On Nov. 15, a group of seven Falcon residents and business people announced that they’ve registered “Citizens for a Better Falcon” as an issue committee with Colorado’s Secretary of State. Their purpose: Explore the idea of incorporating Falcon as a city.Committee members are Mike Hurd, Brian Swanson, Frank Gonzalez, Lynne Bliss, Jason Gray, Domenic Zambrano and Chris Wright.”Part of the community wants to incorporate. We want to see how much of the community wants it,” Wright said.Bliss said the group has some tentative boundaries in mind: Rex Road to the north, Curtis Road to the east and Falcon Highway to the south. At the southwest corner, the proposed city would butt up against Colorado Springs city limits and include Falcon Highlands and Wal-Mart. The western boundary would include developments west of Meridian Road.”All of this is subject to change and what people in the affected areas want,” she said.The proposed city would not replicate services already provided by special districts, such as the Falcon Fire Protection District, Bliss said.As for police protection, the proposed city could contract with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office for urban coverage.”Right now, we’re getting rural [coverage] and when you up it to urban coverage, you get more officers and they’re more dedicated to our area,” she said.Committee members have been visiting with people in Centennial and Castle Pines who worked for the incorporation of those cities.”When we were up at Centennial, a sheriff’s car drove by. On the back, it said ‘Arapahoe Sheriff’ and on the door, it said ‘City of Centennial.’ That was very cool,” Bliss said.The group has set up an e-mail address, City_of_Falcon@yahoo.com, to take questions and comments and will use that address to send out a newsletter and e-mail blasts. A Web site and blog are coming, too.In December, they plan to hold meetings with individuals, civic groups, neighborhoods and homeowners associations. They’re planning to hold town hall meetings in January.”The first thing people are going to ask is ‘how much is it going to cost me?’ which is a valid question and something we’re working on,” Bliss said.”It’s really going to be a total community effort, and we are fully prepared to move forward with finding out what the community wants.”For Bliss, the recent request by Clipper Windpower for a high-power transmission line easement through Falcon along Highway 24 is an example of why Falcon residents need more control of the way Falcon develops.The possibility that Colorado Springs might someday annex all or part of Falcon is another motivator.If it turns out that most people would rather take their chances with Colorado Springs annexing, we’ll have to live with that, she said.
