Impacts
The collateral damage to our community will be great. An on-campus stadium will have many profoundly adverse impacts on Fort Collins:
- Extreme traffic congestion in the central business district of the city on event days
- Parking shortages in residential and business districts
- Visual impact of 125 foot high steel and concrete structure against the Front Range foothills
- High audible noise level in excess of the city noise ordinance
- Light pollution in a dark city
- Risk of injury to attendees and residents following train derailments
- Compromised emergency access for large residential areas
- Disruption of the normal university education, study and research activities
- Inadequate traffic capacity on existing major roads with consequent backups and delays between the city and I-25
- Loss of the historic research gardens and mature native trees collection
- Reduced property values in surrounding neighborhoods
- Increased crime and accident rates
- Wear and degradation of city streets, transportation facilities and equipment
- Excessive carbon costs of constructing a new facility and demolishing the old
- Loss of retail business revenue due to traffic congestion and reluctance of city residents to enter old town districts
- Lasting damage to the relationships between the city and university and a sustained resentment towards all project supporters
- A change to the fundamental character of this great and successful community.
Rail Track Concerns
Up to 20 freight trains traverse the main CSU campus every day, including long coal car and oil tanker trains. The BSNF tracks bisect the campus and most game-day traffic would enter the campus via one of the dozen grade-level crossings from the east. All area hospitals are on the east side of the tracks. Traffic is routinely gridlocked during train crossings and vehicle/train accidents and breakdown events have divided areas of the city for hours. Emergency services access to several residential areas would be severely restricted during stadium events. The city's new BRT route (MAX) runs parallel with the rail tracks and often compounds the congestion by blocking east-west routes when traffic lights give the buses priority. The rail tracks and BRT route cross the campus within a half-mile of the proposed stadium location. A derailment could create a catastrophic scenario for visitors and city residents. There are no grade separated rail crossings within the city and none are currently planned. |