UPDATE: Neighbors express strong opposition to proposed convenience store in SW Colorado Springs

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- UPDATE, TUESDAY, MARCH 1 -- Many residents of the Ivywild neighborhood said that they were unable to connect with Tuesday's virtual meeting regarding a proposed Kum & Go store and gas station at the corner of 8th and Brookside streets.

City planners scheduled the meeting in which residents could phone in or connect online, but residents got messages that the meeting didn't exist or that the online link had been updated.

Some residents said that they were able to join the meeting by using different computers.

Residents also said that city planners sent an email to them roughly 45 minutes before the start of the meeting, informing them that the call feature couldn't be used, but another email an hour later revealed that the feature was back in service.

Neighbors now want to know if there will be another virtual meeting allowing them to ask questions and express concerns about the project, and if the city will schedule an in-person meeting.

The city released a statement Tuesday saying that another meeting will be scheduled after Kum & Go resubmits its application that will address questions from some city departments, and added that the convenience store chain will decide the format of that meeting.

"Why would a developer determine that and not the city?" said Julie Nedrow, president of the Ivywild Improvement Society. "I just don't think our concerns are being heard as they should."

City planners said that 52 residents were able to provide feedback during Tuesday's meeting, but it's unclear how many were left out.

The proposed Kum & Go project is one of the area's most popular stories on social media, and continues a recent trend of neighborhood residents speaking out against development being too close to them.

Ray Couch lives near the proposed site and rides his bicycle through the area every day.

"It doesn't matter either way to me if the project happens," he said. "I just don't think it's going to cause as many problems as the neighbors think. I don't see it creating more traffic, and I don't see transients congregating here because it's a good distance from where most of the homeless hang out."

But Dr. Chris Foster worries about the project interfering with patients backing out of the narrow driveway of his chiropractic practice near the intersection.

"Traffic is busy enough on a normal day,: he said. "You add another dimension and you've got a another set of cars coming out of there. We're considering moving because of that. I'm out looking at other properties right now. To me, it's a safety issue."

PREVIOUS STORY (MONDAY, FEB. 28)

An online public meeting was scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Monday regarding a plan to build a Kum & Go store at the southeast corner of the intersection of 8th and Brookside streets on the city's southwest side.

The convenience store chain filed plans with the city in December requesting the project, on property that is already zoned for that purpose.

"The use is permitted in that zone district," said Gabe Sevigny, a city planning supervisor. "The city can't prevent the sale of property. So whenever it comes into private ownership, and as long as we check the use for it and the use is permitted, and they have to go through the code that requires it."

The site is currently the location of a parking lot and two vacant businesses that likely will be demolished for the store and gas station, if approved by city officials.

Strong opposition is forming from the adjacent Ivywild neighborhood, a community of homes dating back to the late 1800s.

Residents said that the project would create noise and light pollution, produce trash, increase traffic, attract homeless people and disrupt the neighborhood's atmosphere.

"There would be more crime, too," said Julie Nedrow, president of the Ivywild Improvement Society. "More burglaries, more theft, more trespassing on private property. We've already seen that in neighborhoods that are close to other convenience stores and gas stations."

Nedrow also said that the neighborhood had its own traffic study conducted and found data that was different from a similar study by Kum & Go.

"I'm not aware of that," Sevigny said. "But we're still early in the process. The applicant will have to re-submit the proposal because of questions some city departments have about the project."

Another complaint is that the store isn't needed, with a 7-11 store just a few blocks to the south on 8th Street and two other convenience stores on the east end of Ivywild; the proposed store is at the west end of the subdivision.

Janelle Walter lives in an apartment complex closest to the project site, and worries about the negative effects of a Kum & Go.

"My bedroom window and bathroom window, everybody along here, our private areas face this Kum & Go," she said. "They want to put a retaining wall up. I don't know how high that's supposed to be. But otherwise, that's what we'll be looking at, is a wall."

Nedrow said that Ivywild has many retirees and senior citizens who own homes and have lived there for decades.

"I think a Kum & Go would be too disruptive to the neighborhood," said. "It's the kind of thing that might make people sell their houses and move out, if that store comes in."