AURORA, Colo. — A drive down South Coolidge Circle in Aurora requires a second glance, and maybe a little backing up, because of an extension of a lawn that now stops cars from driving through the alley.
“This happened for safety purposes," said Murphy Creek Metropolitan District 3 Board President Matt West. "This driveway here is really meant for access for the homeowners to get in their garages."
The extended lawn happens to belong to West, but he said the entire board approved the new feature, and he excused himself from the vote.
He said cars have flown through the alley area for years, and when the city put stop signs in, it didn't help.
Signs saying "this is not a through road" didn't seem to help either.
"It’s not done in malice or to hurt anybody’s feelings or take somebody’s rights away," said West. "That is not the intent at all. This was all about safety and that’s it."
The board approved the "landscape enhancement" unanimously, but they didn't go through the normal city process before removing the concrete from the street and replacing it with grass.
"It didn’t, we went out and just did this," said West.
The city of Aurora is not happy. They filed a lawsuit against Metro District 3 on June 9.
In the claim, the city attorney wrote: "Among other things, the actions unreasonably interfere with the use of the Alley for its intended purpose of Public Access."
The claim goes on to say that emergency and utility access is also impaired.
"The city doesn't own this driveway," said West, adding it's his property.
"But by that logic, couldn't everybody do this?" asked 9NEWS.
“No doubt, and I agree with you. It doesn’t make any sense," said West. "Except in this particular case here there are no homes here that access this right here this piece.”
Time Gillette's garage abuts the alley where this barrier was created and he feels it's an unfair addition.
"I think its kind of like infringing on everybody else’s right to drive through here," he said. "It’s a pain in the butt for us to keep goin’ around."
But another neighbor, Raquel Zambrano, said a drastic measure was necessary to keep people safe.
"I don’t think that its fair to wait for somebody to get hit or hurt or injured or for someone’s car to get hit while they’re backing out of the garage until that’s necessary," said Zambrano.
The Metro District has tried other measures.
They had the city install stop signs, and they used to have speedbumps until the city took them down.
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