Three years after La Plata Communities first proposed the sprawling Amara development to be built on thousands of acres of land on its way to being annexed into Colorado Springs, developers on Wednesday celebrated the City Council's decision to welcome the master planned community into city boundaries. "It's got us all charged up and excited about getting the project started. .
.. We're glad we have the opportunity to build another great community in Colorado Springs.
We know Amara is going to be a great addition," La Plata's President and CEO Doug Quimby said. Developers and the city still have a long way to go before dirt is moved and up to 9,500 new homes and 2 million square feet of retail, schools, public safety facilities and parks and open space can be built in Amara. The master plan for the Amara development.
It will be built on 3,200 acres of land currently located southeast of Colorado Springs, in unincorporated El Paso County, that the city will annex. The City Council initially split 5-4 Tuesday night to approve the annexation request as well as a master plan and rezoning request. The council must vote a second time to annex about 3,200 acres of land east and south of city boundaries and surrounded on three sides by the neighboring city of Fountain.
The second vote to confirm the annexation is expected to happen Aug. 13. Developers must then build the water-line extensions needed to serve Amara and finalize agreements with Colorado Springs Utilities and other utility providers in the area to provide permanent and temporary services, respectively.
Quimby said Wednesday that in the "best-case scenario," La Plata could break ground on the project in about a year. Finished lots could be on the ground in two years, then builders will focus on building housing, then retail space. Developers have said the project will be built in four phases over about 24 years.
During more than seven hours of presentation and public discussion Tuesday, project proponents and opponents presented contrasting opinions on Amara. Developers and supporters touted it as an opportunity to provide high-quality and needed housing in upscale planned communities to support the Pikes Peak region's continued growth. A variety of housing types including single- and multi-family homes will provide more choice for residents and will attract "middle-income" earners who struggle to find housing they can afford, like teachers, police, firefighters, nurses and the military servicemembers working at the five military installations across El Paso County.
The median housing price in El Paso County is over $450,000, which is 17% more expensive than the nationwide median of about $392,000, according to a presentation economist Tatiana Bailey, executive director of Data-Driven Economic Strategies, gave Tuesday on behalf of developers. At the same time, she said, the average annual salary in El Paso County is around $63,300. That's 8.
7% lower than average annual wage nationwide, which is about $69,300, and almost 15% lower than the annual wage in Colorado, approximately $74,300. Starting prices for market-rate homes in Amara will range from about the upper $300,000s to the $600,000s, La Plata Chief Operating Officer Mike Ruebenson said. La Plata will make at least 665 homes in Amara, or about 7% of its total residential space, affordable units, as defined by the U.
S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Director of Planning Cody Humphrey said. Several members of the local military community, including spouses and former servicemembers, said Amara is a matter of "mission readiness" for installations like Fort Carson and Schriever and Peterson Space Force bases.
Retired Col. Nate Springer, Fort Carson's former garrison commander, said the No. 1 issue when he was garrison commander was "affordable, quality, attainable housing for soldiers and their family members.
" Donna Nelson, an Army veteran and chief development officer at Pikes Peak State College, said servicemembers and their families living and working around the southern and eastern areas of Colorado Springs deserve the same kind of high-quality housing the city has built in the past 30 years in its northern areas, and Amara will provide it. "I don't know how much longer our soldiers should have to wait to get some nice, new, affordable housing in a beautiful community like the ones that are developed up north. .
.. Personally, I don't think they should have to wait another second," she said.
A site map shows the location of the Amara development that will be built on 3,200 acres of land currently located in unincorporated El Paso County. The land will be annexed into Colorado Springs. It is surrounded on three sides by the neighboring city of Fountain.
Opponents and councilmembers who did not support the project worried Amara could strain Colorado Springs' resources, particularly water and other utilities. Colorado Springs Utilities Chief Systems Planning and Projects Officer Lisa Barbato on Tuesday repeated statements that if the City Council does not approve an additional utility charge that is not included in standard rates, called a rider, to fund Amara-related costs, the development could put the utility at financial risk. Officials may have to delay or reprioritize already-planned capital projects to pay for infrastructure that will serve Amara.
That could negatively impact service reliability and community growth in areas already inside city boundaries, she said. If the council approved using a rider, a Utilities presentation shows the average Colorado Springs residential customer could pay $8.29 a month in Amara-related costs during the first year of the development's buildout.
It is 3.37% more than the current average residential bill of just under $246 a month. The anticipated rates drop dramatically in the second year and fluctuate over the following 10 years, varying between 85 cents a month to $9.
64 a month for residential customers, the presentation shows. La Plata representatives have said Utilities' capital costs to serve Amara "are not materially different" from what is required to serve other new, similar developments in the city. Historically, the city has funded utilities infrastructure for new annexations through base rates.
La Plata's Reubenson said Amara is not the reason Utilities is hoping for a rider to cover costs. "It's easy to point to Amara and say that because of growth, we have to have this rider. In reality, we have to have the rider, because of the regulatory infrastructure requirements that are being done," he said.
Amara is estimated to require about 3,400 acre-feet of water a year when it is fully built out, developers said. The development meets Colorado Springs' requirement that Utilities has a current surplus of water to supply existing customers in the city, as well as the new annexation, Barbato said. Jack Goble, the general manager of the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District that conserves and enhances water resources in the Lower Arkansas Valley south of Colorado Springs, said the council should "consider the impacts this development and others like it have" on neighbors living in the valley, including in Pueblo, Crowley, Otero, Bent and Prowers counties.
The valley relies on irrigated agriculture to fuel its economy; though Colorado Springs Utilities can serve Amara with its existing water supply, Colorado Springs and other communities in the future will need more water from the valley, Goble said. He estimated about 5,000 to 6,000 acres of farmland "would need to be dried up" to support a development like Amara. "With the drying trend we've seen on the Colorado River, it's important to understand the consequences of these development decisions on your neighbors," he told the council.
He said in an interview with The Gazette he is concerned Lower Arkansas Valley residents will "lose (their) way of life to provide more homes (in Colorado Springs)." Councilman Dave Donelson later addressed Goble, saying Amara is proposed to be a water-efficient development. He noted that local conservation efforts have reduced Colorado Springs' per capita water-use rates by 41% since 2001, or by more than 9 billion gallons each year, despite the community's rapid growth in the last two decades.
"In no way do I see (the Amara development) as, 'Hey, we get to use water wastefully or not wisely,'" Donelson said. Fountain Mayor Sharon Thompson said her city supports the Amara project but wants more collaboration from Colorado Springs to mitigate the development's impacts to Fountain roads, public safety and storm-water runoff. "This is our opportunity to set a precedent for a truly regional, collaborative approach to community building," Thompson said.
She requested Colorado Springs staff begin regularly meeting with Fountain staff to address their concerns..
