A UH-60 Black Hawk takes off in Gypsum in this March 28, 2011, file photo by Christan Murdock.

 Last week, the Army warned that a helicopter brigade will arrive soon at Fort Carson to begin high altitude training before deploying to Afghanistan.

It’s routine for units to visit Fort Carson for two or three months to practice touch-and-go landings and other things with their choppers.

This alert, though, came with an invitation which caught my eye.

Anyone who encounters unreasonable noise was invited to call Fort Carson.

Army officials say they are serious about enforcing their “Fly Neighborly” program on visiting brigades and especially when a new combat aviation brigade is established next year at the post with 113 helicopters.

“Soldiers need to train,” said Dee McNutt, Fort Carson spokeswoman. “But we need to be good neighbors, too.”

That means keeping helicopters within established flight corridors as they zip up Ute Pass and Gold Camp Road area to train in the Pike National Forest, or as they fly down the Highway 115 corridor to visit a couple dozen recently approved Bureau of Land Management sites near Canon City, or as they head over to the Pinon Canon Maneuvering Site northeast of Trinidad.

It means keeping the choppers at minimum heights to avoid buzzing cattle or campgrounds or neighborhoods and unduly upsetting folks.

Follow this link to the Army’s environmental assessment of the Combat Aviation Brigade and the impact of locating it at Fort Carson. It discusses noise issues in chapter 4.4 beginning on page 67.

Longtime Colorado Springs peace activist Bill Sulzman

One skeptic is Bill Sulzman, a longtime Springs peace activist who opposes military expansion in the region and has campaigned against the permanent chopper bridge.

Sulzman doubts the Army’s sincerity, or their ability to control pilots, when it promises to mitigate noise.

“I think it’s lip service,” Sulzman said, noting that Fort Carson is under pressure to avoid upscale neighborhoods like the Broadmoor as well as Cheyenne Canyon State Park just west of the post.

UH-60 Black Hawk trains in Eagle in a March 28, 2011, gazette file photo by Christian Murdock.

But McNutt insists her community relations office works hard to reach out to neighbors to solve noise issues. And it stands ready to respond to future issues related to the helicopters.

“We have a lot of helicopter units come through,” she said. “Sometimes issues may arise. If we’re flying over people and it’s causing difficulties, we want to know about it.”

She said neighbors experiencing chronic noise often are invited to the post to meet with the unit to describe what they are hearing and try to solve the problem.

It’s especially important for neighbors to speak up as the permanent new aviation brigade settles in at Butts Army Airfield, McNutt said. Once pilots learn the region, she predicts a great relationship.

“They’ll know the flight corridors better and it will be easier to work with our neighbors,” she said.

In the meantime, jot down the number — 719-526-9849 — and don’t be shy about calling.

Fort Carson Butts Army Airfield

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CHOPPERS INCOMING BUT FORT CARSON PROMISES PEACE AND QUIET is a post from: Side Streets

Joyce Cheney and her dog, Poodles

Joyce Cheney, seen here with her dog, Poodles, loves to hike.

She especially enjoys the Mount Manitou Incline and Barr Trail in Manitou Springs, as well as Section 16 and Waldo Canyon.

Of course, those are four of the most popular trails in the region.

Cheney wishes they got a little less use from members of the military who regularly go on training runs on those same trails.

Cheney said she regularly sees soldiers from Fort Carson and Air Force Academy cadets on the trails.

It bugs her.

Why, she asks, can’t they train on the thousands of acres set aside for them?

“I wish they’d train somewhere else,” she said. “These are public recreational trails. They have thousands of acres of base land available to train on.”

Isn’t it bad enough we have to share them with every Texan who wanders into town? (OK, the Texan crack is my smart-mouth remark, not Cheney’s words.)

And something else really bugs her. Some of the military smoke. And, she said, they drop cigarette butts on the trails. Even lit butts!

Dropping cigarette butts on trails is not cool. Doesn’t matter who you are, military or civilian. It’s like letting your dog drop something on the trail. It’s just wrong.

And lit butts are dangerous. Stupid and dangerous.

I was shocked at the idea soldiers and cadets are puffing and dropping butts after a 10-mile jaunt up Barr Trail. So I called a trails expert, Susan Davies, executive director of the Trails and Open Space Coalition, to see how bad the situation really is.

She said it’s true our friends in the military, when they aren’t risking their lives for us halfway around the world, do like to run our trails.

“But so what?” Davies said.

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Davies added that the military doesn’t just run the trails, they volunteer regularly to perform trail building and maintenance.

Here’s proof: Air Force cadets with picks and shovels building trail in Red Rock Canyon Open Space and collecting trash along the Pikes Peak Greenway downtown Colorado Springs.

