PlanCOS omits vagrancy issue, city officials told at meeting
 Although a full-group Q/A session was not part of the city's PlanCOS July open house agenda in the Westside Community Center, Holly Wright (right) and several others raised questions about vagrancy issues not being addressed in the plan. Listening on the stage are (from left) Colorado Springs City Councilmember Tom Strand, Conrad Olmedo of City Planning and Ted Skroback of City Communications. Westside Pioneer photo
|
“I feel like the city's ready to explode,” said one woman, who later declined to give her name but summarized that she lives on the Westside and has been assaulted and burglarized by vagrants. “If the homeless issue isn't taken care of properly, it will take away from the city's growth.”
Another woman, Holly Wright, who later identified herself as a mental-health nurse, asserted that the proliferation of homeless people is largely a result of past government decisions to cut back on beds and drug/alcohol treatment in mental hospitals. “These people are on the streets now, and we're paying for it,” she said during the exchange.
Another attendee brought up the lack of safety people feel when using parks and trails, because of illegal campers (which the city permits when not enough shelter beds are available). This scenario is not talked about in PlanCOS.
The exchange started a few minutes after Strand took the stage in the gym/auditorium at the Westside Community Center. He had been asked by Colorado Springs public relations staff to make introductory comments about PlanCOS, the city's first comprehensive plan revision since 2001.
The roughly 100 in attendance were mostly standing because, as a drop-in event - with poster boards set up to represent the draft plan's major categories - few chairs were provided.
As the questions persisted from below the stage, a city employee suggested that those concerned could talk to Strand off to one side, but the response came back that it would be better if everybody in the hall could hear the councilmember's responses.
From the stage, Strand said he understood the concern and had a meeting scheduled with the mayor and was going to bring up those kinds of issues.
As for homelessness and the PlanCOS document, Conrad Olmedo of City Planning told the audience that the matter is addressed in the “Vibrant Neighbor-hoods” category, in a goal that's titled “Housing for All.”
Here is the full text of that goal: “Strive for a diversity of housing types, styles, and price points distributed throughout our city through a combination of supportive development standards, community partnerships, and appropriate zoning and density that is adaptable to market demands and housing needs.”
The Pioneer later e-mailed Carl Scheuler of City Planning, one of the PlanCOS leaders, asking if he thought that the Housing for All goal addresses the vagrancy issue that was brought up at the meeting. Confirming a “high level of citizen comments on this topic,” Scheuler said he believed enforcement was the basic citizen concern and he would “suggest some limited language options” in the final version.
The Pioneer also followed up with Strand about the discussion with Mayor Suthers that he'd spoken of. Strand related that the mayor “said that he would relook at the options for assisting the homeless population and concentrate in doubling the low barrier shelter beds from 350 to approximately 700.”
“Low barrier” refers to a type of shelter-entry policy that does not turn people away over issues regarding drug or alcohol use.
PlanCOS, which Colorado Springs officials have described as a “vision” for the city's future, has been a work in progress since 2016. There were public meetings along the way, but July 18 was the first held on the Westside.
The draft plan can be found on the city website at coloradosprings.gov/plancos. The PlanCOS phone number is 385-7526.
Westside Pioneer article