{"id":799151,"date":"2019-09-04T20:02:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-05T02:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=371023"},"modified":"2019-09-04T20:02:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-05T02:02:00","slug":"frisco-moves-forward-with-meadow-creek-wetlands-mitigation-project-despite-some-opposition-from-neighbors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/frisco-moves-forward-with-meadow-creek-wetlands-mitigation-project-despite-some-opposition-from-neighbors\/","title":{"rendered":"Frisco moves forward with Meadow Creek wetlands mitigation project despite some opposition from neighbors"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
A view of the wetlands mitigation project off Hawn Drive in Frisco, Colo.<\/strong>
Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

FRISCO \u2014 The wetlands west of Meadow Creek Park in Frisco might look a little different in the future as the town works to complete a mitigation project on the parcel, a move meant to return the land to its natural state and protect it from development in perpetuity.<\/p>\n

The mitigation efforts come as a direct result of the town\u2019s Big Dig Project \u2014 an excavation of dirt from the Dillon Reservoir\u2019s lakebed \u2014 that was completed earlier this year. As part of the work, Frisco disturbed about 1.03 acres of wetlands near the marina and is required by the Army Corps of Engineers to replace the wetlands with a 2-to-1 ratio or about 2.1 acres.<\/p>\n

The town initially planned to perform mitigation work on two sites, including an expansion of the existing wetlands at the Willow Preserve in addition to the parcel west of Meadow Creek Park. But the proposal drew the ire of some of the residents living along Hawn Drive, who have a small stream running north of their property bordering the wetlands and feared the project would negatively affect the water feature.<\/p>\n

Some in the group felt the proposal would be more palatable with assurances that the town would protect the larger site from any future development, leading the town to rededicate their efforts to preserving the near 11-acre parcel north of Hawn Drive. The project began last week, and is largely designed to try and revert the area to its original form before a diversion was placed in the floodplain sometime in the late 1970s.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll it is really is putting the land back where it once was,\u201d Frisco town manager Nancy Kerry said. \u201cSomebody dug a channel and put the dirt on the upland of the wetlands. Now the water is running lower, and it was directed to some private property. By putting that same material that was once taken out back into the channel, and then planting and putting more native vegetation in there, the water will start to flow like it used to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with resurfacing of the parcel, the project also includes efforts to revegetate the area. Andy Herb, owner of AlpineEco and primary consultant on the project, said 17 types of native plants would be installed over the next couple weeks, including everything from lodgepole pine and blue spruce trees to things like bluejoint grass. The group also harvested willows as cuttings from the site in the spring that were taken to a nursery in Buena Vista and grown in containers to be brought back to the site.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re stocking the shelves for nature,\u201d Herb said. \u201cWe know that these plants naturally occur there, and they can find their way. If you take a walk into the middle of that area, that\u2019s what we want to reproduce: a mosaic of willows and shrubs and flowers. It\u2019s a very heterogeneous habitat, and we\u2019re trying to facilitate that diversity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bulk of the mitigation will be completed this week, but there\u2019s still work to be done to protect the land. Kerry said in order to protect the parcel in perpetuity, it has to be dedicated to another entity. In this case, the town is currently working with Colorado Open Lands, a nonprofit land trust that works to protect the state\u2019s land and water resources. Once the land is dedicated \u2014 Kerry estimated sometime in November or December \u2014 Colorado Open Lands would be required to inspect it annually to assure there\u2019s been no further development or tampering.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
Contractors put a curtain in place to prevent groundwater from being pulled into a private channel along Hawn Drive as part of a wetlands mitigation project in Frisco.<\/strong>
Courtesy Nancy Partyka<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

While protecting the land into the future might seem like a win for environmentalists and some residents in the area, other community members were left disillusioned with how the project unfolded.<\/p>\n

Nancy Partyka, who owns one of the homes on Hawn Drive along with a section of the manmade stream south of the wetlands, slammed the town for not including homeowners who were affected by the project sooner in the process. She also said there was a fear among homeowners on the street that the loss of the water feature could have detrimental effects on their property values.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe manmade channel was dug out in \u201978 or \u201979, so we just thought that\u2019s what was there,\u201d Partyka said. \u201cThat\u2019s what we bought the property based on. And we were never part of the process. That\u2019s one of the biggest things that\u2019s upsetting about this whole thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of note, there aren\u2019t any efforts to directly stop surface water from flowing to the privately owned stream, but ground water is a another story. Herb said the project includes lining the edge of the wetlands with an impermeable curtain to keep the manmade ditch from pulling ground water away from the wetlands, though surface water will be allowed to flow naturally. Still, it almost certainly means less water in the residents\u2019 private stream.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the spring runoff, we\u2019re encouraging that to go wherever it wants,\u201d Herb said. \u201cBut ground water is different. If we didn\u2019t do this barrier, we couldn\u2019t restore the low flow, and all of the water would be sucked out of the flood plane all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Partyka also noted that the preservation efforts on the land didn\u2019t move the needle for many homeowners on Hawn Drive, some of whom believed the land was already protected in some capacity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe town came in and said, \u2018Now it\u2019s protected in perpetuity,\u2019\u201d Partyka said. \u201cWe thought it was anyway. We bought our houses thinking it was protected. \u2026 We were low-hanging fruit. That\u2019s kind of how I felt. The contractors will go back to their homes, the council goes merrily on their way, and we\u2019re left with a bad taste in our mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kerry admitted that aspects of the planning process could have been improved in relation to the affected homeowners, but she noted that the project was in the community\u2019s best interest and lauded residents for engaging with the project and sharing their viewpoints.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing clumsy in a process that includes a lot of members of the public isn\u2019t your goal,\u201d Kerry said. \u201cBut it\u2019s not that uncommon because we don\u2019t think for every single member of the public. We try to think about everybody\u2019s perspective, but we can\u2019t. Everybody did the right thing here. They got involved, we put out information, worked on solutions, the council took action, and we looked at the best interest of the public in the end.<\/p>\n

\u201cA manmade channel running through the backyard of four or five folks benefits their houses and their properties. But this preservation of open space benefits the entire community and the extended community. \u2026 I want to commend the public for speaking up and getting involved and paying attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A view of the wetlands mitigation project off Hawn Drive in Frisco, Colo.Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com FRISCO \u2014 The wetlands west of Meadow Creek Park in Frisco might look a little different in the future as the town works to complete a mitigation project on the parcel, a move meant to return the land to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-799151","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 00:20:51","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=799151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799151\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}