Colorado Springs City Council approves 400-unit apartment complex in Cheyenne Mountain neighborhood

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- UPDATE: Late Tuesday night, the City Council approved the proposed Creekwalk Apartments project, to be built south of downtown as part of a continued redevelopment of the Creekwalk area.

The vote was 7-1 with Dave Donelson opposed and Mike O'Malley excused.

The vote came at the end of a public hearing in which neighbors strongly opposed the project.

"I think it's too much for that area," Donelson said.

Ultimately, however, the Council majority expressed satisfaction at the development of the area, and the desire for 400 new apartments to meet the city's housing demand.

"I really like it," said Councilwoman Yolanda Avila. "There's a lot of walkability in that area. It connects to trails. We need to be more open-minded about development. We're a growing city, and before long we'll have a million people. These are things we need to be thinking about now."

(PREVIOUS STORY -- JULY 24, 2023)

Residents in the Broadmoor and Cheyenne neighborhoods are concerned a proposed 400-unit apartment complex off Nevada Avenue will clog vital fire evacuation routes.

The proposed Creekwalk Apartments is part of the larger urban renewal project along Nevada Avenue by local real estate developer Danny Mientka. The seven-story, 400-unit apartment would be the latest addition to the handful of new restaurants and shops that are already open in the area.

“We need people to live down here,” Mientka told the planning commission last month. “We need people to walk their dog along this creek and feel safe and send the signal to others that this is a safe place.”

On Tuesday, the Colorado Springs City Council will hold a public hearing and vote on an amendment to the city’s zoning map for the proposed development and a development plan to allow construction of the apartment complex.

Many residents in the Broadmoor and Cheyenne neighborhoods plan to attend the meeting to voice their concerns about how the development will affect fire evacuation routes and traffic, which they said is already a mess.

“We only have really three egresses here to get out,” said Dana Duggan, who lives in Broadmoor Heights. “There are two lanes in most cases and they're not really conducive to evacuation.”

Duggan worries the influx of people into the area due to the 400-unit apartment and more than 500 parking spaces will affect fire evacuation routes.

“We should do the modeling and be clear about the impact that these additions are going to have in these already overdeveloped areas,” Duggan said.

In 2021, 13 Investigates reported on fire evacuation routes throughout Colorado Springs and concerns about how long it would take people in the city's most fire-prone neighborhoods to get to safety if a major wildfire were to break out.

Mike Robinson, a professor at Old Dominion University, who studies both man-made and natural disaster emergency evacuations, researched the clearance times in Colorado Springs.

The disaster evacuation professor used a system named FLEET (Fast Local Emergency Evacuation Times) to assess both districts' evacuation clearance times. FLEET - funded by FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security - is used to estimate evacuation times not just during fires, but for hurricanes, flash floods, and even terrorist attacks.

In his presentation, Robinson says FLEET is extensively tested and provides evacuation clearance times accurate to within 15%. FLEET is not a substitute for emergency evacuation plans, it's not a replacement for regional transportation models or plans, nor is it fire or weather models.

Using FLEET, Robinson's team conducted a variety of evacuation scenarios: with and without accidents, the number of tourists, whether or not there is construction, etc.

In the Broadmoor District, which includes the Broadmoor Bluffs, the Broadmoor Resort, and the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, FLEET simulations found that Cheyenne Boulevard and West Cheyenne Road were more problematic the closer vehicles got to Nevada Avenue.

The study finds that evacuees from the Broadmoor Resort, and to a lesser extent evacuees from Cheyenne Zoo, have a significant impact on evacuation clearance times.

"If you add those people in, the time to evacuate the Broadmoor Region is greatly increased because of the number of vehicles that are added to the road," Robinson told 13 Investigates at the time. "It could be over five hours."

The city’s 2010 evacuation study even said Cheyenne Mountain Boulevard can’t support evacuation traffic.

However, city staff tells 13 Investigates that emergency evacuations are not a requirement for developments, only general traffic impact is evaluated.

“Emergency evacuation is not part of a review for a planned development,” said Mike Tassi, the assistant director of planning and community development for the city of Colorado Springs.

Last month, the planning commission recommended approval of the project to the city council. Each of the commissioners applauded the project as a perfect example of urban renewal.

But Duggan sees it as a case of overdevelopment.

“We're not against development,” she said. “I just don't want to burn in my car. I want to be able to get out. It's that simple.”