COLORADO SPRINGS — Money from the Colorado Springs TOPS fund just went toward buying two parcels of property that will expand Cheyenne Mountain State Park. TOPS, which stands for Trails and Open Space Tax, is city money. So why is just over $300,000 of TOPS dollars paying for land at a state park?
Cheyenne Mountain State Park is a jewel on the southwest side of Colorado Springs. It has been around for several decades, coming together piece by piece through collaboration.
Hiker after hiker praises their Cheyenne Mountain State Park experience.
"A deer, I saw two animals," said James, who just completed his first-ever hike, also spotting a lizard along the way.
"This was his first hike. So, um, you know, I need a hiking buddy. So James said he would try it and it's, you know, I just feel safe bringing them here," said his grandmother, Angela Urias.
Urias drives from Pueblo to enjoy Cheyenne Mountain State Park and is a repeat visitor.
"My very favorite trail here is Blackmer. It's up a little bit higher, and it takes you through meadow and trees and rocky areas, a little bit of water crossing," Urias said.
"It's just a lot of fun. It's just a lot of beauty, a lot of nature. We saw deer today. It's just beautiful," said hiker Staci Milton.
The grasslands merging with trees and mountainside were recognized for their potential by parks leaders from Colorado Springs and the state back in 2000. That is when a 1,600-acre property known as the JL Ranch was acquired. The park opened in 2007, and around that same time property was acquired at the top of Cheyenne Mountain, which later became accessible via the challenging Dixon Trail.
Two 40-acre parcels have just been added to the park, showing how it has been expanding little by little since it opened.
"Buying these smaller parcels over time, we've now been able to increase that acreage within the Cheyenne Mountain State Park area to more than 3,400 acres," said David Deitemeyer with Colorado Springs Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services.
Just over 50% of the land in the park comes from state funding. TOPS dollars from Colorado Springs paid for the two most recent parcels and just under 50% of other land purchases. It is a shared investment for what both the city and state consider a shared asset.
"Oftentimes we're successful in our TOPS program to have the money to dedicate that fund to acquire property, but we lack the ability and the resources to manage and maintain those lands. That's where this partnership with CPW has been most beneficial," Deitemeyer said.
"I always just imagine that they just block off areas and say you can't develop here, but knowing that they have to kind of acquire it piece by piece and then it takes time to let nature take its course and then within a developed way, that's interesting," Urias said.
The recent acquisition of the two 40-acre parcels was approved by Colorado Springs City Council during the last council meeting in May.
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