AURORA | If only Sand Creek Park was home to some endangered boreal toads. Maybe then, Morris Heights residents say, the FasTracks light rail wouldn’t infringe on 85 acres of open space and be located half a mile away from the neighborhood. But boreal toads don’t live there, and when it comes to negotiating whether the light rail tracks can be moved, that train has already left the station.
Infringing on open space is only one of several concerns that Morris Heights residents have about the future light rail line. Their concerns range from issues such as property values to quality of life, safety, parking and construction traffic. RTD officials say they’re keeping residents’ concerns in mind as they work to finalize specific design plans for the tracks that are set to run along Fitzsimons Parkway and along Peoria Street. Meanwhile, Realtors and RTD board members say the light rail will contribute to the gentrification of the Morris Heights neighborhood.
But Morris Heights homeowners say nothing but frustration will come from the light rail.
“We’re all afraid of the unknown, but I don’t see any value in it,” said John Burris, who’s lived in the Morris Heights neighborhood for years. “I’m all for mass transit, just not in my backyard.”
Morris Heights resident Norma Authier said the vast open space is one of the reasons why she was so drawn to the neighborhood when she bought her house four decades ago.
“That has always been open space,” she said. “We’ve always had wildlife, and I don’t want to give it up.”
Suzy Cress, who has lived in the neighborhood for 31 years, said she’s seen 54 types of birds, seven types of ducks, and pelicans in that open space. All of those animals’ habitats would be disrupted by the train, she said.
“We don’t want (RTD) to touch the park,” she said.
RTD officials said biologists are currently determining whether the light rail would impact that open space. “As we move forward with the design we will identify what environmental mitigation efforts will need to be made as a result,” said Tina Jaquez, spokeswoman for the I-225 Rail Line project.
Once the preliminary design work is complete in late fall, RTD staff will give an update to the board of directors and Morris Heights residents on the progress of the new alignment, and any plans for mitigation, she said.
Plans for the light rail line changed in June, after officials at the University of Colorado Hospital asked RTD to redesign plans for the tracks to protect hospital equipment from electromagnetic interference.
Old plans called for the light rail to travel north along Interstate 225 and turn west onto Montview Boulevard near the University of Colorado Hospital’s health sciences buildings. Now, the station will be redesigned and moved a half-mile north from the campus, along Fitzsimons Parkway and near the Morris Heights neighborhood, to protect sensitive medical equipment.
Alice Morgan, who has lived in the Morris Heights neighborhood since 1971, said she’s disappointed that the University of Colorado got its way at the cost of a neighborhood.
“They’re getting everything they want and they don’t care about this community that’s been here since 1956,” she said. “It’s going to impact our quality of life in a way that we will not soon recover from.”
Morgan said she’s worried that crime in the neighborhood will increase when the light rail is built. “People aren’t going to be comfortable living here,” she said.
Some residents also worried that their property values would decrease because the neighborhood would be surrounded by light rail. Local Realtors disagree, and say the incoming FasTracks light rail line actually has the potential of making the Morris Heights neighborhood a more desirable place to live.
“That neighborhood has a couple of fantastic things going for it now,” said Mark Painter, an Aurora-based real estate agent with Keller Williams Realty.
For any neighborhood to thrive, it has to have access to jobs and job opportunities, public transportation, and schools, Painter said. Grocery and retail shopping also has to be easily accessible. The Morris Heights neighborhood’s location near the Anschutz Medical Campus, the future light rail, and the transit-oriented development projects that will spring up because of the light rail, will make the neighborhood flourish, he said.
Sunny Banka, owner of Aurora-based Sunny Homes and Associates, who has been a realtor for more than three decades, said having a light rail adjacent to a neighborhood increases the value of the homes.
“People want to be near those lines,” she said.
For example, a property in Golden near the West Rail Line was recently appraised and it increased in value from $300,000 to $323,000. Also, data shows that neighborhoods near public transportation systems, like Lone Tree, seemed to fare better during hard economic times.
“We didn’t see neighborhoods where light rail was close decrease in value in 2008,” she said. “We watched them hold their values a lot more than neighborhoods without light rail.”
But that’s no comfort to Morgan, who says if her property values increase, her property taxes will also increase. A spike in property taxes could end up driving senior residents out of the neighborhood, she said.
“A big majority of us in this neighborhood live on a fixed income,” she said.
Elected RTD board member Tom Tobiassen said he understands the residents’ concerns. But he also knows that homeowners who have lived in a neighborhood for decades are more resistant to change. Change, though, could be what revamps the Morris Heights neighborhood into one that’s bustling with young families who have access to shopping, dining, schools and public transportation.
“Young people will seriously be looking at those properties in Morris Heights, and the ability to ride their bike to (the Anschutz Medical Campus) is huge,” Tobiassen said. “As it develops, it’s going to be a very desirable neighborhood. We’re seeing it now, and over the next 10 years as Anschutz develops, we’ll see it a lot stronger.”
Reach reporter Sara Castellanos at 720-449-9036 or sara@aurorasentinel.com.