Land & Water by Terry Stokka

LAND & WATER: Water Rights and Private Wells

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.

What is annexation?

By Terry Stokka

Annexation refers to the process in which a city adds a parcel of land into the city limits. By adding the land, the city is committing to maintaining roads and providing utilities (gas, electricity, water and wastewater), as well as law enforcement. 

Most residents outside the city limits have had private wells and septic tanks or small metropolitan districts that provide water and wastewater so inclusion into the city simplifies those utilities and gives those residents greater security. Roads and law enforcement were already provided by the county so that is not much of a change, depending on who maintains the roads the best. Trash service is independent of city limit boundaries. Natural gas may have been provided by a different company than the city utility. Schools and fire districts are not affected since their boundaries cross over between city and county. 

Annexation may or may not be an advantage. The residents will now pay taxes to the city, but the annexation allows the people to have a say in city affairs. It can streamline utilities and save money. On a city map, there are a number of areas that are not annexed. These are known as enclaves or islands that were once outside the city limits and, as the city grew around them, they didn’t annex. In many cases, smaller enclaves have requested and received city utilities but haven’t been annexed because they were built to county standards that were less stringent than city standards. Primary examples of lower standards would be no curbs, gutters, storm water drainage and sidewalks. Annexing those enclaves would be too expensive for the city to bring the area up to city standards for the tax revenue involved. 

Larger enclaves such as Cimarron Hills serve around 18,000 customers in an area roughly bounded by Powers Boulevard, Highway 24 and Constitution Avenue. In that area, Cherokee Metropolitan District provides water and wastewater services. Cherokee would like to be absorbed by Colorado Springs Utilities and has made this desire known, but the city is not interested at this point because Cherokee has a very large debt from a pipeline to the Black Forest and an upgraded wastewater plant. Colorado Springs and El Paso County have agreed that future residential developments in the county will be built to city standards in anticipation of being annexed sometime in the future.

Annexation happens in one of several ways. The most common way is when a property owner or the combined owners of a parcel request annexation. This is permitted when at least one-sixth of the property’s perimeter adjoins the city limits. After the request, the city reviews the request to see if the annexation would be beneficial to them in terms of tax revenue and infrastructure costs. If an enclave has been surrounded by the city for at least three years, the city can force annexation on the parcel if they feel it is beneficial to them. However, many of these enclaves are not up to city standards so they remain under county jurisdiction as an island in the middle of the city.

One distortion of the annexation rules is called a flagpole annexation. This happens when someone wants to annex to the city but their parcel 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. Examples of flagpole annexations being proposed are Amara (3,200-acre parcel south of Security declined by the city for water issues), Karman Line (1,900 acres southwest of Schriever Space Force Base that was approved for a flagpole annexation) and Buc’ees travel plaza south of County Line Road and west of I-25 (the parcel is under consideration for a 2-mile flagpole annexation to Palmer Lake). To this writer, flagpole annexations make a mockery of the annexation rules and principles.

Annexation of the right kind is taking place slowly, moving eastward along Woodmen Road. In this area, small parcels, sometimes only one or a small number of businesses, are annexed into the city limits. Infrastructure costs are small and the tax revenue from a commercial business makes it advantageous for the city to approve the small annexation. Public notices in The Gazette are common for these cases. Annexation may be arriving in parts of Falcon sooner rather than later.

 Annexation is fraught with rules and stretching of the rules — too numerous to discuss in this article, but hopefully this summary has helped you understand more about annexation.

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Terry Stokka

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