If you are able, show up and support the appeal of the North Cheyenne Cañon Master Plan. The meeting is before City Council tomorrow, June 26th - at City Hall. 107 N. Nevada, downtown. It starts at 1pm although we are 12th on the agenda; so, they are estimating definitely after 2pm. You can just watch or sign up to speak out for 3 min. Some people will show up at 1pm to sign up to speak, and then return later. President Skorman also usually offers for others to speak. If that does not happen during citizen comment, you can raise your hand and ask. Everyone please send an email asking City Council to support the Appeal. Here is another example, but the email can be as short as: "Dear Council Members, please support the appeal." YOUR VOICE TRULY MATTERS. NOW IS THE TIME TO USE IT! Email: allcouncil@springsgov.com and copy: savecheyennemountain@gmail.com, zubeck@csindy.com, krdonews@krdo.com, mike.rausch@krdo.com, news@kktv.com, lmartin@kktv.com, news@koaa.com, kduffy@koaa.com, news@fox21news.com, jcole@kxrm.com, jpaul@denverpost.com, info@krcc.com, jim.alexee@sierraclub.org, friendsofcheyennecanon@gmail.com Dear Council Members, I am a rising Senior and President of the Student Body at Cheyenne Mountain High School. I have volunteered in North Cheyenne Cañon Park for the last 6 years. I grew up in the park and run it daily as well as hike it often. I know it about as good as anyone can, and because I have spent so many summers giving rock talks and educational tours at the Helen Hunt visitors center, I know it about as well as anyone can. My concerns with this plan are: 1. We do not need buses which pollute and further congest parks as people have to wait for buses to exit when they are done. So, you end up having many more people in the park due to the inconveniences of not being able to enter and exit immediately. The park is hardly full most of the year, and during the busy summer months, there are only 3 weekends when it gets busy and lots get full. Honestly, at those times, the trails are full, and we do not need more people crammed into the park ruining the experience for everyone. 2. Reconfiguring the South Cheyenne Canon. I run that area daily. Prior to the drying up of the creek, it was heavily used by low income, minority families who have come for generations to picnic here. Closing a road will push those families away as well as further congest the park and create a fire emergency exit hazard. The Broadmoor can use their land to load and unload their guests. All those picnic areas and the stream should remain for these families to continue to enjoy for free. Also, cutting down bunches of trees to make the parking lot bigger for the "Chamberlain Trail" will ruin the beauty of that area as well. The 2 existing parking areas are ample. They are rarely both full, and, when they are on those 3 holiday weekends (Labor Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day), then the park is too full, and visitors can come back another time. Also, you will hear that the entrance is confusing, and people do not know where to go. I have never seen this once, and I drive that road all the time throughout the year. Maybe add a sign, but I have never seen this purported stress at the entrance. 3. Charging fees for the park. This park should be free and open to the public. Taxpayers already pay for it. Charging fees discriminates against low income people. 4. Closing pull outs. This idea that there are lots of "shenanigans" at these pull outs is over-stated. And, frankly, if someone is going to engage in such behavior, they will just go find something else in the park to mess with...these pull outs are an important dispersement of cars and handicap or less athletic people will use them to stop for lunch and enjoy the park that way. Likewise, the night closure of the park is much more likely to attract more negative activity -- these people seek out dark places where they can do bad things undetected. Both the Hayman and Waldo Canyon fires were started in the middle of the night....no one there to disrupt. Night traffic in the park curbs these activities. Park police is the answer to any shenanigans, day or night. 5. Commercializing the park with virtual reality tours, hanging bridges and the like really changes the experience. This is a natural, wild open space where people enjoy being immersed in nature. We have rock talks and interpretive displays to discuss the history of the park. Having a bunch of kids wandering around with headsets on kind of seems to defeat the purpose of recreating outdoors not to mention that technology is expensive and breaks, requiring ongoing maintenance. Disney World is a great place for those experiences. The plan is too vague with too many opportunities to implement these very expensive items. Real studies should be done to identify problems first. Then those issues are shared with the public in real public processes and solutions are discussed. That is how most parks do it. Also, most parks are restricting access not trying to expand it. I was turned away from Hanging Lake last summer after a 2 hour drive because the new daily visitor limit had been reached. That is life. Sometimes it just does not work for everyone at every moment in time. I also climbed Half Dome last summer --- had to get a permit to do that also --- only 200 people per day on that trail. When you over crowd, you damage the trails and ruin the experience for everyone. The biggest problem, traffic wise, is the 7 Falls buses stopping in the middle of the road to load and unload passengers. One bus will be stopped and another or a service truck leaving 7 Falls will swerve around it. Cars get backed up waiting for passengers to load and unload. They can do this on their own land. Please support the appeal. Let's do this one right. Thank you, Ariana Arenson