The intersection of South Tejon Street, West Cheyenne Boulevard, Cascade and Ramona avenues in Ivywild neighborhood south of downtown Colorado Springs is slated for a $1.5 million roundabout.

In most neighborhoods, installation of a roundabout at a busy intersection might spark some complaints by motorists unfamiliar with the configuration. Or it might be ignored.

Not in Ivywild, a working-class neighborhood south of downtown struggling to renew its homes and businesses against an onslaught of homeless who drift through from flophouse motels and low-rent apartments along South Nevada Avenue.

Folks in Ivywild are generally welcoming, even anticipating and celebrating a proposed $1.5 million roundabout — actually more of an oblong-about — planned for the goofy five-point intersection of Tejon Street, Cheyenne Boulevard, Cascade and Ramona avenues.

They don’t seem worried about some harmonic convergence of texting teens, truckers and bicyclists causing a traffic disaster.

Instead, they have visions of the roundabout helping improve Ivywild’s image.

The existing intersection is visible, left, on FlashEarth.com. An engineer’s conceptual drawing of the roundabout is on the right.

This is an early engineer’s concept for a smaller, more circular roundabout in Ivywild.

Some see it as a way to build on the momentum they expect once Mike Bristol of the Bristol Brewery and Joseph Coleman of the Blue Star restaurant complete their transformation of the Ivywild School into a hip new destination for beer- and food-lovers.

Others even envision it as a bit of a destination if they can turn it into a centerpiece for a major work of art.

Everyone will get a chance to see the plan and comment on it at a city-sponsored open house scheduled 5-8 p.m., Tuesday, at St. Aidan’s Anglican Church, 1626 S. Tejon St.

But I talked to folks in the neighborhood and most gave positive reviews.

Martin Harper, a certified public accountant whose office is in Ivywild, studies two engineer’s concepts for a roundabout at the intersection just outside his window. Harper welcomes the roundabout.

“I think it’s a good plan,” said Martin Harper, a certified public accountant whose business sits at the southeast corner of Cascade and Ramona. He has a perfect view of the intersection out his office window.

“There’s a lot of honking out there,” Harper said. “It’s a confusing intersection.”

Folks driving south on Tejon can turn hard right onto Cascade or make a sweeping right turn up Cheyenne or a soft left onto Cascade or a hard left onto Ramona.

That’s too many choices for folks chatting on cellphones, juggling Big Macs and fries and driving with their knees. Trust me. It’s so bad I spilled my Diet Coke!

Others in the neighborhood echoed Harper’s optimism about the oblongabout.

“I’m excited,” said Ethan Beute, an Ivywild activist. “My primary concern is whether or not our drivers are sufficiently comfortable executing a clean roundabout at a five-way intersection.”

Officials are confident motorists will adapt, just as engineers have gotten better at designing them.

“We have 64 or 65 roundabouts now,” said city engineer Mike Chaves. “Over the years, we’ve learned a lot about them, studied them and made modifications and built better ones.”

An early roundabout was built along Lake Avenue and it was not ideal, Chaves said. It was too small to accommodate some of the truck traffic that uses Lake to reach The Broadmoor hotel and resort.

“The Lake Avenue roundabout was a learning experience,” Chaves said. “From it we created design criteria. They have to be a certain size. If they are too small, they don’t work.”

The proposed Ivywild roundabout would be fairly long, eating into a corner of Harper’s property, cutting off a couple private driveways and biting off the end of a U-Haul Co. parking lot that sticks into the intersection.

The late artist Starr Kempf created amazing stainless steel wind sculptures that decorate his former home in Cheyenne Canon. Some Ivywild residents have wondered if the family might consider allowing one of them to become a centerpiece of the proposed roundabout.

Chaves said computer models predict it will accommodate heavy traffic flows without problem. And he likes it because it will eliminate traffic signals and cars sitting idle at red lights, a fact that qualified the project for $1.3 million in federal clean air grants. The city is contributing about $200,000.

The project, expected to begin next summer and take eight months to complete, will result in new sidewalks, curbs and gutters all around, filling in significant gaps in the existing infrastructure.

And Harper said neighbors are talking about ways to make the roundabout a focal point of Ivywild.

Some have even suggested approaching the family of the late sculptor Starr Kempf to inquire about acquiring one of his spectacular wind sculptures and erecting in the center.

“It’s just an idea,” Harper said. “I think it would look great.”

Certainly it would look better than the spiderweb of electric wires, power poles and the dozen or so traffic signals that now clutter the intersection.

Mike Bristol of Bristol Brewing and Joseph Coleman of Blue Star restaurant are transforming the closed Ivywild Elementary School into a hip place to enjoy beer and food.

