9/16/07

Shangri La East looks to be for sale.

 

Shangri La annexed into the LRSA in April 2004.  The original plan for Shangri La was to build a road to Rabbit Creek and not access LRSA roads as primary access to and from the properties.  This was the reason given back in 2002 for Shangri La developers to not improve the roads from 162nd and Sandpiper up to Shangri La - see documents.

The road connection from Shangri La to Rabbit Creek Road was never developed and allt he building traffic and homeonwer traffic has accessed the unimproved roads of 162nd and Sandpiper.  This was a huge mistake that can be evidenced every time one drives on these roads up to Shangri La. 

  • The road beds substandard and incapable of handling the heavy trucks
  • The road is very narrow in places
  • There is no drainage to carry the run-off down to Goldenview - so it just floods Sandpiper and it all turns to a potholed mush that drains onto private property.

This mistake has cost LRSA constituents significantly.  The money it takes to try to maintain these roads to barely drivable standards is enormous.  We are losing the battle.  The road is becoming more degraded every year.

Shangri La came back before P&Z in 2006 requesting to develop an additional 37 homes for a total of 59 lots in the subdivision.  The LRSA submiitted written comments and verbal comments to encourage the P&Z board to turn down this request until a plan for a road is in place for the final connection to Rabbit Creek.  The developers came back and asked for a specific variance from the requirement to secure the road connection saying it wasn't their responsibility.  The LRSA again submitted written and testified with the same content that it truely is necessary.

We were successful in getting the postponement and understand that funding for the collector road is high on the Transportation list request from the Muni for the 2007 Legislative session. We are very hopeful the funds will be secured and the road can be built. 

The long term outcome once all the proposed developments are in place is that this road will provide the final connection to allow all the roads to connect on the upperside of Goldenview all the way from Romania to Rabbit Creek without touching Goldenview.  This is important for fire safety and relief from traffic congestion building on Goldenview.

There are challenges with making the final connections since there are wetlands between Shangri La and Rabbit Creek.  The Corps of Engineers provided a summary of the discussions thus far in the process.  The Hillside Sub-Area Transporation Plan referred to in the notes can be found here.