Controversial apartment project in Briargate area of Colorado Springs gains final approval Tuesday

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- The City Council solved part of a recent trend of homeowners opposing planned development that they feel is too close to their neighborhoods.

KRDO first reported late last year on a plan by Titan Development to build a 251-unit apartment complex on Dynamic Drive, near the entrance to the Summerfield neighborhood, in the Briargate area on the city's northeast side.

On Tuesday, at the close of a seven-hour public hearing, the council approved a zoning change and a concept plan, clearing the way for the project to proceed.

In April, the city's Planning Commission approved the project, despite a four-hour hearing that included comments from dozens of residents speaking against the project; the matter required council action because it involved a zoning change.

Tuesday's hearing began at 1:30 p.m., after the council had spent the morning conducting a full agenda of business.

Around 50 people attended the hearing -- mostly Summerfield residents -- and half of them spoke to the council, with none of the attendees expressing support for the project.

Support did arrive, however, in the form of phone comments from the Apartment Association of Colorado Springs and the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce; both implored opponents to support the project as a way of helping to meet the area's high housing demand, and contended that criticisms of the project are largely unfounded.

"I understand the need for housing," said Councilman Bill Murray. "But the kind of apartments we're talking about here, are not what the city needs."

Neighbors believe that building the complex on ten acres -- split between an overflow parking lot for the adjacent T-Mobile call center and a vacant plot behind a fire station -- will disrupt the neighborhood's quiet atmosphere with more people, traffic, noise and related safety issues.

Residents also cited a concern about a lack of privacy if the apartments are too high or too close to the nearest west-facing patios and rooms in Summerfield.

As questions from the council and comments from opponents and the development team dragged on, frustrations began to build in the council chamber.

"I'm not going to vote for either of these," said council president Tom Strand. "I don't think this is ready for prime time. I think the development will be detrimental to the health, safety and welfare of people in the neighborhood. The developer hasn't shown me that he is part of the community."

Titan developer Brian Patterson disagreed.

"It was important for us to be a good neighbor, do what's right, do what we would want to have happen if it was coming next to us," he said.

At one point, Murray became so frustrated that he suggested the vote be delayed for two months to give the developers and neighbors more time to resolve the matter; the other council members didn't support that idea.

Progress finally was made after Councilman Wayne Williams offered several amendments to the proposed plans that requested Titan do more to alleviate neighbors' concerns, and keep the lines of communications open as construction begins.

"Generally, we're not particularly thrilled with some of them, but we can live with them," said Andrea Barlow, project planner.

Bob Sallee, a neighborhood spokesman, had mixed emotions about the compromise.

"Well, our intent is to work with it," he said. "There will be some neighbors who can live with it and some who can't. Those who can't will relocate. Yes, I'm sure some residents will move out over this. Some of us paid thousands of dollars to have unobstructed mountain views when we moved here."

But Williams asked neighbors to be realistic.

"Zoning changes over time," he said. "We're a growing city. If zoning never changed, we'd only have a few hundred people here and they'd still be living on ranches."

Councilwoman Nancy Henjum called for cooperation from Summerfield residents.

"Get to know the people who move into the apartments," she said. "Make friends. Your kids will be playing with their kids and going to school with them."

Concessions made by Titan include: Lowering the building heights from 45 feet to 38 feet (to minimize blocking mountain views for nearby homeowners); building 251 units instead of the initially-planned 300; and doubling the buffer zone (from 70 feet to 130 feet) between homes and apartments.

Another key concession was to make entry and exit at the complex available only on Chapel Hills Drive and Research Parkway, and not on narrower Dynamic Drive in and out of Summerfield.

Summerfield has around 350 homes.

The council passed the zoning change and concept plan by 6-2 margins, with Strand and Murray opposed and Yolanda Avila not present because of previous commitment.