El Paso County Planning Commission, Dec. 5 – Urban Landing off Struthers Road recommended for approval

By Helen Walklett

During December, the El Paso County Planning Commissioners heard requests for the proposed Urban Landing Development off Struthers Road.

Urban Landing development

At their Dec. 5 meeting, the commissioners heard combined requests for a 49 single-family lot development on 6.58 acres at the southeast corner of the intersection of Struthers Road and Spanish Bit Drive, south of the Big R store. The developer, Elite Properties of America Inc., is requesting a rezone from R-4 (planned development), a now obsolete zoning category, to PUD (planned unit development) and approval of a preliminary plan.

Ryan Howser, principal planner, Planning and Community Development Department, said that density would be roughly the same under the proposed zoning at 7.5 dwelling units per acre as under the current zoning. He continued, “The previous R-4 zoning also contemplated multi-family and single-family attached for this property. The current proposal contemplates a single-family detached product with no multi-family, no multi-story apartments.”

Each unit would have a two-car garage or two parking spaces on the lot and there would be 22 guest parking spaces. The building footprints would not exceed 800 square feet, excluding the garage and would not be more than 30 feet high. A homeowners association would maintain1.82 acres of usable open space.

As four citizens were present to comment, the application was moved from the consent calendar and given a full hearing. They had questions and concerns about stormwater drainage, traffic in relation to both the gravel roads and access to Struthers Road, light pollution, and compatibility with the surrounding area. Adjacent property owner Doug Schanel, while not opposed to the development itself, said stormwater runoff was already an issue and described the challenges of accessing Struthers Road from Spanish Bit Drive where there are no turn or acceleration lanes.

Steve Sery, a former chair of the Planning Commission and a resident of Chapparal Hills, the subdivision to the east, said the school buses take the unpaved Chapparal Hills route to the elementary school, with Struthers and Baptist Roads being a longer route. He imagined residents of the new development would likely do the same. He called for acceleration lanes from Spanish Bit Drive turning left and right onto Struthers Road to be installed with this subdivision and not wait on further development adding more traffic.

Paul Krause, whose Spanish Bit Drive property is right next to the proposed development, said, “I do 100% oppose the size of this development that’s going to be in there. Something’s going to go in there sooner or later, I get that. The writing’s on the wall and my objective is to mitigate the size of what it is to help mitigate some of the traffic that comes through.”

Chaparral Hills resident Kevin Beechwood described the proposal as a “cash grab by the developers.” “Now you want to take what is a normal-sized lot for Chapparal Hills which is right at the border and you want to put 50 units there. That’s basically the size of this whole neighborhood and that’s in my mind and my neighbors’ minds absolutely ridiculous and unthought of.” He added, “Yes, something is going to be developed but nonetheless putting 50 units and essentially building a trailer park at the end of the road is nothing that is going to be good.”

Chair Tom Bailey commented, “So we’ve given you an opportunity to express a lot of things and I’ll just interject here that the vast majority of those have nothing to do with the approval criteria here and are mostly things that are not the responsibility of the property owner.” He continued, “Our job is to let property owners apply and ask to do things with the property that they own, and this property owner has a plan and would like to do something with it.”

Brooks Swenson with N.E.S. Inc. and representing the applicant, described the proposal as providing “a nice transition to the existing and proposed commercial zone to the north.” He said, “With this just being 49 lots and most of these are one and maybe two bedrooms, it might not be a big driver of a lot of additional students to the school.” Responding to comments traffic would cut through the existing neighborhood, he said he thought it would be much more convenient to use Struthers Road.

Swenson described the Chaparral Hills neighborhood as an anomaly compared to everything else around it which is PUD or R-4, the equivalent of PUD, and compatible with the proposed development.

Andrea Barlow with N.E.S. and representing the applicant, explained that there are a number of proposed improvements to the Struthers Road and Spanish Bit Drive junction. Some are the responsibility of the Urban Landing developer; some are combined improvements with the Cathedral Rock Commons commercial development. She said the two developers are in discussion about the timings of these improvements which would include construction of a northbound right-turn lane on Struthers Road at Spanish Bit Drive, the lengthening of the southbound left-turn lane on Struthers, and construction of left- and right-turn lanes on Spanish Bit Drive at Struthers.

The applicant would also be responsible for paving Spanish Bit Drive to the eastern boundary of their property. Barlow said an acceleration lane on Struthers Drive had not been identified as a required improvement given the volume of traffic.

Commissioner Tim Trowbridge commented, “We need the housing. This does fit.”

The vote to recommend approval was unanimous. The application was then heard at the El Paso Board of County Commissioners’ Dec. 17 meeting. See BOCC article in this issue.

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The El Paso County Planning Commission normally meets the first and (as required) the third Thursday of each month at the Regional Development Center, 2880 International Circle, Colo. Springs. Meetings are live-streamed on the El Paso County News and Information Channel at www.elpasoco.com/news-information-channel. Information is available at 719-520-6300 and https://planningdevelopment.elpasoco.com/planning-community-development/2025-hearings-schedule/.

Helen Walklett can be reached at helenwalklett@ocn.me.

Urban Landing development

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