Don’t wait for a crisis outside your front door to connect with your community

At public meetings, I’m often asked how I became passionate about neighborhoods and connecting communities. Until about six years ago, I really didn’t know much about neighborhood engagement or the public planning process. My awakening didn’t occur until there was a crisis outside my front door. Well, actually, across the alley behind my first home.

In 2014, I bought my first home on Colorado Springs’ west side. It was a cute little Craftsman house with a tidy front yard and a fenced backyard that backed up to an alley. Across the alley was a vacant lot on a sloped hillside. It was the kind of lot where deer relaxed in the summer grass. And in winter, kids rode their sleds down its snowy hillside. It also collected old TVs and mattresses tossed by inconsiderate neighbors.

Soon, this vacant hillside would ignite in me a desire to get involved with my neighbors and learn about the city planning and development process. It happened when the owner of the lot announced plans to develop it into a townhome complex. He wanted to build three townhouses, each three stories tall above my little bungalow and the rest of the neighborhood.

While property owners have the right to develop their property (as long as they meet city/county codes/zoning and other regulations), we learned townhomes would require major excavation, the sinking of piers, a retaining wall, the widening of the alley and paving to make it a road. My neighborhood was facing major impacts from this infill project.

I was naturally concerned about growth, density, construction, safety and access. I started to think like a NIMBY (‘not in my back yard”) — lawyers, developers, planners, neighbors … oh my! But I didn’t give in to any NIMBY impulses. Instead, the organizer in me emerged and I stepped in to help. I helped convene neighbors, I helped gather input, I asked questions, I talked to planners, the developer, decision-makers, gathered facts, data, emails.

Our neighbors spoke at a planning commission meeting. We decided what top three items were most important to us that potentially could have the greatest negative impact on our homes and our lives. I learned about the process, what we didn’t have rights to (the view), and what we should have focused on: compromise and collaboration.

Instead of opposing the development. I learned what we could work together with the developer on aspects such as building texture and color of the townhomes; direction lighting would face (so it wasn’t in our backyards, but down on the ground to light the pathways); trash company schedules so we didn’t have several dump trucks going up and down the alleys, etc.

Most important of all, I learned how to connect with my community. I learned that what happens outside your front door, or behind your alley, is important and you shouldn’t ignore it. I learned the key is to get to know your neighbors. You are stronger together. Your neighborhood has more clout with City planners and elected officials when you speak as one. The reality is that Colorado Springs is an attractive place to live so development is going to happen, and in many ways should happen; but what is important is that we collaborate to assure quality development. Get to know your planner, your streetscape and your curbside flavor, so that when change happens, you are prepared, agile and looking for quality over opposition.

Oh, and I learned the difference between NIMBY and QIMBY (“quality in my backyard”) and to be less NIMBY and more QIMBY.

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Sara Vaas has been executive director of the Council of Neighbors and Organizations since July and served from 2015-2019 as assistant director.