Air Force Academy cadets perform trail maintenance in Red Rock Canyon Open Space on April 2, 2011. Photo courtesy the Trails and Open Space Coalition

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Air Force Academy cadets perform trail maintenance in Red Rock Canyon on April 2, 2011. Photo courtesy the Trails and Open Space Coalition.

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THIS IS A PUBLIC TRAIL, SOLDIER. BUTT OUT! is a post from: Side Streets

Stratmoor Hills is an unincorporated neighborhood of 540 homes built in the 1950s & ’60s on a hilly tract outside the entrance of Fort Carson just south of Colorado Springs. 

Of course, Fort Carson just keeps growing. The mountain post is home today of 26,500 soldiers. 

Of those, about 7,000 are deployed. The 1st Brigade Combat Team is in Afghanistan. Elements of the 43rd Sustainment Brigade and 71st Ordinance Group are in Iraq. The 4th Infantry Division headquarters is in Tikrit and the 10th Special Forces Group is working in Mosul. 

But soldiers are returning. About 2,000 are expected to return by September, mostly 4th Infantry folks. 

Then, in 2013, the post will grow some more with the arival of a new combat helicopter brigade with 2,800 soldiers. By 2014, the post will host 30,000 troops. 

And they all gotta live somewhere. That’s where Place Properties of Atlanta comes in. Since 1995, Place has developed 33,000 beds nationwide. At first, it specialized in college housing. But in recent years it has gotten into military housing with a twist. 

Instead of just renting apartments, Place will rent rooms — private rooms and bathrooms — targeting soldiers who are subject to quick deployments. 

Artist's rendering of Independence Place at Cheyenne Mountain

Now, Place wants to build Independence Place at Cheyenne Mountain, a $30 million, 240-unit complex on Venetucci Boulevard on 16 acres across from World Arena. 

It would resemble a similar complex at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas. 

Entrance to Independence Place at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas.

About four years ago, Place began planning to spend $30 million to build Independence Place  in Fountain, on the east edge of Fort Carson. But it never got built. 

Now it’s eyeing land that fell into foreclosure after developer Ray Marshall defaulted on it. 

At Independence Place, most utilities are included in the rent, so there are no steep utility deposits. At the Fort Benning Independence Place project, rents range from $558 per bedroom in a four-bedroom unit up to $875 for a one-bedroom unit. 

Floor plans for an Independence Place four-bedroom unit at Fort Hood. Each unit includes a community living area, kitchen and laundry plus a private, locking bedroom and bathroom for each resident.

Each bedroom has its own bathroom, and the units can come furnished. The developments are gated and feature a clubhouse, fitness center, computer rooms, game rooms and swimming pools. Like most apartment complexes, it will have a clubhouse, pool, volleyball court, and basketball court. 

 Place already has built ”Independence Place” complexes for Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas, Fort Sill in Lawton, Okla., Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, Fort Stewart in Hinesville, Ga., Fort Benning in Columbus, Ga., and Goodfellow AFB in San Angelo, Texas. 

Approximate boundaries of the 16-acre Independence Place at Cheyenne Mountain project.

Folks in Stratmoor Hills are not thrilled about the prospect of Independence Place in their backyard. 

They view it as a big party place. An “animal house” fraternity type place. 

That’s certainly not what developer Fred Abrahamson envisioned when he bought 800 acres from Sinton Dairy Farm in 1955 and began designing his suburban utopia. 

He wanted custom homes on big lots. Houses would be a minimum 1,400 square feet and use stone or brick in their construction. 

To attract high end buyers, he built a nine-hole golf course and a private swimming pool for the neighborhood. And he developed a water and sanitation district to serve the area. 

But things have change dramatically since then. Stratmoor Hills has lost its exclusivity, its golf course and its pool. The pool was filled in 1978 and the clubhouse converted to a private home in 1983. And a strip club now occupies the old golf course clubhouse on B Street. 

The Stratmoor Hills Swimming Pool was on Catalina Circle until closed in 1978. The pool was filled in and the clubhouse converted to a home in 1983. It sits in the shadow of a water tower in this Google Earth image.

The neighborhood plans to ask the El Paso County Commission to reject plans for Independence Place at Cheyenne Mountain when the project comes up at its Thursday meeting. 

Read the 100-page packet of materials submitted to the El Paso County Planning Commission. 

I wrote about the Independence Place project in 2009 when it was planned for construction in Fountain. 

Here’s a link to the Independence Place complex near Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas. 

