- Vote the bums out in 2008
- A worrying court decision
- Progress toward a smoke-free environment
- Preserve Ruby Hill view plane
- Why so much turnover in mayor's office?
- Hearing on the Ruby Hill towers
- Let freedom ring
- Promoting socialized medicine
- Immigration Laws or Lack Thereof
- Atheist Diversionary Tactics
Preserve Ruby Hill view plane
This Speakout has not been edited
By Dave Burrell, Denver
The Planning Board has already ruled against this very proposal. Did they act improperly? Were they not given full information? No, the Planning Board did their job correctly. Denverites take the viewplane very seriously, and allowing a company to pierce it because they have the money to do so (and don’t want to spend pennies per ratepayer to do so) is ludicrous. We have very clear rules so that preferential treatment cannot be given. That’s why we make rules in the first place.
You may note that there are no overhead transmission lines in Country Club neighborhood. Where are they? Underground. Why do you suppose that is?
Perhaps it is because folks in Ruby Hill make something less than one third as much as their Country Club brethren.
Sounds like the story of the rich mouse versus the poor mouse. only in this case, our public utility is laying the trap. They’re certainly the ones with the cheese.
But it’s not just Ruby Hill at stake. If we further pierce the Ruby Hill viewplane, why not Cheesman Park’s? Why not Wash Park? Southmoor? Cranmer? DIA? Sloan’s Lake? If we do not pull together here, what right would these neighbors have for their own view planes?
This matter is being rushed through for nefarious purposes. Excel has not been “taken unawares” about this matter (summertime always comes right around now, after all), but the public certainly has. We currently have 2 vacant seats in Council and 1 outgoing Councilwoman, who just happens to represent the district in question. The Planning Board only weighed in last month, so why rush this ordinance through if not to disadvantage the near-neighbors? We need to have our new representative, Chris Nevitt, at the time when this momentous decision is made, and the two other new Council members should fill the ranks of the now-unrepresented districts.
A full and fair public hearing is required in this matter, and time should be given to consider it.
In the end, I hope you will preserve this viewplane and not stand silent as Denver loses its most precious resource. allowing the triumph of underhanded, unrepresentative, political posturing against the mountains views which symbolize Denver itself.