Developer loses fight to move channel

Adrienne Packer

Thursday, Dec. 28, 2000 | 11:18 a.m.

Despite strong lobbying efforts to move a planned drainage ditch off their property and onto public land, Rhodes Ranch developers lost their battle and will likely have to build around the channel.

Regional Flood Control District Director Gale Fraser said numerous meetings that spanned several months led to the decision to keep a 1-mile segment of the ditch where it was originally planned -- on the west side of Durango Drive.

"We sat in a meeting and sketched things out," Fraser said. "We said we have the right-of-way, and this is how it's going to be. That was the end of it."

Rhodes Ranch representatives had hoped to move the channel across Durango south of Warm Springs Road to land reserved for a public park and two golf courses. The relocation of the ditch would have made room for about 30 more homes in Rhodes' new housing development.

The proposal drew attention after Commissioner Erin Kenny, who lives in Rhodes Ranch and is close friends with Jim Rhodes. She appeared at a county staff meeting to discuss relocating the ditch.

County planners have told commissioners repeatedly they are opposed to moving the ditch because it fails to meet the "public benefit" requirement for projects built on Cooperative Management Agreement land. Although planners also have expressed the urgency of beginning construction of the ditch, the board has agreed to postpone it six times since March.

"The construction of the channel is now necessary since the upstream and downstream flood control facilities, with connection to this channel, are either complete or under construction," the county's Dec. 20 report says.

Rhodes acquired the 17-acre strip of property lining the west side of Durango from the Bureau of Land Management during a 1995 land exchange. The value of the land was reduced by about $186,000 with the understanding a segment of the Flamingo Wash would be built on it.

As construction neared, Rhodes officials told commissioners they feared the concrete-lined channel fronting their new community would be an eyesore.

Rather than the 100-foot-wide easement Flood Control District officials initially said they needed for the channel, Fraser said the division can get by with a 40-foot-wide channel.

County officials said they entertained the idea of moving the drainage ditch because there would be more room to build a more aesthetically appealing grass-lined channel. Planners are trying to incorporate multi-use trails along infrastructures such as drainage ditch. But because the ditch will be narrow -- and therefore water will travel at a faster velocity -- the channel will be concrete.

The commission gave preliminary approval to moving the ditch, but placed several stringent conditions on the project. Board members in March said Rhodes must absorb the cost -- which appraisers estimated to be $1.4 million -- to move the channel and obtain the required permits within three weeks.

Rhodes officials have since tried to get their conditions waived.

Barbara Ginoulias, assistant planning director, said the project had been delayed because of attempts to waive the conditions and either developers or commissioners' requests to hold the agenda item.

"We do need to get moving on the missing link here," she said.

Public Works spokesman Bobby Shelton said the county expects to consider the final location of the ditch during its Jan. 17 zoning meeting. Shelton agreed with Fraser that the latest understanding is that the ditch will remain on the west side of Durango.

"The Corps of Engineers believes the best spot for it is where the plans are right now," he said.