The Banning Lewis Ranch consists of 24,000 acres and of that total acreage, the northwest corner is the only area under development. Larry Larsen, senior planner for the city of Colorado Springs, said development in that area has been steady and does not show signs of slowing down.ìBefore the previous owner, Banning Lewis Ranch Management Co., went bankrupt, they divided the total ranch into six areas,î Larsen said. ìOne portion is owned by Oakwood Homes (MREC Oakwood Colorado Ranch LLC) and that is broken into six different villages. Each village is about 640 acres. What you see out there now is Village 1 ñ it has about 600 homes, a school and a recreation center. East of that is Village 2. There are plans to develop that but that is the only active development going on right now.îLarsen said crews are currently grading and putting in the utilities for Village 2. Plans include another recreation center, a park, an area designated for commercial development and another school.Peter Hilts, Falcon School District 49 chief education officer, said the school at Village 2 had been tentatively planned as a D 49 charter high school, if the district had been able to pass a mill levy increase and a bond measure in the 2013 November election.ìOver the past six or seven years, the district has made a very intentional choice to compete as a portfolio district,î Hilts said. ìAs a portfolio district, we have been very intentional about providing options for multiple (student) populations. We have great conventional schools at the elementary, middle and high school levels. We have great online schools. We have a very robust charter school portfolio that ends at eighth grade.ìThereís a missing piece in the portfolio, and itís an important piece. Over half of the students who do charter in our district go across Powers to D 20 or D 11 (Academy and Colorado Springs school districts) or do online school because we donít have a high school charter option. We would like to serve all of our communities and right now, we donít.îD 49 parent Angie Morlan said she attended a town hall meeting regarding the potential charter high school in BLR. ìPeter Hilts said it (enrollment) would go to kids in the Banning Lewis development first; and, if there was anything left over, other kids could get in,î Morlan said.She said the idea of having BLR kids get first dibs on the high school didnít bother her, but other parents at the meeting were concerned the district would be paying to build a school that only a small section of the district would be able to access.Because of the feedback, the district abandoned the idea of building a charter high school in BLR, Hilts said. ìCreating a development-specific high school wouldíve been toxic,î he said. ìCreating a district-specific high school is positive.îThe district has changed locations of the charter high school; and, pending a successful mill levy increase and bond measure, the school would be built off Dublin Boulevard and Mustang Rim Drive in Colorado Springs, Hilts said.The district plans to build an elementary school on BLR with the potential mill levy and bond money, he said. ìThat elementary school (non-charter) would be like every other elementary school in the district,î Hilts said.
