HomeMy WebLinkAboutRick Carlson_31-DEC-25Dear Commissioners Samson, Will and Jankovsky,
As a board member of the Teller Springs HOA, located directly across the Roaring Fork River
from the proposed HARVEST ROARING FORK development at the Cattle Creek Confluence,
I am writing to express deep concern about the wildfire and evacuation risks associated
with this project. Recent large-scale fires in Colorado and California have shown how
quickly wind-driven wildfires can overrun communities and overwhelm road networks,
turning evacuation routes into life-threatening choke points.
Highway 82 is already a congested corridor, particularly during peak commuting hours, and
adding thousands of new residents, hotel guests, and vehicles at this single confluence will
dramatically increase the number of people who must evacuate through a narrow,
overburdened artery. In real fire events along the Front Range and in California, we have
seen gridlocked highways, abandoned vehicles, and tragic loss of life when entire
neighborhoods try to leave at once on constrained roads. Concentrating this much new
development at Cattle Creek effectively creates a large, high-density pocket at the end of a
funnel, where even a minor blockage, wreck, or stalled vehicle during an evacuation could
have catastrophic consequences. With a direct view of Highway 82 from my house I have
seen too many situations where a simple late afternoon single lane fender bender traffic
accident can cause a complete stop of traffic flow for over an hour, even longer.
Wildfire behavior in the West is becoming more extreme, with longer fire seasons, hotter
and drier conditions, and more frequent wind events that can push flames and embers
miles ahead of the main fire front. In that context, the combination of dense housing,
limited ingress and egress, heavy reliance on Highway 82, and the river corridor’s natural
funneling effect is a dangerous design. Fire, law enforcement, and EMS resources in our
valley are already stretched; they would be forced to manage evacuation, structure
protection, and traffic control for a development whose very location and scale amplify risk
for everyone—residents, first responders, and neighboring communities like Teller Springs,
IronBridge, Aspen Glen, Westbank, Coryell Ranch, etc.
There is also the compounding risk of smoke and radiant heat in a fast-moving fire, which
can make parts of an evacuation route temporarily unusable even before flames reach
structures. If evacuees from HARVEST ROARING FORK, existing river communities, and
up-valley travelers are all forced onto the same clogged segment of Highway 82,
emergency managers may have little ability to stage, reroute, or prioritize vulnerable
populations. Designing for best-case traffic flow in normal times is not responsible when
the real test will be a worst-case, high-stress evacuation under fire, smoke, and shifting
winds. The February 19, 2016 fire at a location 4 miles W/NW of Glenwood Springs was
measured at 94 mph. What we have witnessed previously here in our own county can
happen again.
For these reasons, and in light of the clear lessons from recent large fires in Colorado and
California, the proposed density and location of HARVEST ROARING FORK are
fundamentally incompatible with safe wildfire evacuation and emergency response. I
respectfully urge you to reject this proposal and to require that any future land-use
decisions at the Cattle Creek Confluence place life safety and realistic evacuation capacity
ahead of speculative large-scale development.
Thank you all for the great work you do for the citizens of Garfield County.
Rick
Rick Carlson
1752 County Road 109
Glenwood Springs, CO 81601
riccarlson@gmail.com
970-948-9650