Residents trying to stop townhome development in Evergreen

BY DEB HURLEY BROBST DBROBST@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Residents living near Hilltop Drive in Evergreen are frustrated that they are hitting walls as they try to stop a multifamily development proposed at the end of the road because of wild re-evacuation issues.

ey say county o cials want Evergreen Fire/Rescue’s concerns to stop the development that would put 47 townhomes on nearly ve acres, while the re department says Je erson County Planning & Zoning is the only entity that can stop it since it has the authority to approve or deny the development’s site development plan.

e developer, Blueprint Investment Fund, says he is happy to talk with residents about their concerns and wants to nd ways to keep the entire neighborhood safe. e primary issue for the residents is how narrow Hilltop Drive is, creating evacuation issues in case of a wild re, especially if more people would be living in the area. Residents say in the event of a wild re, there will be gridlock and potential loss of life while re apparatus moves in to ght the re. e county-maintained portion of the road is about 17 feet wide while the private portion, which starts at Fir Drive and goes east to the proposed development site, is between 13 feet and 17 feet wide, neighbors say. e county would need to determine whether to widen the public portion of Hilltop Drive.

According to Je erson County standards, in general, a road should be 20 feet wide with two-foot-wide shoulders on each side. e developer says it has easements from property owners along the private section of Hilltop Drive, thanks to a lawsuit, to widen the road to meet county standards, and it has agreed to put sprinkler systems into each townhouse.

Residents have urged the re department to write a more strongly worded letter to Je erson County Planning & Zoning detailing its concerns. ey said the re district’s letters to Je erson County so far have not done enough to detail issues with the road.

Fire department o cials say they have done everything they can for now in the county’s rst referral request for comments. e latest letter to the county explains their concerns about the road’s width, and it asks for more information about plans to improve the road to allow re apparatus better access.

In a sometimes emotional plea to the EFR re board on June 20, nearly 100 residents said the road was too narrow, and they feared for their lives if evacuation became necessary. e EFR board met again on July 5 to understand the issue, and to hear more about the department’s response to the county and the county’s development-review process. Representatives from the Evergreen Metro District, which would provide water and sewer plus re hydrants for the proposed development, also attended.

After listening to department o - cials, who said they also talked with county o cials about their concerns in addition to providing letters, the re board decided that at this point, the department has done everything it can to air its concerns. However, there may be additional opportunities if the proposal goes through more rounds of referrals. e decision is up to the Jeffco Planning & Zoning sta . Chris O’Keefe, planning director of Je co Planning & Zoning, said the proposal has completed its rst referral when his o ce sends information about the proposal to agencies that are impacted to get additional information and for the agencies to ask questions. He expected the proposal to go through several referrals before a decision is made.

The proposed development Blueprint Investment Fund has sent a proposal to Je erson County to build Hilltop Townhomes at the east end of Hilltop Drive, which is o the Evergreen Parkway frontage road north of Stagecoach Park. e land was zoned for multifamily homes in 1982, so rezoning is not required, which means no public hearings before the Planning Commission and the county commissioners.

Joseph Libkey Jr., owner of Blueprint Investment Fund, is proposing 1,800- to 2,000-square-foot townhomes with three bedrooms