With the high school getting ready to open in 2015, one thing is going to become very obvious: Stapleton will have a lot of teenage drivers. “It really worries me,” says Stapleton parent Amelia Saar. “We still have lots of young kids in Stapleton and kids playing in alleys. It’s just kind of scary to think of having a sudden influx of rookie drivers.”
Other residents are concerned about where all of these cars are going to be parked. “It won’t be in 2015 or ’16, but by 2020 or so, our neighborhood will be overrun with cars,” said resident Mike Shannon. “People already just park one car outside and use their garage as storage. Pretty soon, they will have two kids driving, and now they have three Audi A-4’s parked out front. It’s going to look pretty bad.” Resident Luke Schmadeke agrees. “I guess Forest City wanted Stapleton to be urban,” said Schmadeke. “There is nothing more urban than having to drive around for 30 minutes trying to find a parking spot.”
The problem seems inevitable, unless families move away from Stapleton once their kids are old enough to drive. However, Forest City believes they may have a solution. “We know residents are concerned with the potential parking quagmire,” said Forest City Spokesperson Janelle Ayers. “We have looked at a number of solutions, and we have decided that for the time being, we will make a parking lot out of the area by the control tower.” Ayers went on to say that the area was perfect for a parking lot, since “it used to be one.” In the plan, kids will be able to park bikes at the lot or have parents drop them off, then get their cars and head to school or wherever it is they are going.
“It’s actually not a terrible idea,” said resident Kim Hansen. “It makes an effort to keep the kids off of the residential streets, and just on MLK, which they will be using to ‘cruise’ eventually anyway.” More residents feel it is a fine concept. “They were going to use that area to make out in anyway,” says Brian Helman. “This is just making it a little easier for that I guess, but at least they won’t be backing out of garages, or speeding down alleys.” Some residents are frustrated that more effort isn’t going into doing something with the control tower. “They just spent all that time tearing down a parking garage,” said Tracy Closson. “Now they are going to rebuild a lot? Not the Stapleton I envisioned.”
Forest City feels that this is simply a good short term solution, making the space at the control tower functional, and solving a potential parking issue with teenage drivers. “We are not saying this is going to be like this forever,” said Ayers. “But, let’s be honest, we probably weren’t going to do something with the control tower for 15 to 20 more years anyway.
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