Residents on highway 115 fight expansion of housing project that wishes to double in size
EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) - Residents of one El Paso County community is fighting against the expansion of a housing project around their neighborhood, that would also encroach upon Fort Carson.
The proposed expansion comes from The Equity Group, who has already been approved by El Paso County to build 211 houses within the property they outlined in 2018. Now, the group wants to re-zone those same properties into "high density" areas, and expand into building 550 units of housing and apartment units.
Residents of the Rock Creek Mesa Road and Pawnee Road say that the expansion raises concerns over safety, emergency services, and encroachment on Fort Carson land which lies across from highway 115.
"We don't believe from what we've seen, [considering] we started at 211 houses, [and] now we're probably at 900 houses, and [the developer's] going to continue to go down highway 115." explained Felicia Grillo, a resident of the Rock Creek Mesa neighborhood for almost 15 years.
What immediately sticks out to the residents is the amount of vehicle traffic that would be created with several hundred more people, and the one small Pawnee Road that leads out to a busy highway 115 intersection.
The developer says that they sought suggestions from CDOT on mitigating traffic, and stated they would install a right-turn only stop light at the intersection. Residents argued that wouldn't help in the event of an evacuation, or any type of emergency.
"The area that they're proposing to build in has been zoned historically, like R-5 I believe, [which is] rural, because of the evacuation times involved the lack of water to the area." explained Brooke Teal, a concerned resident.
The proposal also suggests there may be encroachment on Fort Carson land, with Gate 5 a very short distance from the Pawnee Road entrance, and the Fort's main entrance just north down the highway.
"The encroachment is such a big issue when it comes to our military installation. It is such a big issue that the federal law, Title X (ten) has a special section in there that addresses encroachment." said Barbara Nelson, who says she has decades of military experience working at multiple bases in Colorado.
Meanwhile, the expansion project all hinges on the developer being granted access by the City of Colorado Springs to annex a small piece of city land, which would include Cheyenne Mountain State Park. With that, the group would then have access to unlimited amounts of water, instead of having to follow the County's guidelines of needing 300 years worth of water in order to build.
That type of annexation proposal is one that residents say has been turned down by the City for other development groups who were trying to build, and wondered why this situation is any different.
"[The developer] wants this one triangle [of Cheyenne Mountain State Park] because it will provide him with the contiguity he needs to get annexed into the city, and to get the city water, so that he can build this development." said Grillo.
"It's for the benefit of the developer, only they'll say that it's for the benefit of the city. But when you're only talking about one triangle [of land], no, that's not for the benefit of the city." added Grillo.
The planner for the City of Colorado Springs says the next step is waiting for a re-submission by the developer on what land will be annexed, but says that will not be include any more land than what was included in Wednesday's presentation.
This is a developing story.