========================

OBLONG-ABOUT WELCOMED IN IVYWILD is a post from: Side Streets

Ruby and Bennie Belton operated Restoration House Ministries just north of this sign on South Tejon Street in 2008-2011. They posed Nov. 8, 2011.

Ruby and Bennie Belton are not surprised by the furor that erupted in Ivywild recently around a proposal to house 30 men with histories of substance abuse — ex-convicts released on parole, men sentenced to probation, homeless vets and other self-referrals — in the Unida House sober-living facility on Cheyenne Boulevard.

A similar storm of public outcry enveloped Ruby and Bennie in 2008 when they proposed converting a halfway house for women, also in Ivywild, into a faith-based facility for men.

Bennie, a former prison minister, wanted to open Restoration House Ministries because he felt a spiritual calling to help.

This was home to Restoration House Ministries, which operated 2008-2011. Ruby and Bennie Belton opened the house to provide a faith-based facility for women leaving prison.

“I had great faith there could be deliverance,” Bennie said. “We were going to help them become responsible citizens, good husbands and fathers.”

But their dream changed abruptly when the protest reached the City Council, which sided with neighbors.

Ruby and Bennie reverted to a women-only facility,  eight at a time, and staffed it around the clock.

“We wanted to rehabilitate them,” Ruby said. “But the women had different agendas. Hidden agendas.”

Ivywild is a neighborhood south of downtown Colorado Springs and northeast of the Broadmoor area.

Ruby and Bennie soon discovered their clients had learned how to manipulate and lie — whether in prison, the county jail or simply by associating with other drug addicts and criminals.

“The Department of Corrections warned us about what we’d see,” Bennie said. “I was surprised to find they were right. It turned out they knew what they were talking about.”

The couple said many of the women had no intention of embracing the faith-based rehab offered at Restoration House.

“In my believing heart, I wanted to give them another chance,” Bennie said. “We were really taken advantage of.”

Some broke curfew, took drugs and snuck around in violation of rules.

“We were trying to do what Christ taught: help the least among us; those in need,” Bennie said. “But they used us. We were just an address to get them out of prison. We were a place to stay and food to eat until they could catch up with their old partners.”

A few women embraced the program and flourished. But not enough. Ruby and Bennie closed Restoration House in February.

They shake their head at the thought of nearby Unida House hosting 30 men.

“The neighbors have reason to worry,” Ruby said. “Thirty is a lot of men.

“I’d say have no more than 8 or 10.”

Bennie said it will take a large, trained staff to manage a house that large.

“How can you supervise that many people?” Bennie said.

He also has a request of Ivywild to compromise.

“I understand it scares them,” Bennie said. “But I hope the neighborhood recognizes there’s a need for this kind of facility. Both sides need to work together.”
Read more: http://www.gazette.com/articles/vogrin-128625-furor-ivywild.html#ixzz1e6e9NhJG

==========================================================

IVYWILD FUROR OVER HALFWAY HOUSES IS NOT NEWS TO RUBY AND BENNIE is a post from: Side Streets

In 2008, the Ivywild neighborhood south of downtown Colorado Springs erupted when a prison minister tried to convert a halfway house for women into a facility for men.

Opponents had visions of violent ex-cons — killers, sex offenders and drug addicts — moving to Ivywild fresh out of prison and terrorizing the neighborhood.

They didn’t believe the minister could handle 13 men or enforce rules of sobriety, curfews and Christian behavior.

The opposition was so vocal the City Council ignored the city planner, overturned the planning commission and sided with neighbors.

Men were out.

Now the issue is back.

If Tony Huerena gets his way, his Unida House on Cheyenne Boulevard would host 30 men with substance abuse problems on parole or probation.

Ivywild is erupting again.

It doesn’t matter Huerena’s 15-bedroom facility was a boarding house and then the Ray of Hope assisted living center for mentally ill adults for at least 30 years before it closed in 2007.

 Click here to watch as KOAA TV 5 walks through the facility with Huerena.

Neighbors don’t want ex-cons with substance abuse problems living there.

Especially now.

The neighborhood is trying to attract new residents and businesses after being rocked in recent years by the closing of its elementary school the loss of a historic church.

Unida House is located on Cheyenne Boulevard and critics say it is too close to the Family Life Services home for women and children to the south. They also worry it will hurt efforts to reopen the Ivywild Elementary School as a business center.

Even worse, homeless, prostitutes and drug dealers from South Nevada Avenue and Brookside Street seemed to be creeping deeper into Ivywild.

When accountant Martin Harper learned of the plan on the Ivywild Facebook page, he quickly contacted City Council members.

