Work done, GOG citizen board disbands

       The Garden of the Gods Advisory Committee, an appointed citizens group that helped the city develop a drastically revised master plan for the popular city park in the mid-'90s, has officially been disbanded by the Colorado Springs Parks Advisory Board.
       The recent action was in response to a recommendation from the volunteer committee itself, according to City Parks Maintenance Manager Kurt Schroeder. The committee had been appointed by the Parks Board.
       “What it comes down to is that although the restoration and erosion repair and trail development will take many, many years, the major aspects of the the master plan have been completed,” he said.
       The master plan, proposed by City Parks and fine-tuned with the committee, resulted in such major, contentious changes as eliminating the old road between the Gateway rocks, removing the Hidden Inn gift shop, which had been in business since 1915 and coordinating with a new, privately built Garden of the Gods Visitor Center.
       According to park officials, the result has been positive for the Garden of the Gods, meaning greater control over where people drive and hike and more emphasis on preserving natural features in a park that gets roughly 2 million visitors a year.

Westside Pioneer article