Second meeting puts plan on fast track

By Linda Bell
Correspondent

About 130 Red Feather Lakes residents met Aug. 27 to put a new regional plan on a fast track. The group, representing the planning boundary interests, formed a steering committee and set a boundary for the area defined by the Red Feather Lakes Fire District.

A letter sent to all 1,100 residents on the fire district tax roll billed the gathering as a "kickoff planning meeting for Red Feather Lakes." The letter was signed by the presidents of the Red Feather Lakes Property Owners Association and Storage and Irrigation Co., which paid for the mailing.

The letter stated that with regards to future planning in the area, the POA board recommends that the fire district should define the area and only businesses and property owners within that district should determine the vision and goals of the area. The letter asked for active participation from all fire district residents in the planning process.

Ken Hagemann, POA president, moderated but pointed out this was not a POA or Storage and Irrigation meeting, but rather a community meeting of all residents to help bring structure to the planning process. Almost all present agreed some plan for future development in the area is a good idea, and they wanted to proceed.

They agreed that the core boundary for planning purposes should be the same as that of the fire district, with outlying areas beyond the boundary being recognized as areas of influence. Within that core area, Hagemann said, it is important to define the demographics of ownership: full-time residents, part-time residents, weekenders or "flatlanders" and business interests. He said any committee created to recommend planning should represent all those interests.

After a 10-minute break, during which half the residents went home due to the late hour, those remaining formed a committee to begin the process of planning with the county. Jack Reynolds, the appointed chair of the "steering committee for the planning for the Red Feather Lakes area," said this committee would present itself to the county at the meeting scheduled for Sept. 14 at 7 p.m. in the POA Building.

The nine committee members are Jack Reynolds, chair, owner of Hill Top General Store and a resident of Glacier View Meadows; Debra Hawkins, president of the Red Feather Historical Society and full-time resident; Susan Bradley, a representative of the largest land holder in the area; Gene Barker, longtime seasonal resident and builder; Gene Allen, a retired city planner and part-time resident; Lucille Schmitt, owner of Ponderosa Realty and a resident of Glacier View Meadows; Roger Svendsen, first vice president of the POA and a weekend resident; Dennis Frydendall, president of Storage and Irrigation and a seasonal resident; and JoAnn Haggen, a lawyer and weekend resident.

One full-time resident of Red Feather Lakes says she hopes the steering committee will begin to solicit everyone's opinion through some kind of poll so that people who aren't so vocal can have a say about boundaries, development and commercial growth.