“This neighborhood has already been declared blighted by the city in an effort to make some improvements,” Harper said. “I don’t think bringing a bunch of convicts in with drug problems is going to help or prevent it from being blighted.”

A neighborhood meeting hosted by city planners left Harper and others more agitated.  Many walked out.

Unida House is an odd-shaped facility. It appears from the street to be a bungalow, built in 1945. But it has a U-shaped addition in the back which houses most of its 15 bedrooms. It has a community kitchen and bathroom.

They were shocked to learn Unida House has been open 18 months with five men, the maximum it can have and avoid supervision as a human services operation.

And they were upset city planner Mike Schultz had decided to recommend approval for 15 men to the City Planning Commission at a hearing scheduled Nov. 17.

“This seems to be taking the neighborhood in the wrong direction,” Harper said. “Are we going to improve the neighborhood or not?”

That sentiment echoed with every Ivywild resident I spoke to last week.

The message was heard at City Hall, too. Schultz told me late Thursday that he would ask the planning commission to postpone the case to allow more neighborhood meetings.

Heurena is disappointed but vows to push ahead.

“I just want to help people,” he said. “Maybe we can reach a compromise. Maybe the neighborhood would accept women instead of men. I’m willing to listen.”

In March 2008, I wrote this column about a proposed halfway house for men in Ivywild and then this follow-up column a few days later.

On May 11, 2011, I posted this blog about Ivywild and blight as well as this column.

Here’s a link to the 34-page application before the City Planning Commission.

==========================================================

IVYWILD FEARS EX-CONS WITH DRUG, BOOZE ISSUES is a post from: Side Streets

Ivywild is a neighborhood south of downtown Colorado Springs and northeast of the Broadmoor area.

Ivywild is a hard-luck neighborhood south of downtown Colorado Springs where folks have been struggling to combat encroaching blight and crime.

It’s been a working-class neighborhood for years. But recently it has suffered as a home to drug dealers, prostitutes, other criminals and homeless people.

It’s elementary school has closed and businesses have left as the neighborhood deteriorated.

In recent weeks, Ivywild has been declared blighted and qualified for an urban renewal designation, which would help spur economic revitalization by allowing tax revenue from future development to be used for public improvements.

One improvement residents want is the elimination of homeless camps like this one at South Cascade and St. Elmo avenues.

This pretty little creekside meadow actually is a homeless camp at South Cascade and St. Elmo avenues in Ivywild, south of downtown Colorado Springs.

The property is among 25 or so owned by On the Ivy, a company founded by developer Mark Morley, downtown club owner Sam Guadagnoli and real estate broker Robert Aertker.

On the Ivy amassed about 12 acres of land in Ivywild along Cheyenne Creek in 2007 with plans to develop an upscale urban region similar to Cherry Creek in Denver.

A closer look at a homeless camp in Ivywild, on property owned by On the Ivy development group. City code enforcement officers have been trying to close the camp since February.

But the economy went bust and all the big plans were shelved. Meanwhile, On the Ivy’s property in Ivywild continued to deteriorate.

Neighbors are upset because the homeless have dragged a lot of trash to the site and build fires in the brush.

Colorado Springs Code Enforcement officers have tried to clean up homeless camps in Ivywild, but Administrator Ken Lewis said On the Ivy has not cooperated with his team’s efforts.

In fact, Lewis said On the Ivy mostly ignores requests to cooperate.

Now, a small group of business owners including Martin Harper, a certified public accountant, is taking action. They are planning to clean up the worst of On the Ivy’s overgrown lots and try to keep the homeless from flopping there.

Neighbors are tired of the trash dragged to the area by homeless and they fear the fires they build at the camp.

And Lewis said he’s going to dedicate a couple of his team to working with Ivywild to address the blight.

Here's a view of On the Ivy's vacant lot at South Cascade and St. Elmo avenues in Ivywild. The photo is from FlashEarth.com.

I’ve written about Ivywild a couple times in recent years. Here’s a piece I wrote in 2009 after the Ivywild school closed. And this is the blog that accompanied the column.

A more controversial column was related to racist covenants filed with the original Ivywild development plans and attached to every property. Here’s the blog for that column with photos of the covenants.

For an in-depth story about developer plans for Ivywild, I recommend this excellent piece, published Aug. 3, 2008, by Gazette business writer extraodinaire Rich Laden.

=======================================================

IVYWILD IN THE TRENCHES IN BATTLE AGAINST BLIGHT is a post from: Side Streets

  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.

 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.

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

.

.

 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.

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

   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.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

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.

 .

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

. 

.

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

 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.”‘

=========================================

IVYWILD . . . R.I.P.? is a post from: Side Streets