New petition urges Colorado Springs leaders to let voters decide on a building height limit
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - Community activists are joining forces with a member of the Colorado Springs City Council with the hopes of seeing a cap on how tall buildings can be downtown.
They've created a petition hoping to pressure the city into putting the issue in front of voters this November.
Currently, there are no restrictions on how tall buildings or other structures can be in Downtown Colorado Springs. Councilman Dave Donelson and residents want to see more restrictions on developers and hope to change that before a proposed apartment complex is built downtown.
"It'll be like a middle finger to the city because I honestly believe the citizens don't want buildings that tall," said Donelson.
If you take a peek around downtown Colorado Springs, you won't see any skyscrapers. The closest the city gets is the Wells Fargo building, which goes up 16 floors and measures about 250 feet.
The proposed apartment building would have 36 floors and reach 400 feet into the sky.
Donelson said the project has not been submitted to the planning commission yet, but community members want to get ahead of it before it's too late.
"If we draw attention away from that and into the downtown with tall buildings and try to compete with big cities with their skylines, I think that's silly. We should stay focused and we should keep the focus on the mountains. Also that big small town feel," said Donelson.
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Not everyone on the city council agrees with Donelson. At a work session in December, some of the councilors appeared to be in favor of the proposed project.
"We can't have our cake and eat it, too. We can't say we want to have housing affordability and yet do things that block our ability to do that. Or say that we want to attract primary employers, yet block the ability to attract them here," said Councilman Brian Risley.
Donelson told KRDO13 that city leaders will decide in June if they will vote on whether this issue will be taken up by voters in November.
