The Colorado Springs Planning Commission approved plans Wednesday to build hundreds of apartments in Briargate after hearing about two hours of opposition from residents who were chiefly concerned the development will make evacuations more dangerous in the event of an emergency such as a wildfire.
Commissioners voted 5-2 to approve the proposal from Portland, Ore.-based developer DBG Properties to build the Royal Pines Apartments at the intersection of North Powers and North Union boulevards. Commissioners Jack Briggs and Marty Rickett were opposed; commissioners Colby Foos and James McMurray were absent.
The project includes 232 one-, two- and three-bedroom units built in three four-story buildings, as well as a one-story clubhouse. The units will be affordable units marketed toward working families making between 30% to 70% of the area median income, or less than $70,980 a year, said Eric Grodahl, a principal with DBG Properties.
In June, the City Council declared the city's intent to issue up to $40 million in private activity bonds to build the units.
"This project is well-positioned in our housing market, as it's going to be meeting a very real and growing need for workforce housing here in Colorado Springs," Steve Posey, Colorado Springs' chief housing and community vitality officer, told the board.
Average rents in Briargate are near $1,700 a month, with three-bedroom units renting for more than $2,100 a month, he said. Nearly three-fourths of the units in the Royal Pines Apartments are expected to rent for between $1,000 to $1,400 a month.
Seven people spoke in favor of the project Wednesday, most of whom work or are involved in the housing industry.
The Royal Pines Apartments are proposed in an area where there are currently few attainable units, said Jill Gaebler, a former Colorado Springs councilwoman and the executive director of the Pikes Peak Housing Network. More diverse and affordable housing options are "desperately needed" for residents who serve in the military and who work at nearby schools and hospitals, she said.
Devin Camacho, government affairs manager for the Colorado Springs Chamber & Economic Development Corp., said the project will add to the Pikes Peak region's available housing inventory that is currently short by more than 12,000 units.
Nearly 40 people spoke against the project Wednesday, most of them residents who live in the Pine Creek neighborhood adjacent to the proposed development.
Many neighbors said they don't oppose more attainable or affordable housing options in the city, but said the Royal Pines Apartments were not compatible with the surrounding neighborhood.
They worried nearby schools in Academy School District 20 cannot handle additional students and said online apartment listing website apartments.com shows Colorado Springs already has thousands of available rental units, among other concerns.
Some neighbors said they bought their homes in Pine Creek because they believed the proposed project site was zoned for commercial use only.
"None of us are opposed to low-income housing and we do believe it is needed. ... We just feel the city could make a better choice in approving such a development in an area that could safely and logically support a high-density project," said Dr. Cristy Fisher, a Pine Creek resident and owner of Pine Creek Veterinary Hospital.
City staff said the site has always been zoned to allow multifamily uses and the school district presented no concerns about the apartments.
Neighbors are chiefly concerned new residents living in hundreds of apartment units will impede traffic and impact already congested roads around the development site and the Pine Creek neighborhood.
There is already too much traffic on Briargate Parkway, Union Boulevard and Powers Boulevard bordering the neighborhood, residents said. Without a connection from the apartment site to a main thoroughfare like Union, neighbors worried traffic would go through residential streets like Royal Pine and Pine Manor drives to get to and from Briargate Parkway and Interstate 25. Additional traffic could create safety hazards for people walking or biking in the area, they said.
With one entrance and two exit points proposed for the complex, and roundabouts located along the exit route, residents said they were concerned about critical and potentially deadly traffic backups during emergency evacuations.
Joseph O'Keefe, an attorney with the Baker Law Group representing Preserve Pine Creek, a group of Pine Creek neighbors opposed to the project, presented a short video showing a staged, staggered evacuation in which 150 neighbors took part in December.
The staged evacuation showed traffic exiting out of the area was gridlocked within 1½ minutes, O'Keefe and Pine Creek residents said.
"We were polite and we weren't panicked," said Pine Creek resident Sarah Markham, who participated in the staged evacuation. "It's not going to be the same in an emergency."
Marc Painter, an attorney for the developer, said residents' staged evacuation was not conducted under controlled circumstances with first responders moving traffic out of the area. A two-direction road was still used as a two-direction road during the evacuation model; in an emergency, all lanes would lead out of the area, he said.
Colorado Springs Deputy Fire Marshal Kris Cooper said evacuation modeling is inaccurate because it lacks real-time information and evacuation events are widely variable. The project site is not located in a wildland urban interface that is at greater risk for catastrophic wildfire, he said.
"If there are models being run or assumptions being made that this would be impacted by a forest fire event, that's inaccurate because this neighborhood would not fall within those qualifications," he said.
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