Colorado Springs City Council voted Tuesday to approve a controversial development called Arrowswest Apartments near Garden of the Gods.
The proposal is for a 222-unit, seven-building apartment complex at 4145 Arrowswest Drive, a location diagonal from 2424 Garden of the Gods. Council rejected a similar proposal to develop that spot in 2021. After granting initial approval, councilmembers changed their minds on that plan due to concerns about public safety and wildfire evacuations.
The newly approved Arrowswest development by Weidner Apartment Homes sits at the same busy intersection, where wildland vegetation meets human development. The area is what’s known as a wildland-urban interface, or WUI.
Some locals are against the Arrowswest development for the same reasons they were against developing 2424 Garden of the Gods. If a fire starts in a WUI, it could quickly reach other residential areas. Additional traffic could also slow evacuations, they argue.
Bill Wysong was among those evacuated during the Waldo Canyon wildfire in 2012, which burned parts of the nearby Mountain Shadows neighborhood. He was against the 2424 Garden of the Gods project and is now one of several vocal critics of the Arrowswest proposal.
“Three and a half years ago we were successful in saying no to 2424,” Wysong said at Tuesday's meeting. “This is a public safety issue.”
Wysong is also the president of the Mountain Shadows Community Association and co-founder of Westside Watch, which advocates for neighborhoods on the west side of Colorado Springs in the face of continued development. He's also running for El Paso County commissioner.
“Colorado Springs is the laughing stock when it comes to evacuation,” Wysong continued. In a 2022 interview with KRCC, he called the intersection of 30th and Garden of the Gods a "chokepoint" for traffic. “Failing to plan is planning to fail,” he said Tuesday.
Other citizens shared Wysong’s apprehension.
“Garden of the Gods during the summer and that specific intersection is going to be a disaster if there is a fire,” said resident Tim Hoiles during the Tuesday meeting.
It's a concern the city's fire marshall, Brett Lacey, addressed when council president Randy Helms asked him about improvements to wildfire preparedness.
“Crews are [now] much better prepared for what we experienced then and, again we thought we were really good then,” Lacey said.
Some citizens see the apartment complex as a necessary step toward closing the city’s housing deficit without expanding outward. Data from the right-leaning Common Sense Institute shows the city was short about 20,000 homes in 2023.
“If 200 homes don’t get approved here, then they’ll get approved where?” said landscape architect and nearby resident Shane Brown. “They’ll keep sprawling into the prairie and stressing our water systems and disturbing previously undisturbed habitat.”
Shelley Jensen runs the housing advocacy non-profit We Fortify. She urged city council to approve Arrowswest, saying the complex would bring much-needed middle-income housing to the area.
After hearing public comments, city council members deliberated before the vote.
Councilman Dave Donelson, who represents the district where the apartments would be located, said he was concerned about a lack of traditional parks nearby and wildfire evacuation.
“We should be very thoughtful about what we’re doing with our gateway to the number one park in America, Garden of the Gods,” Donelson said.
At-large representative David Leinweber noted that the lot where Arrowswest Apartments will be located is privately owned and currently zoned for industrial development. He said he prefers a residential project like this.
“When I think about all the options that could go there I wonder if this type of development is maybe the best path forward for this neighborhood,” Leinweber said.
Council voted 7-2 in favor of rezoning the lot to mixed-use to accommodate the development, with Donelson and Nancy Henjum voting against the change.
Henjum previously opposed the proposal for 2424 Garden of the Gods in 2021. But three new councilors have joined the dais since then, a premonition former councilor Bill Murray voiced in 2023.
"It's a play. [The developers of 2424 Garden of the Gods] openly admit it," Murray said after the developer of that project withdrew from the approval process. "They said, 'Hey listen, we don't have the votes. Therefore we're not going to play here.'"
Though Arrowswest is a different project from a different developer with about half the number of proposed units and is across the intersection, residents’ concerns are the same.
After approving the zone change, council voted 8-1 to approve the actual development proposal. The Arrowswest plan is now clear to move forward.
