AURORA | Blanca Villalba has lived in The Meadows, a community of 300 mobile homes on East 13th Avenue off of Sable Boulevard, for almost five years.
“I lived in an apartment before coming here,” she said. “There you didn’t talk to anybody, and nobody cared what you did. But here it’s different. It’s like a little town.”
The permanency of residents who live in this mobile home community, who Villalba said are mostly Hispanic, is reflected in the ornately decorated trailers. Many homes have porches, and have had the same owner for decades.
Villalba said she likes that children in the neighborhood play outside on the main greenbelt that cuts across 13th avenue. She works six days a week as a manager at an Aurora Kmart, and she said she has long felt safe having her two daughters, who are 6 and 14, stay home alone occasionally because she knows her neighbors are around if anything happens. She’s not so sure anymore.
Her backyard looks onto a 17-acre field that borders Interstate 225. That field is being turned into one of eight new light rail stations that will be part of the I-225 light rail line set to open next year.
Villalba said she knows she can’t stop the truck traffic, shipping containers and orange cones that now dot the once-vacant field from being there, but she wants there to be more privacy.
Right now, a five-foot chain-link fence is the only thing that separates her home from the sprawling light rail site that’s going to come. And it stops just short of where a dirt path from the site runs next to her house into the block she lives on.
She points to a door leading into her home where the frame is bent. She said strangers recently tried to pry it open when no one was home.
She said that vandalism like that in the neighborhood has increased since light rail construction began.
At the house next door, the word “Blood” is scrawled in beige spray paint across its blue panels. Rene Cardenas, who lives there, said he hasn’t painted over it because it will just happen again.
He points to a white shed at the edge of his property overlooking the construction. The word “Blood” has been written in cursive all over the side walls, despite his repeated attempts to paint over the graffiti. He said he doesn’t put anything in the shed anymore because he’s afraid it will get stolen.
Those same concerns were echoed in a meeting RTD and Aurora city planners held with The Meadows residents in March. While residents say the construction has been a magnet for problems, city or police officials haven’t told them that’s the case.
At the meeting, which was attended by 40 people, residents said they were not only concerned about having a privacy wall, they were also worried about increased congestion along 13th Avenue. That’s the “Main Street” that serves as the heart of the neighborhood with the greenbelts and playground nearby.
Many expressed frustration with 13th being the only entrance and exit from the station, which will have 250 parking spaces, according to RTD.
RTD and city officials told residents at the meeting the additional cars on the street would be controlled by a traffic light that will be installed at 13th and Sable as commuters enter from the east. They said they don’t have a schedule for when the light will be up, but said they are working with design contractor Kiewit to have it completed as soon as possible.
Kevin Wegener, an engineer with the city, said improvements would also be made to widen and add handicap ramps to the sidewalk on 13th and that more street lights would be added to the area.
“We’ll have delineated crosswalks across the street. So our focus there, with the sidewalk, the traffic signal, the intersection work, all of the emphasis is on safety,” he said. “Safety for you and safety for the people that are coming to the station.”
Villalba said those improvements will mean nothing unless there is a sound wall or some measure of privacy installed.
“It’s going to be safer for the people using RTD, but not for me,” she said.
RTD Spokeswoman Lisa Trujillo said RTD conducted an environmental evaluation of the 13th Avenue station and found The Meadows neighborhood did not meet the noise criteria to require RTD to build a wall.
Vanessa Diaz, a manager with RHP Properties, the company that owns land The Meadows sits on, said they also have no plans to build a wall.
Councilwoman Renie Peterson, whose ward encompasses the mobile home park, said she is working with Aurora RTD Board Member Tom Tobiassen to have a city police officer start a Neighborhood Watch program with residents as one way to decrease vandalism.
Villalbas said she plans to start circulating a petition to get the sound wall built if RTD and the city continue to balk.
“We don’t live in a rich community, but we live normally and quietly. It’s like they don’t care about us,” she said.
Government is not the solution to every problem. Perhaps out of 300 mobile home there are a few men (and women) who have enough work ethic to build a fence with permission of the property owner. Take up a collection and ask the owner to match the amount collected. Then build as much fence per available labor and material. Maybe RTD can have its surveyor mark the fence line in cooperation with the owner. Folks, don’t be helpless … do something for yourselves for a change. Construction guys like myself may be willing to donate a Saturday or two to help out.
The City of Aurora simply does not care about NW Aurora. and her residents. They havent’ for decades. They did manage to move a few residents out of the area. For $ome rea$on, they care a little bit about the area around Fitz$imon$, but that’$ it.
That property will became a lot more valuable when light rail opens . RHP Properties will sell and The land will eventually become a high-density development that will include residences, retail and office space. I’d say within ten years. Maybe less
R E is right on the mark. If I was a resident of that park I would start looking at other places to live.
Sad yes but progress happens with or without our buy in.
Aurora has been trying to get rid of mobile home parks for years. They are viewed as blight and like R E mentioned, I won’t be surprised that they’re forced to move in the next few years anyway.