SAVE THE PENINSULA COALITION

Contact: Doug Malkan, Organizer, 453-6695, 389-6320, dougmalkan@yahoo.com

 

STATEMENT ON THE SAVE THE PENINSULA INITIATIVE PASSING

Frisco Question 200 passes by 66 percent in election

 

Today’s vote was victory for the people in Frisco and everybody in Summit County and the State of Colorado. The Peninsula, home to the Frisco Nordic Center and open space and recreation is cherished and valued in the community -- and this decisive vote shows that.

 

For the third straight time the people of Frisco have voted against heavy development on the Peninsula and for two elections now they have voted against a golf course. This time the people have spoken by the largest margin yet. The election had a big turnout and the vote was decisive at two-to-one against putting a golf course on the Peninsula. 

 

The golf course has been a bad idea for the peninsula from the beginning -  financially, water use wise, recreationally and because of the Nordic Center. The Frisco Nordic Center draws 20,000 skiers annually from Summit County as well as all over Colorado and even some nationally. 

  

The golf course idea had been pushed for years by a small number of people who thought the best way to get the Peninsula for a golf course was to get themselves elected to the town council.  Shortly after the last election, they got the town’s lawyer to find a way to skirt around the prior vote against a golf course on the Peninsula, which forbid spending any money on the building of a course there. Despite that, the town council spent $50,000 on plans. At this point the Frisco town council has wasted many tens of thousands of dollars paying for an urban land planner that gave us only one option for the Peninsula, which included a golf course, when the council knew that golf was heading to a vote. That money could have been better spent. 

 

Frisco’s town council stymied public comments. They labeled a golf course the “preferred plan” while at the same time not allowing public input at meetings or during the process. They also ignored the results of the town survey which showed that golf had a negative rating and that open space was the number one priority.

  

The Peninsula is irreplaceable to Frisco as a public park and Nordic Center. The vote was 723 to 373, an overwhelming  two-to-one margin saying for the second time that people do not want the Peninsula fenced off for a golf course with the town to go into millions of dollars of debt to build what would have been the sixth golf course in Summit County.

 

Unfortunately for the process it became necessary for the people to have a direct say in the future of the Peninsula and today the people have spoken loud and clear -- for the third time. People voted overwhelmingly to preserve low-impact recreation oriented activities on the Peninsula. The people do not want the character of the Nordic Center destroyed or degraded by high impact development. 

 

The measure appeared on the ballot November 5, 2002 in the town of Frisco as TOWN OF FRISCO INITIATED QUESTION 200.

 

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