SIDE STREETS: Vacant land isn't always open space, neighbors learn the hard way

Repeat after me: the unmarked vacant lot down the street is private property, not public open space.

Doesn’t matter if your kids played there for years. Or you hike it daily. Somebody probably owns it and may build on it someday.

That hard lesson has been taught repeatedly in Colorado Springs. Class is in session again in Austin Heights and Park Vista Estates, neighborhoods north of Austin Bluffs Parkway near Barnes Road.

It’s where Randy Scholl owns 12 acres of vacant land at the end of Cedarmere Drive. He has asked the city to annex his land so he can build 27 custom homes.

Folks all around assumed his land was their private “open space.”

Now, they’re pitching a fit.

A few in Austin Heights are mad they may see homes out their back windows instead of just mountain views.

The far bigger outcry is from Park Vista, a 385-acre unincorporated enclave of homes on half-acre lots on the south of Scholl’s project.

Most Park Vista residents are on city water. And they rely on city emergency services and fire protection.

Without paying city taxes.

(I wonder why all of Park Vista isn’t being annexed.)

They are howling because the city and those pesky emergency services folks want Scholl to build two access points. So he proposed extending Copper Drive north into his 27 homes.

Neighbors make it sound as if Scholl is going to run a highway into Park Vista.

“We don’t object to his development or his annexation,” said Marilyn Morgan, Park Vista spokeswoman. “We just don’t want him to have access to our streets. We don’t want to be connected to Austin Ridge.”

She said it’s a safety issue on Park Vista's narrow roads.

“Our streets don’t have sidewalks and curbs,” she said. “We walk in our roads. Kids play in our roads. Where he wants to connect there’s a blind curve. Our streets won’t be safe.”

She also believes Scholl’s project will flood Park Vista.

“We’re just a little sleepy-town neighborhood,” Morgan said. “We like it that way.

“We feel our lifestyle will be different with a lot more cars on our streets. It’s an infringement on us in the county. We don’t want it.”

So neighbors have bombarded city planners with protest letters, packed public hearings and even hired a drainage engineer to argue against the project.

Scholl is redesigning it to avoid using Copper Drive. He will lose a few lots. But he’s willing to try to appease the neighbors. Still, he’s discouraged at the opposition.

“I understand their frustration at having a little more traffic,” Scholl said.

“But two access points benefits everyone. And I’d improve their intersections. Make their road safer. But they don’t care.”

Not all developers would care what neighbors think.

Many would build what they wanted and say: That is not open space. It’s private property. My property.

It’s a good lesson to learn.

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