Terry Stokka has lived in Black Forest for 29 years. He is president of the Friends of Black Forest, chairman of the Black Forest Land Use Committee and chairman of the Black Forest Water & Wells Committee.
Disclaimer: This column does not necessarily represent the views of The New Falcon Herald.
More on annexation
Am I going to be annexed into Colorado Springs ?
By Terry Stokka
I have had several people ask me if they will be annexed, as they see small and large parcels being proposed for annexation into Colorado Springs. The short answer to the question is, “Not likely.”
If you remember from last month’s article, annexation basically happens in one of two ways. First, a property owner or a majority of the property owners in a development request annexation into the city, and the city agrees after deciding the annexation is to their benefit related to the infrastructure costs and added tax revenues. Second, you could be annexed if your property is surrounded by already annexed property. In that case, the city can force your property to be annexed if it is to their financial benefit. If it hasn’t already been annexed, it is likely the city decided long ago it wasn’t to their financial benefit to bring you into the city.
Several weeks ago, the city held an open house to show the current status of annexations in and around the city. Outside the city limits for about 3 miles was a blue-colored area that showed potential areas for annexation. Shades of color from light blue (areas with low probability for annexation) to dark blue (areas with moderate to high probability for annexation) provided a general idea of what the city was thinking. Areas such as Black Forest and Falcon were light blue but clearly these areas didn’t currently meet the criteria for annexation outlined above.
The city doesn’t want to annex Black Forest because the lots are too big and the cost to bring water and wastewater utilities would not be worth it. The area outside the trees on the south edge of Black Forest is being developed with city-sized lots, and they will likely be annexed at some point. Even if the city enacted some sort of exception to have people keep their wells and septic systems, I would think they would be responsible to provide water and wastewater utilities if your well or septic failed. If they didn’t provide that guarantee, why annex? Furthermore, Black Forest is not surrounded by annexed property so the city couldn’t force annexation, and why would Black Forest residents ever request it?
All of Falcon isn’t going to be annexed because a bundle of residential developments and businesses would be required to request annexation. Then you have all of these metro districts and water districts involved. It would also require the awkward idea of a flagpole annexation along Woodmen Road to make it happen.
According to February’s column, a flagpole annexation means that the parcel in question is separated from the city limits. “In this case, a small parcel of land, often along a road or right-of-way, only 50 by 50 feet is ‘annexed’ to the city. Since one-quarter of the parcel perimeter adjoins the city, it meets the requirement. Then another and another 50-by-50 foot parcel is “annexed” until the “flagpole” extends all the way to the parcel in question.”
As more and more businesses and residential developments along Woodmen are annexed and move the city limits eastward bit by bit, I see the possibility that the Walmart, Safeway and King Soopers cluster around Meridian and Woodmen (plus all the small businesses in that area) could unite to request annexation via a flagpole. While they would then be required to pay city taxes, they would get city utilities and not be under the various metro districts and water districts that tend to have problems and need to drill deeper wells. City taxes and city water and sewer bills might be worth the security of being out from under the metro districts.
Annexation discussions also bring up the issue of incorporating Falcon or Black Forest. This idea has been tried several times and has been voted down. While the advantage of being able to chart their own course and not be under the thumb of our county commissioners is attractive, incorporation brings the added layer of town taxes and no one likes that. Even with the prospect of having freedom to do what the town wants is often not enough to sway people to vote YES. Too many people say that incorporation would not affect them so they vote NO. Incorporating also means setting up a whole town government that is complicated and costly. So we continue to be ruled by a vague and very flexible county master plan that effectively allows our county commissioners to develop our areas in ways that we do not like nor do we think is the best. The developers rule the county commissioners so we “other folks” don’t count.
So, if I were you, I wouldn’t be concerned about annexation unless you are in a development south of the tree line in Black Forest and east of Black Forest Road. That is where annexation is going to take place northeast of Colorado Springs.
