.

Federal officials estimate that more than 400,000 medical flights are made each year.

As the industry has grown, so have the number of fatal flights, federal safety records show. Last year was the deadliest for the profession, when 28 crew members and five patients died. In the 10 months from December 2007-October 2008, the death toll was 35.

 In response to the deadly trend, the National Transportation Safety Board held four days of hearings in Febuary to study the trend and in September the agency  called for stricter controls on emergency helicopter operators.

The agency has been pushing medical helicopter companies to beef up training for pilots, supply helicopters with night-vision equipment and require the installation of flight recorders. In its report, the board said insurance companies and Medicare pay more money to transport patients by air than on the ground, a situation that may have fueled the increase in medical flights.

Here’s a pilot’s-eye view of Memorial:

memorialaerial

Some are questioning if there are too many medevac flights and unnecessary flight risks are being taken. The Baltimore Sun did an excellent piece last October in which  it studied 26 fatal medevac crashes in the U.S. since 2003 and found many did not involve urgent, life-or-death flights.

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IVYWILD . . . R.I.P.?

September 27th, 2009, 12:34 pm by Bill Vogrin

  For more than a century, folks have called Ivywild their home. It started as a small collection of homes on the old Dorr ranch on the south side of Fountain Creek, along smaller Cheyenne Creek. Below is a look at the neighborhood from FlashEarth.

ivywildflash1

 It was an unincorporated community, much like Falcon, Black Forest, Stratmoor Hills, Security/Widefield, the Broadmoor and others.

 It’s elementary school was founded in 1901 on land the Dorrs donated. At first, students studied in a two-room bungalow. Soon a second bungalow was added.

 Daniel Kennett was born in 1900 and went to Ivywild Elementary School in the bungalows.

ivywildclarawide

 His daughter, Clara, above, attended the “new” Ivywild, an impressive blond brick building opened in 1917 after the bungalows were moved. See if below.

ivywildfront

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 One of the bungalows was moved across the street and become the Ivywild Presbyterian Church and the other was moved to Ramona Avenue and now is Edelweiss Restaurant.

Clara graduated sixth grade in 1940 and moved on to junior high. Clara and her husband built a house in Ivywild in 1951 and sent their own two children, Dan and Mary, to the school, which had been expanded again.

But everything changes and that certainly true of Ivywild. And in this case, the change is not all for the better.

Over the years, Ivywild was surrounded by the city of Colorado Springs and eventually annexed in 1980 after a great commotion.

In addition, the Dorr ranchland and pastures gradually were transformed into neighborhoods, commercial properties like the motels along South Nevada Avenue and even into Motor City Drive north of Brookside Street.

In 2005, the neighborhood got a boost when the city transformed the Dorr’s old orchard and horse pasture into a neighborhood park, seen below with its restored Wishing Well.

ivywildpark

Here’s  a plaque placed next to the wishing well:

ivywildparkplaque

   Now, Ivywild is struggling.

 Ivywild Elementary did not open this fall.

 Seen here last week, it is vacant and up for sale.

 It’s playground empty.

No crossing guards helping children cross busy Tejon Street or Cascade. It was among several schools closed by Colorado Springs School District 11 due to poor enrollment.

ivywildsideshot.

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Ivywild suffered another blow when, on Sept. 13, the Ivywild Community Church - formerly the Presbyterian Church, shut its doors after 93 years.

Here’s a look at the church.

ivywildchurch

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                                                     The closures have Clara Robinson worried. She has watched South Nevada Avenue decay. ivywildclararobinsoncloseup

 

 She remembers when it was a family neighborhood where folks like Bob Isaac grew up to become longtime Colorado Springs mayor.

 

The Starsmore family lived there. And part of the Sinton dairy family, as well.

 

Today, it is a haven for drug dealers, prostitution, gang fights and problems associated with a heavy concentration of homeless.

 Same for Brookside Street. She fears it will creep into Ivywild and her little neighborhood.

 ”This was always such a nice, quiet, safe little neighborhood,” she said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen to it now.”‘

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LIKE A ROLLING STONE! Life below Pikeview Quarry

September 23rd, 2009, 4:14 pm by Bill Vogrin

pikeviewscar1

  Most people look out their back windows and, beyond the fence, can see into their neighbor’s kitchen or family room or bedrooms.

 Not true for folks in Oak Valley Ranch, a neighborhood tucked in the foothills between Mountain Shadows and Peregrine on Colorado Springs‘ northwest edge.

