I’d like to comment on two items recently appearing in the Daily Planet related to affordable housing at Diamond Ridge.

On Jan. 25 the Planet ran a commentary, by San Miguel County Commissioner Hilary Cooper titled, “Community,” in which, she tried skirting the issue by comparing those against Diamond Ridge to “mean girls” and shamelessly pulling her daughter into the fray. As usual, her comments were devoid of relevant facts, facts that would let the residents of San Miguel County understand in a material sense how Diamond Ridge will affect them. Reminiscent of another politician, “We have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it,” circa 2010.

The other article was written by Jason Blevins from The Colorado Sun. Unfortunately, Mr. Blevins didn’t refer to any of the potential impacts associated with Diamond Ridge, nor did he refer to any of the other less intrusive, less costly options for affordable housing sites inside the town of Telluride. Nor did he refer to the proposed 960 car, four-story structure in town to handle the anticipated immense amount of traffic. In a town which permits only 15 seconds of car idling time, what will be the environmental impact of cars waiting to enter and exit this superstructure?

As I dug into the specific subject of traffic, I learned that the current number of daily car trips on Last Dollar Road is approximately 300 per day. When fully built out the maximum allowable 780 units, per the rezone, based on the San Miguel County traffic study, Diamond Ridge will increase the number of car trips on Last Dollar Road by approximately 5,296 trips (an almost 1,800 % increase). Even at the initial 240 units, there will be approximately 1,630 additional trips (an increase of 543 percent). My issue is that the number of future car trips are not translated into something more useable like additional minutes to drive to Town or to school in the morning. Currently, it can now take up to 30 minutes or more to get to school from the subdivisions around the Telluride Airport, a distance of approximately 5.2 miles. My friends in Ophir say that on a school day, when driving to work, they are backed up to the entrance of Mountain Village. How much longer will it take them to get to work?

Moving on, how will all this traffic affect the environment — oh wait, they didn’t do an environmental study. How will adding 2,340 residents (approximately the size of the town Telluride) on the mesa and the related traffic, affect wildlife — oops, they didn’t do a wildlife study either.

After reading the above, how can anyone be expected to be in favor of a project when they don’t understand the impact on their daily commute, the impact on the environment, the impact on wildlife; the cost of providing water, sewage, schools and fire protection? And, those are only the known unknowns. The only thing that we do know for sure is the exorbitant impact fee in building costs to support this boondoggle. More importantly, how can anyone spend $7.2 million of other people’s money, buying a formerly unsalable plot of land, (previously listed at approximately $4.5 million), without understanding the costs or the ramifications. I guess, politicians don’t change much over time — they need to buy it and develop it, to find out what is in it.

Sincerely,

Harvey Roisman

Telluride