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Gold Camp Road news https://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=12496	Page 1 of 1

Author:	bobyar2001 [ Wed Mar 09, 2005 11:18 pm ]
Post subject:	Gold Camp Road news
News about the onetime Colorado Springs & Cripple Creek District line out of Colorado Springs. It has been an auto road since the RR closed in the 1920s. Update on the CS&CCD roadbed debate Tom in Monument Bucking its own employees' advice, the Colorado Springs City Council recommended Tuesday that Gold Camp Road be opened for only a limited time to motor vehicles. A divided council got behind a plan written by the Trails and Open Space Coalition that one-way traffic be allowed on the mountain road Sundays through Tuesdays. Hikers and bikers should have the run of the long-closed road the other four days of the week, it said. The council's decision is a recommendation to the U.S. Forest Service, which has the final say and favors reopening it to oneway traffic seven days a week from April to November. But the council is considered the most influential group to make a recommendation, and members hope it will carry substantial weight. "There isn't a way to make everybody happy," Councilman Jerry Heimlicher said. "It's only fair to try to make it open to as many motorists as possible and as many hikers and bikers as possible." The topic has been hotly debated since last April, when the Forest Service said it was considering reopening the road, closed since a tunnel collapse in 1988. In the past 17 years, it has been a refuge for outdoor lovers who consider it a respite. The city parks and recreation advisory board recommended last month that the tunnel be fixed and traffic be permitted three days a week. That opinion clashed with that of the city's parks and recreation staff, which sided last month with the Forest Service. The council was just as divided as other officials had been. Vice Mayor Richard Skorman and council members Heimli- cher, Scott Hente and Randy Purvis favored opening the road to motor vehicles three days a week. Mayor Lionel Rivera and Councilman Tom Gallagher called that unfair to motorists and backed seven days of driving. Darryl Glenn said he didn't have enough information to back either plan, while Margaret Radford and Larry Small left the meeting before the recommendation was made. "I remember when the road was open to cars," Gallagher said. "I hiked alongside vehicular traffic. Pedestrians and cars co-existed." Gold Camp Road leads to an unpaved drive that extends west to Cripple Creek. The section that's closed is an 8Â½-mile road that begins in the Broadmoor area. Before making its recommendation, the council heard more than an hour of wideranging suggestions from hikers, senior citizens and residents with cabins nearby. West-side resident Walter Lawson called the road an "experience of serenity" and said it should stay closed because motorists can drive on other area mountain roads. Russ Chapman, 79, asked for it to be open at least part of the time so he and others who can't hike the path still can see the beauty of the area. Jim Lockhart, conservation chairman for the local chapter of the Sierra Club, said the council's decision was better than recommendations to reopen the road seven days a week. But he and other supporters of fixing the tunnel while keeping the road shut will write the Forest Service to argue that view, he said. The Forest Service is expected to issue an Environmental Impact Statement on opening the road in June and make a final decision shortly after that.

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