INDEPENDENCE PLACE OR ANIMAL HOUSE? is a post from: Side Streets

 

Tami West in her backyard in Pioneer Village in Rancho Colorado subdivision south of Colorado Springs in 2005. By Carol Lawrence, the Gazette file

Tami West doesn’t mind living on a desert. After all, Rancho Colorado isn’t much different with its barren sand hills, arroyos and cactus.

Howeer, she doesn’t want to live on a desert island. But that’s kind of how it feels to her.

She says the Army and El Paso County are turning the 50 or so homeowners in Pioneer Village, in the north section of the rural subdivision south of Colorado Springs on the Pueblo County border.

The county, acting on behalf of the Pentagon, is buying vacant land in Rancho Colorado. Since 2005, it has bought about 120 lots and 937 acres at a cost of $4.1 million. Generally, it pays about $3,000 an acre.

The idea is to stop development on the edges of the post and create a 1.5-mile buffer zone around Fort Carson. Here’s a look at the property purchased to date.

Officials say 30 million old tires are buried up to 35 feet deep at a 58-acre dump in Midway, near Rancho Colorado subdivision. This is a September 2010 Gazette photo.

Rancho Colorado sits behind the sprawling 553-acre Waste Management landfill, and the 58-acre dump where 30 million old tires are buried, as well as the 76-acre Black Hills Energy plant with its network of high-voltage powerlines and near the 200-acre Pikes Peak International Raceway track.

And it is snug up against the southeast edge of Fort Carson. And just a half-mile from its artillery range.

Can you say Ka-BOOM!

Here’s another map of the neighborhood:

Here’s a story we ran in 2005 as the county embarked on the program.

And here’s a link to a website talking about other efforts to create a buffer zone using conservation easements and working in concert with the Nature Conservancy.

Follow this link to an Army website talking about the buffer zone project. On the site, click on the link to “Army Compatible Use Buffers.”

RANCHO COLORADO RESIDENTS AFRAID OF BECOMING DESERT ISLAND is a post from: Side Streets

Folks in Stratmoor Hills, an unincorporated  neighborhood sandwiched between Fort Carson and Colorado Springs aren’t the complaining type.

Stratmoor Hills in a 2009 photo by The Gazette's Carol Lawrence

They are used to living on the doorstep of the massive Army post and for decades have put up with the inconveniences of heavy traffic, payday loan and pawn shops, as well as strip clubs that cluster just outside the gates.

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But they are unhappy about Fort Carson’s plans for a new railroad spur that will run 4,200 feet into their neighborhood, past their Stratmoor Hills Elementary School.

Here’s a look at preliminary plans from FlashEarth.

The spur is part of a $14 million project by the Army Corps of Engineers to expand the 70-acre Fort Carson railyard by adding five to eight spurs to quicken the deployment of troops.

The spur planned for the neighborhood would run along existing tracks, which connect to the main line along Monument Creek. It would allow the Army to temporarily store 44 rail cars during a loading/unloading process.

Neighbors fear the Army will store cars on the spur routinely, attracting graffiti vandals and forcing neighbors to look at the cars, which run 95 feet each in length.

The Army promises no cars will be parked on the spur more than 24 hours and the spur will actually shorten the amount of time cars in in the neighborhood now.

Plus, the Army said it will be safer for children going to school because it will build a new pedestrian overpass and close an existing foot path over the tracks.

Here’s a briefing paper the Army prepared for the neighborhood. However, plans have changed significantly since it was drafted. For example, a second spur into the neighborhood, mentioned in the plan, has been dropped.

In May, the Army is expected to begin an environmental impact assessment related to the project.

 Fort Carson spokeswoman Dee McNutt said that is the best time for neighbors to voice their concerns about the project. She said public comment is a major component of the assessment and taken very seriously.

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Railroad expansion spurs criticism is a post from: Side Streets

Lila Ray is proof that one person can make a big difference in a neighborhood. Here’s a photo of her taken by KOAA-TV at the Aug. 4 block party she organized as part of the National Night Out events.

Ray got tired of drug dealers and criminals hanging out in her modest neighborhood just off B Street at the north gate to Fort Carson.

Below is a look at the area from www.FlashEarth.com

 So Ray asked an El Paso County Sheriff’s Department deputy how to start a Neighborhood Watch group. She was put in touch with the Crime Prevention unit and before long, she was hosting a watch group, passing around petitions and organizing a clean up effort in hopes of establishing a neighborhood park.

On Aug. 4, she organized a block party to coincide with  National Night Out festivities around the region.

Here’s a video report  KOAA produced at the party.

Here is a link to a previous Side Streets blog about Neighborhood Watch efforts in Colorado Springs.

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ONE PERSON CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE is a post from: Side Streets