Here are my comments for the City Council today:
Good afternoon,
For the last three years I have been asking the City to tell us the estimated cost of the needed repairs on the section of the Barr Trail that we acquired in the land swap. My understanding is that if the appraisal submitted by the Broadmoor is off by 20% or more, it is invalid. That land was appraised at $1.3 million, and 20% of that is $260,000.
I did some research on the internet and we will have to pay between $200,000 and $400,000 just to replace the fence on that land. The other needed repairs amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars more. The City may not refuse to discuss these repairs publicly. The appraisal submitted by the Broadmoor is absolutely invalid, and all land that was exchanged must be returned to its original owners.
I am demanding that the Manitou Incline be put on a reservation system before the summer season begins. There are far too many people coming down from the Incline on the Barr Trail.
During the public comment process conducted by the Task Force we were led to believe that this problem would be fixed by constructing an alternate route down from the Incline. Even if the approval process was initiated today, a new route down could not be completed for at least three more years. The Incline has been legally open for six years, I cannot understand why we have not even decided on route for this trail. At this point I must ask if such a trail is even feasible.
There are four times more people hiking the Incline now, than there were in the days of the Task Force, there is no excuse for the lack of good management. Please do not allow the excessive numbers of people to hike the Incline for another year.
Last summer I asked this Council to investigate the variance in the fire code that has been applied to the summit house project. This variance allows 1031 people to be in the building at a time, instead of the usual 676 for a building of its size. What have you learned? Does the summit house actually meet the requirements for this variance? If a mistake was made this would render the entire public comment process invalid.
Has the Federal Government complained to the City that the design and positioning of this summit house harms the intelligence value of the mountain? Did Steve Bach and others intentionally plan this in order to hijack the energy of the mountain for the benefit of a few?