Eric A. Johnson
January 9, 2001
Laurie Mathews Director,
Colorado State Parks
1313 Sherman Street, Room 618
Denver, CO 80203Dear Laurie Mathews,
I am writing on behalf of Citizens for Eldorado Canyon and People for Eldorado Mountain with respect to the current Pinnacle Towers rezoning application in Jefferson County to develop a regional supertower and antenna consolidation site on Eldorado Mountain, adjacent to Eldorado Canyon State Park. We hereby request that the State Parks Board draft and approve a resolution that upholds and reasserts the statutory obligation of Colorado Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation to protect, preserve and enhance the State Park lands and, with respect to Eldorado Canyon State Park, to declare and insist that industrial uses such as telecommunication supertowers, antenna farms and open-pit mining on adjacent properties are incompatible with, and harmful to the recreational and conservational uses of such state lands. We are extremely concerned that, if Jefferson County approves the Pinnacle Tower proposal, the resulting supertower and antenna farm would cause permanent and irreparable harm to Eldorado Canyon State Park. We outline our concerns below:
1) The antenna farm and 450 foot-tall towers daytime with white strobe lights would be a major visual eyesore and a permanent blight on the visual panorama of the park and surrounding land. The proliferation of large artificial metallic structures would be brazenly incompatible with the existing forest and rock formations that characterize the canyon and make it a world-class outdoor recreation area. We urge the State Parks Board to consider the permanent visual impacts of the proposed antenna farm on the State Park and surrounding natural lands, and take appropriate measures to try to protect the park against such damaging visual intrusion.
2) The high energy Radio Frequency fields caused by the hundreds of antennae at the proposed consolidation site may vastly diminish some State Park land for any recreational purposes. State Parks should request that Pinnacle Towers pay for a neutral third-party evaluation of the projected maximum RF fields in the Park both in the Inner Canyon and in the Jefferson County portions. We request that Board ensure the integrity of the park by not allowing any State Park land to be used for industrial buffering purposes. Such a use of State Park land would possibly violate the Recreation and Public Purposes Act under which the former BLM land was transferred to Eldorado Canyon State Park.
3) Eldorado Canyon State Park is a well-known breeding site for prairie falcons and the surrounding lands host some of the largest numbers of breeding and migratory birds in Colorado, including a number of species of threatened raptors. We urge the parks board to adopt a resolution that addresses the potential dangers to breeding and migratory birds and enhances the protection of such wildlife that live in the canyon or are attracted to the area because of the sanctuary offered by the State Park and adjacent protected open space land.
Citizens for Eldorado Canyon/People for Eldorado Mountain Page 2/2
4) Pinnacle Towers will need an easement for access to their property that will cross the State Park in Jefferson County. The easement will probably require an expansion of existing rights held previously by the former site owner. Pinnacle may also need to develop structures for high-tension power lines using the easements. We further urge that only strictest, most minimal access be granted with no improvements to the existing road across State Park land, until such time that Pinnacle proves it has obtained County rezoning and all required Federal and State permits, and not before.
5) The Pinnacle Tower development would create a major unprecedented industrial land use adjacent to the State Park that would essentially encourage other incompatible industrial land uses on other adjacent property and further endanger the recreational and conservational uses of the State Park. As local residents and park stewards, we believe that supertowers, antenna farms, and large-scale mining operations are incompatible with Eldorado Canyon State Park. Moreover, Jefferson County has ruled on two occasions that aggregate mining on properties adjacent to Eldorado Canyon State Park was incompatible with land uses in the area. The State Parks Board should take measures to encourage consistent and compatible long-term land uses in the lands surrounding Eldorado Canyon State Park and should not encourage antenna farms and aggregate pits on adjacent properties.
The Board of Parks and Recreation has a history of protecting and enhancing the state property and regional natural resources in the Eldorado Springs area. Eldorado Canyon State Park was founded in 1978 after the State Parks Board requested that the legislature condemn the land and create a park in an action that prevented the inner canyon from becoming a huge aggregate quarry; again, in 1987 the State Parks Board passed a unanimous resolution to oppose the expansion of the Conda rock quarry on the east face of Eldorado Mountain, to halt damage to the state land and the enhance the State Park. These past actions of the State Parks Divisions that are mentioned in the 1987 Park Management Plan are consistent with the statutory mandate to protect and enhance Colorado's natural and scenic outdoor recreation areas.
We strongly encourage the Parks and Recreation Board to fulfill the public trust by drafting and approving a resolution that is consistent with the statutory obligation of the Division of Parks and Recreation to protect, preserve, and enhance the State Park. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Eric A. Johnson
Citizens for Eldorado Canyon
People for Eldorado MountainCC:
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State Parks Board Members
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Gene Schmidt, Regional Manager
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Dan Weber, Manager
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Greg Walcher, Director
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Brad Cameron,
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Representative Tom Plant, District 13
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Representative Alice Madden, District. 14
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