Aspen Ridge on Council agenda Thursday August 23

The council meeting has been postponed until 6 p.m. Thursday August 23, 2007, to allow people to attend the Hoover family funeral.


Everyone who uses South Duncan Avenue, 11th Street and Hill Avenue between 6th Street and 15th Street is invited to share comments and concerns about the Aspen Ridge Townhome project by e-mailing aubreyshepherd@hotmail.com or logging onto
http://aubreyshepherd.blogspot.com/
and entering a comment or by e-mailing or calling the council members:
council members.


Information collected will be offered to the Fayetteville City Council when it again considers renewing the Aspen Ridge permit to resume building whenever the developers choose, as long as it begins at least a few minutes before midnight June 29, 2008. What do they need to do and/or promise before getting approval? Post a big bond? When work stopped in 2006, numerous problems existed and most remain or have worsened.

For details of some of the neighbor's concerns listed below and others, please visit
http://www.aubunique.com/blog/
and
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7295307@N02/ Aspen Ridge set of photos and Town Branch Watershed set.

Some of the concerns about which neighbors seek assurance:

1 When construction resumes, the developers need to SUPERVISE TRUCKS entering and leaving the site to control speed and see that loads ARE COVERED and tires ARE NOT CARRYING mud onto newly paved Duncan Avenue and 11th Street and to-be-extended 12th Street, as well as Hill Avenue and 6th Street. Police have limited power to enforce the covering of loads because state law is weak. City needs strong ordinance.

2 Before approval, developers must meet or exceed STORMWATER regulations in such areas as
Repairing silt fences
Completing stormwater entrances
Planting NATIVE grass, shrubs and trees to reduce erosion
Making RAINGARDENS of most of the retention/detention ponds
Increasing holding CAPACITY of retention/detention ponds
Preventing any increase in stormwater flow east of the extension of Brooks Avenue and 12th Street into the so-called Soup Branch that flows along the southern broundary of World Peace Wetland Prairie and the northern edge of private property on 12th Street and under S. Duncan Ave. to the Town Branch behind the Stanley Sullins on on Duncan.

3 Increase size of protected area around trees currently at risk. Allow dead trees to remain at least until construction is complete to provide habitat for species that utilize them. http://www.und.nodak.edu/org/ndwild/oldtree.html

4 Check elevations all over the site and correct them to eliminate building above the level of adjacent property and creating flooding threat to lower and downstream property.

5 Restore the appropriate absorbent soil (preferably the original soil) to the areas of the small area dedicated as a city park immediately north of World Peace Wetland prairie. Water should be encouraged to soak into that land as it formerly did and its elevation be no higher or lower than that of the north end of World Peace Wetland Prairie.

6 Recreate te TURNAROUND at the east west end of 12th Street that residents, mail carriers, utility workers, visitors, and emergency personnel used for decades.

7 Fill the ditch created last year along the west side of the extension of Brooks Avenue to prevent water from the northwest side of the Pinnacle Prairie from being routed to the storm drains but allow it to soak in or be routed directly across the street to the eastern Pinnacle Prairie acreage abutting World Peace Wetland Prairie. This land is not suitable for curb and gutter. The deep dig for the street already may have interrupted the underground flow eastward. The trail or sidewalk along Brooks should allow for ground and surface water to move eastward to the nature park.
The northernmost storm drain should be routing flow only from it the street itself, while water from the west should somehow pass through the street to the eastside prairie. Water from the factory portion of Pinnacle Foods' property must be directed to the storm drain but not encouraged to flow any faster than it did before the street dig was created. The native grass and other vegetation is critical to Pinnacle Foods' effort to release only high-quality stormwater from its property.
The Pinnacle Prairie, considered in relation to World Peace Wetland Prairie, is extremely important to the health of populations of birds and other native species.

8 Make Don Hoodenpyle's driveway passable in all weather from S. Duncan Ave. and 11th Street.

9 Build a sound barrier along the railroad on the western portion (Phase 2 in the original plan) and plant trees on both sides of the barrier to reduce erosion and further muffle sound from the railroad.

10 Build the trail across Phase I from the railroad trestle to Hill Avenue. Clear out the railroad tunnel from the trestle to the unpaved portion of Indian Trail on the west side of the railroad. Plant native hardwood trees and native grass and shrubs along both sides of the trail. The railroad should be responsible for removing the dumped creosote rail ties from the entry because their presence in the riparian zone of the Town Branch is a federal EPA violation as well as state ADEQ violation and a pollution threat to the Beaver Lake watershed.