Developer of affordable housing project in Colorado Springs files civil rights complaint

The Broadmoor Bluffs Neighborhood Association, which is among the leading opponents of an affordable housing project in the southwest Colorado Springs neighborhood, has been served with a civil rights complaint by the project’s developer.

Dan Martin and Cynthia Grey, who head associations of the neighborhood, homeowners and condominium owners in the area, are named as respondents in the complaint filed earlier this month to the Colorado Division of Civil Rights.

The complaint was filed by the Wisconsin-based Commonwealth Development Corporation of America, developer of The Ridge, a 60-unit project that has been the source of strong opposition from neighbors and has been upheld by the city planning commission and on appeal to the City Council.

According to the complaint, the BBNA has denied equal housing opportunity to potential residents of The Ridge and subjected them to discrimination based on race, color, nationality, familial status and disability.

The complaint states that the BBNA’s opposition has hurt Commonwealth by increasing development costs, unnecessarily adding legal fees, hurting Commonwealth’s professional reputation and drawing time and resources from the effort to provide much-needed affordable housing in the city.

Commonwealth seeks an unspecified amount of monetary damages as compensation and for the Civil Rights Division to find the BBNA’s actions illegal.

The BBNA has 10 days to respond to the complaint.

On Monday, Martin agreed to an interview with KRDO NewsChannel 13 but later canceled it, citing advice from his attorney.

Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers spoke generally about the city’s lack of affordable housing.

“From a broad perspective, more affordable housing is a good thing,” he said. “But you don’t want to ghetto-ize it. It needs to be spread out in a reasonable fashion.”

Greccio Housing of Colorado Springs, the designer of the project, is not named in the complaint.