Just a classic: Attack of the NIMBYs!
From the Rocky Mountain News
February 17, 2009
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/new...have-hit-snag/
Bell Tower condo project may have hit snag
Retired lawyer files protest with Landmark Preservation Commission
The $250 million Bell Tower - believed to be one of the most expensive condominium towers going forward at this time in the nation - has hit a potential roadblock.
Z.L. Pearson Jr., a resident of the Larimer Place Condominium building near the proposed 34-story Bell Tower at Market Street and Speer Boulevard, has asked the Landmark Preservation Commission to overturn the Feb. 5 decision by the Lower Downtown Design Review Board to approve the form and mass for Bell Tower.
Bell Tower is "fatally flawed," Pearson wrote in the letter.
Developer Buzz Geller, who has been working on the Bell Tower for the past three years, said, "I'm saddened we have another hurdle to jump over."
Pearson, a retired attorney, said the board's decision should "be reversed" by the commission.
"I think my letter for the appeal was fairly short and to the point," Pearson said Monday. He said no date has been set for his appeal.
Geller presented no drawings or other evidence to establish that the building is "less bulky" than his original proposal, Pearson said. Geller, at the request of the board, presented a model that he said was 18 percent thinner than the initial proposal, but Pearson contends it was not to scale.
In addition, Geller admitted that the "floorplates" of some of the units exceeded 7,500 square feet, which is the limit by ordinance. At that time, city planner Tyler Gibbs said that the average size is below 7,500 square feet and that Geller's latest proposal was in keeping with the spirit of the ordinance.
Pearson also argued that Bell Tower is not the "slender, elegant" structure promised. He said that it would be 375 feet tall, 155 feet wide, have a facade of more than 58,000 square feet and more than 2.8 million cubic feet of space.
Pearson noted that the units have large balconies and that the future homeowners might want to enclose them, making the units far larger than 7,500 square feet.
Geller said he believes Pearson doesn't want Bell Tower because it would block his view from Larimer Place, which Pearson denied.
"I can't see the Bell Tower from my unit," he said.
"I've never supported the tower. I think it is wrong, on the so-called western edge of the historic district."
I can only hope that the Commission is intelligent enough to see this callous argument for what is truly is and that they will push it aside as nonsense. Only Larimer Place...
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