Sample Letter To Send To City Council Members Re: Overland Park Mega Concert


This is a sample letter to send to our City Council Members prior to July 24.  Council will meet that evening and will determine if the Concert will go forward and approve the 5 year contract


City Council Members:

Jolon Clark, District 7, representing Overland Park Golf Course neighbors
Albus Brooks, Council President
Deborah Ortega and Robin Kniech, At Large
Kendra Black, Rafael Espinoza, Kevin Flynn, Stacie Gilmore, Chris Herndon, Paul Kashmann, Paul Lopez, Wayne New, Mary Beth Susman
I am writing to respectfully request that you vote No on the proposed Overland Music Festival agreement.
It’s hard for me to make an argument when the truth seems so obvious, and so I ask you, again respectfully, but also incredulously:

How can you even consider this proposal?  And with a five year commitment?

Overland Golf Course is not a concert venue, and it is supposed to be a legally protected and publicly owned resource, part of Denver’s Golf Enterprise Fund.  Its facilities and golf revenues are to be used for golf purposes, not for other purposes.
During the past 10 years, Denver’s parks have been changing from being protected public green spaces and becoming venues for rent to business, starting in the Hickenlooper Administration, then enthusiastically accelerated by the Hancock Administration.  Our mayors have placed commercial businesses’ interests above public access to our parks: they have traded irreplaceable park land for a commercial building, approved operation of an industrial facility in a park, and repeatedly approved multi-day commercial events in our parks.
Today you have AEG, SuperFly, and the Hancock Administration turning themselves into pretzels to address the issues that arise every time someone plants a multi-day event in a public greenspace park:  access, noise, facilities, impact on the park, impact on the neighborhood.  It will take weeks to haul it all in, then haul it all out and repair the damage.  The neighbors will simply have to live through it.  Rather than repeating this experiment at the expense of Overland Golf Course and the adjacent neighborhoods, please put your efforts and our resources into providing the right facility for this type of event and preserve our parks. Let’s work toward development of a Festival Park and Event Center, where multi-day events can be easily managed, back-to-back, as many as you want: a facility with ample parking, access to public transportation and cyclists; comfort facilities, including water, restrooms, and first-aid stations; stages and amplified sound management.
Residents of our neighborhoods value our parks as the precious treasure they are.  In close city neighborhoods, while occasionally we can afford the time and expense to enjoy the mountains, in our every day lives we rely on the parks.  Our parks are our back yards, where our children learn to ride a bike, play soccer, play golf (thank you First Tee), explore water, see birds, and enjoy a picnic.  We know that, once given up to development for a school, an industrial facility for the Zoo, or for constant commercial events, parks can never be recreated.  Our parks are like the frog in the pot, who eventually dies as the water boils.  Let us not lose Denver’s great American legacy of parks through thoughtless dispensation of irreplaceable park land for short-term expediency and commercial profit.
Please vote NO on the Overland Music Festival.  Please work to provide Denver a world-class Festival Park and Event Center.