Colorado Springs voters will decide on annexation of 6,500-home development that has stoked farmers’ water worries
Colorado Springs voters will decide in a special election whether a planned 6,500-home development should be annexed into the city after a successful petition campaign forced the City Council to reconsider its approval of the controversial project.
The Colorado Springs council on Tuesday voted 6-3 to send the question regarding the annexation of the Karman Line development to a special municipal election on June 17. The council also could have nixed its Jan. 28 decision to approve the annexation.
Several council members said letting voters decide the future of the annexation made the most sense of the two options, though they expressed hesitation about spending more than $500,000 to run the election.
The citywide vote provides an opportunity to start a conversation about what the future growth of Colorado Springs should look like — and how the city could remain vibrant while considering limited water resources, several council members said.
“I think there really is a central tension that we’re facing right now as a community, as a city on the Front Range,” said Councilwoman Nancy Henjum, who previously voted against annexing the development. “We’re a canary in the coal mine. We need more housing, but we have a finite amount of water.”
Opposition to the development included Colorado Springs and El Paso County residents concerned about growth and the risk of spreading city resources too thin. Much of the 1,900-acre development east of the city would not touch current city boundaries and would be concentrated nearly four miles from the city border.
Farmers downstream on the Arkansas River also told the council that they worried the annexation would increase pressure on Colorado Springs Utilities to source more water from the region’s farms. The loss of water would shrink even further the agriculture industry that is the backbone of the valley, resulting in far-reaching consequences, farmers said.
The Denver Post reported Sunday on the tension over limited water supplies in the valley and Colorado Springs’ growth.
Already, Colorado Springs Utilities estimates that annually, it will need 34,000 more acre-feet of water than it currently has — or 11 billion gallons — to meet population growth for when the city fully develops inside its current boundaries, estimated to occur around 2070. Every annexation of land into the state’s second-largest city adds to that future gap.
Karman Line would need approximately 1,672 acre-feet of water a year, or 645 million gallons. An acre foot is the amount of water it takes to cover an acre in a foot of water and is generally enough to provide for two Colorado families’ yearly needs.
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