Colorado Springs City Council approves 2,000 acre annexation despite pleas from farmers over water
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - On Tuesday afternoon Colorado Springs City Council approved a large-scale land annexation in eastern El Paso County, following hours of public comment from southeastern farmers, conservationists, county residents, and first responders.
The Karman Line annexation, takes about 2,000 acres of land east of the current city limits, between Banning Lewis and Schriever Space Force Base, at the corner of Curtis and Drennan Road, with enough space for upwards of 6,500 homes.
For weeks, farmers and conservationists from the Arkansas River Valley have been outspoken about the impact to their farmland and the quality and depletion of the river for southeastern Colorado.
"It's very simple, in order for you, Colorado Springs to get water, you have to dry up farms." claimed one man speaking on behalf of farmers in Rocky Ford.
Those from the area have previously told KRDO13 that they estimate up to 3,000 acres of farmland will go dry as a result of Colorado Springs Utilities siphoning fresh water upstream from southeastern counties. Those arguments remained top of mind on Tuesday.
"This is not sustainable. [The] Arkansas is already stretched to its breaking point. How much more can be asked of our river? Your neighbors downstream have already given all that they can give. The water quality is already to a point where at times it's not even suitable to irrigate crops." explained Chris Tomky, a farmer from Rocky Ford, who harvests corn, alfalfa, and sorghum. "Upstream is pure clean mountain water and then returned to us in the form of effluent while irrigating. We have to wear rubber gloves to protect ourselves from the water that is coming down our river." Tomky added.
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Meanwhile, the Colorado Springs Fire Department (CSFD) and Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD) had representatives at the city council chambers on Tuesday, who confirmed their previous stances on the annexation, which were based on lengthy response times arising due to the swath of homes added to their services areas.
"[We have to] increase the amount of officers, the amount of civilians, and the amount of equipment, the facilities. We have to make sure we can meet those needs." a member of CSPD explained to Councilman Dave Donelson.
The departments explained that within the annexation agreement, the developer did allocate land for facilities to be built such as a training academy for police, and a fire station for fire.
However, the interim period before those structures are built raises concern.
"Until that's developed and we have a fire station in place, we will not be able to provide the services to that location in the same timely manner that we try to achieve within the city limits," stated Kris Cooper, the Deputy Fire Marshal for CSFD.
Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU) acknowledged that there would be some land that dries up as a result of the water they'd be using from the Arkansas, however, it wasn't as high as was being claimed.
"There is a portion of the farm at the corners where there is some dry up farmers are still able to farm and you have some production on that and we're estimating that to be about 20 to 28% of that land, the total acres." explained a representative from CSU on Tuesday following claims by a man from Rocky Ford. "So I really wanted to get that straight, that there is there's a portion, but it's not completely dried up. That's not our goal is to do a complete dry up of the farms," she stated.
CSU also explained that they take the claims about decreasing water quality by farmers like Tomky very seriously, and explained they are actively in conversations with various groups and water conservation districts from the southeastern region to work on mitigating deteriorating water quality.
"We actually have a meeting with him next week that's been scheduled to further these conversations. So we're looking for how we partner with them and build that trust," that same representative stated.
City Councilman Dave Donelson explained that within the next five to seven days, the City of Colorado Springs will become responsible for Bradley Road, however, the actual 2,000 acres of land will take until 2026 to have property tax evaluations. Plans from the developers for the actual construction of the thousands of homes that are anticipated to crop up will begin to form moving forward.