Growth, development raise concern in neighborhoods near Banning Lewis Ranch in northeast Colorado Springs
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- For the fourth time in a week, KRDO NewsChannel 13 is receiving concerns from residents about the recent impact of population growth and housing development on their neighborhoods and, particularly, on their schools.
This time, the focus is near the large Banning Lewis Ranch subdivision -- an area mainly bordered by Woodmen Road to the north, Marksheffel Road to the east, Dublin Boulevard to the south and Black Forest Road to the west -- in School District 49.
At issue among some parents is the growing student enrollment at the newer Inspiration View Elementary School and the older Ridgeview Elementary School, and the belief that those schools are near, at, or above capacity.
Rebecca Patton lives in the Indigo Ranch community, has a daughter who attends a charter school in the district and wants to switch her to Inspiration View, but said that may not be possible.
"I've learned in one of the school parent groups that letters are being sent out to families in my neighborhood, inviting them to choice their children into other schools because the school is getting so overpopulated," she said.
Chehala Chapa, who lives in nearby Quail Brush Creek, has a daughter at Inspiration View.
"We were recently notified that the art and music rooms were going to potentially move out of the classroom to a cart, to accommodate the growing population," she said. "They keep building more and more houses and increasing the density of new neighborhoods. This isn't what I expected when I moved here from California in 2016."
The flurry of home construction isn't the only worry for neighbors; they said that a 160-unit residential complex is proposed to be built in the middle of the Quail Brush Creek community.
"There would be no way in and out, except through neighborhood," Chapa said. "That will mean more people, more noise."
While some parents are organizing to learn more about the impacts of growth and development, others question why local governments allow so much of it to happen.
"We hear the concerns," said Tom Strand, president of the Colorado Springs City Council. "We can do better. We can be more sensitive, coordinated and collaborative. As a group -- government leaders, school districts, developers -- we can do better."
District 49 spokesman David Nancarrow said that there are plans in place, previously released to the public, to address the matter. For more information, visit: https://www.d49.org/Page/9583 and https://www.d49.org/Page/8274.