 Especially for families living on Front Royal, Coldwater and Hollandale drives.

 They back up to Castle Concrete Co.’s  Pikeview Quarry. Above is a 2001 photo of the quarry from The Gazette’s archives.

flintstonequarry05

 

 

 We’re not talking Fred Flintstone here, either. This is the real thing, visible for miles along Interstate 25, just south of the Air Force Academy.

 

 

Lately, Oak Valley Ranch residents have had front-row seats for dramatic landslides that have sent upwards of 2 million tons of limestone cascading down the mountainside.

pikeviewneighborhood

 The first slide occured Dec. 2, 2008, and dumped and estimated 1.5 million tons of limestone into the pit at the base of the cliff. The slide is obvious in the photo, above, taken the same day by The Gazette’s Carol Lawrence.

 But the mountain wasn’t done rockin’ and rollin’ yet. It let loose again Sept. 13 with a blast that sounded like thunder to neighbors who ran from their homes and ate dinner on their patios, watching as boulders the size of locomotives plunged down the cliff, dropping another 250,000 tons before it was done. 

Here’s a look at the two slides.

pikeviewclose

 Reader Chris Dorry posted on YouTube video of the slide that you can watch it on this link. At about the two minute mark, you’ll actually see landslide activity as rock breaks off and rolls. My friends at KOAA TV NewsFirst 5 also got some nice footage you can view here.

Here’s another cool video clip  that gives a great view of the landslide.

Here’s a photo of the action captured by neighbor Rob Hellem, who heard what he described as “rolling thunder” during dinner around 6 p.m. and looked out to see all heck breaking loose.

pikeviewhellem2

Experts say they expect further movement in the quarry.

M.L. “Mac” Shafer is vice president of Transit Mix Aggregates, which owns Castle Concrete and the Pikeview Quarry - a complex of about 100-mineable acres on a 190-acre tract.

 Transit Mix owned the Queens Quarry above the Garden of the Gods, which operated from about 1955 to 1989 and now has been reclaimed. The company also operates the Black Canyon Quarry behind Cedar Heights. And it has a sand mine along South Academy Boulevard.

Castle Concrete bought the Pikeview in 1969. It was operated for years by Peter Kiewit and Sons, Shafer said. It’s now known as Kiewit Western Corp.

Shafer said geologists agree that more landslides will occur. He said the limestone on the surface of the mountain sits on a layer of clay attached to the decomposed granite base that makes up Pikes Peak and much of the Front Range.

A year of steady snow and rain has saturated the limestone, coupled with the freeze-thaw cycle, caused it to slide, Shafer said.

On Feb. 12, federal Mine Safety and Health Administration officials issued five citations to Transit Mix and fined the company $2,564 for safety violations in connection with the slide. Shafer said the officials accused the company of mining too much of the base of the mountain, causing it to become unstable.

Since then, the company has been limited to removing its stockpiles of crushed limestone. The mine became more of a classroom for geologists and other scientists from around the world who have come to study the landslide.

After the Sept. 13 landslide, the mine has been shut down. Most of the stockpiles are exhausted. The conveyors of the rock crushers are sunning beds for bobcats. Deer and other wildlife are the only thing moving about in the mine.

Sophisticated laser sensors watch the mountainside, measuring it every few hours for any movement. Shafer said the company is developing a plan it hopes to present next June for possibly reopening the mine and finishing reclamation efforts.

Neighbors, meanwhile, are wondering if there’s any danger in rocks rolling into their backyards. Look at these bad boys hanging from the top of the latest slide. Shafer estimates the larger boulder on the right weighs at 20,000 tons! Like a locomotive perched on the mountainside.

pikeviewboulder

Shafer said such a disaster is not likely. Below is a look at the mine, prior to the landslides, from GoogleEarth. It shows the pit.

pikeviewgoogle2

For now, things are calm again. But, eventually, experts expect the mine to break loose again. They are especially watching a fault at the apex of the mine above the most recent slide. On a recent hike with a geologist, Shafer said he was able to actually look into the fault and see the spot where the limestone, clay and granite meet.

For now, the landslide have not destroyed all the reclamation efforts done over the past decade on the southern rim of the mine. More than 2,000 trees have been planted on the ledges of the mine by volunteers with the Colorado Mountain Reclamation Foundation.

pikeviewwide

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