Colo. Springs City Council reacts to over 80% of voters rejecting a land annexation they approved

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - Although special election results remain unofficial as of Wednesday, the voters of Colorado Springs appear to have largely spoken their minds on the Karman Line Annexation, with almost 82% voting against the annexation in eastern El Paso County.

Now, city leaders are conflicted on the people's choices, even though they starkly contradicted the council's votes to originally push the annexation through earlier in 2025.

As of 1:40 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, the City Clerk's office showed a total of 82,219 votes counted from the special election. 67,312 were tallied against the annexation, while 14,851 were for it.

The special election had voters choose to approve of, or vote against, an ordinance to annex upwards of 1,900 acres from El Paso County into the city limits. The land for the Karman Line annexation sits about three miles from city proper, using whats defined as a "flag pole" to connect into Colorado Springs.

The Karman Line Annexation had gone through a rigorous process over the course of two years, through Colorado Springs City Council and local utilites, in order to become a reality. It was approved in late-January 2025 on its first vote, and then was approved a second and final time in early-April.

Both council votes were tallied at 7-2, with only Council Members Dave Donelson and Nancy Henjum voting against the annexation.

However, a large-scale petitioning effort against the annexation was successful and brought the decision back before the city council. They either had to terminate the annexation, the same one they had passed twice, or put it to a special election ballot measure.

The council was then presented with two votes. The first, asked whether they should overturn their previous 7-2 vote of approval, which resulted in a 6-3 vote to not do so.

The no votes included Lynette Crow-Iverson, Dave Donelson and Nancy Henjum. Donelson and Crow-Iverson both expressed that they thought a ballot measure would be a waste of roughly $500,000 to the city to run the special election, since they believed it would fail if put to voters.

The second vote, meant deciding whether the issue would do to a special election then instead. The council ultimately voted 8-1 for that decision with Council-member Brian Risely being the lone vote against. As a result, the voters would decide the fate of the annexation, which the council had readily approved of.

With the votes still rolling in Wednesday, Donelson called the backfire of public support "concerning", due to the polarity in the city and the people's votes, adding it should serve as a lesson.

"Our charter has a process for citizens who aren't satisfied with what council does, and that charter says that they can gather signatures and get something on the ballot so that we can basically verify if council is representing the will of the citizens. And this time we found out overwhelmingly that we weren't representing the will of the citizens." Donelson explained.

This was the first special election held for a land annexation in nearly 40 years, when voters were tasked with deciding the future of the North Gate annexation in 1986.

Despite the unofficial results, Donelson says he doesn't believe that this June 17 election will set a precedent for future annexations in the city.

"What it says is not all annexations will be accepted, right? That's a big difference than saying no, annexations will be accepted," he said. "Normally it'll be a city council vote, and if [an annexation is] not, I would say kind of outlandish, it wouldn't gather the signatures [needed]," he later added.

Meanwhile, Council President Pro-Tem Brian Risley, who had voted for the annexation twice, and voted to put the decision to a special election, says the large discrepancy in support came down to voters understanding on the annexation.

"And I don't know that a lot of voters understood the nuances of what an annexation means. And I don't know that they understood the nuances of the long-term sort of legacy that is left by annexing or not annexing." Risley said on Wednesday.

Risley cited the concerns that opponents to the annexation made about the annexation being a flagpole -- and countered by arguing the Briargate annexation from the 1980s was also a flagpole going north, but over time it has been filled in.

"I don't think anyone would question that Briargate is an important and vibrant part of the city, that part of the city's fabric. It's an economic driver for the city." the President Pro-Tem said, adding that the city also will lose out on money from Karman Line, if it is to be developed in El Paso County instead.

At this time the developer group behind Karman Line stated on Tuesday night that there is no definitive plan moving forward on what will happen with the land.

Meanwhile, City Council President At-Large Lynette Crow-Iverson was out of the country on Wednesday, but sent this statement to KRDO13:

"The people have spoken clearly and decisively. With 67,312 votes against and only 14,851 in favor, the results show that our residents are not supportive of flagpole annexations. This overwhelming opposition sends a strong message: future growth must be thoughtful, contiguous, and aligned with the values and long-term interests of the community.

Smart growth remains essential to our city’s future. It is how we keep up with the sales and use tax revenues that fund critical government functions—public safety, fire protection, and infrastructure. While the annexation proposal was rejected, the need for strategic, responsible growth remains. We must now find better paths forward that respect the will of the voters while securing the economic foundation our city relies on."

Stay up to date with the latest local news, sports, and investigations by downloading the KRDO13 app. Click here to download it from the Apple App Store. Android users can download it from Google Play here.