On May 26, the Colorado Springs City Council approved the master plan amendment, right of way vacation, PUD zone change, and concept plan for Banning Lewis Ranch, Village A by Oakwood Homes.The Village A phase will include building a portion of Banning Lewis Parkway, with a narrower right of way.Katelynn Wintz, senior planner with Colorado Springs Planning and Development, said the proposed amended master plan for Village A will include 297 acres of vacant land, stretching southward from an extended Dublin Boulevard to an extended Stetson Hills Boulevard. It will be bound on the east by the proposed Banning Lewis Parkway.Scott Smith, vice president for land development at Oakwood Homes, said the new homes in Village A will be a mixture of various types of home construction, from single-family homes to carriage homes (a cluster of four separate homes that share a driveway). The plans also include Oakwood Homes Sterling Duets Collection ó homes that share a common wall, but Smith said they are not duplexes.Smith said the anticipated total number of homes in Village A will be about 1,130. He said construction of new homes should start in early 2022.Oakwood Homes plans to donate land for schools, Smith said. If there is any outstanding obligation to schools after the land donation, then Oakwood Homes will be responsible for paying fees to the school district, Wintz said. Smith also said that Oakwood Homes would be working with the city to provide land for fire and police stations.Wintz said there will be two community parks totaling 15 acres included in the 28 acres reserved for open space and trails. She said Village A will also have stream-side trails and open space corridors allowing pedestrian access to the adjacent villages.The right of way for the proposed Banning Lewis Parkway was narrowed from 300 feet to 142 feet as part of the 2018 amendment to the original 1988 developersí agreement for Banning Lewis Ranch. When the developersí agreement was amended, Wintz said the proposed development pattern and the residential development revealed that the 1980s studies were incorrect in assuming an expressway-level roadway would be required. She said the developing land use pattern dictates a lesser roadway classification.Todd Frisbie, city traffic engineer, said the narrower right of way is sufficient to provide six travel lanes. When expansion becomes necessary from the currently proposed four lanes, he said the additional two lanes would be constructed in the median. Frisbee said the timetable for construction of the Banning Lewis Parkway is driven by new development. Developers build sections as needed to provide access to new development and to connect to existing roadway infrastructure, Frisbie said.While Frisbie said the amended developersí agreement states that developers will pay for their own required improvements for the parkway, Smith said construction will be funded by the Banning Lewis Development districts that were recently approved by the City Council. Smith said ultimately the new residents will pay the cost for construction of streets in Village A through the costs of the homes and in fees charged by the metropolitan districts.Smith said the Banning Lewis Parkway is scheduled to be constructed from Dublin Boulevard north to Woodmen Road later this year. He said the extension of Dublin Boulevard is also scheduled for that time. Construction of the first section of the Banning Lewis Parkway from Dublin Boulevard south will begin in 2022. The balance will be connected as necessary to serve local traffic, Smith said.The City Council is also considering the use of a 15-acre site on the corner of Dublin Boulevard and Banning Lewis Parkway for commercial development.
