COLORADO SPRINGS — Voters in Palmer Lake passed an ordinance on Tuesday that will require annexations to be approved by voters instead of relying solely on the town’s board of trustees.
The move comes after the town faced controversy over its elected officials approving eligibility for a flagpole annexation involving a proposed site for a Buc-ee's location to be annexed into town limits. Voters also recalled two trustees because of the decision.
In Colorado Springs, where annexations and land use issues come up often for its city council, it raised the questions, “Could this happen in Colorado Springs?” and would it work?
Not too long ago, voters in Colorado Springs weighed in on annexation themselves at the ballot. A June 17 special election asked voters whether or not they wanted a nearly 2,000 acre plot of land known as “Karman Line” east of city limits to be annexed in to Colorado Springs.
It failed overwhelmingly with 81.92% of voters rejecting the proposal that Colorado Springs City Council had previously approved. A group of people then led the effort to trigger a special election for the decision.
Three council members: Dave Donelson, Nancy Henjum, and Brian Risley spoke to News5 about whether or not this is something that could happen or even work in Colorado Springs.
Both Donelson and Henjum voted against Karman Line when it came before council, the other seven council members at the time, including Risley voted to approve it.
“I would say actually that’s not ideal,” Henjum, who represents City Council District 5, said about putting all annexations on the ballot, "I mean land use matters is the bulk of what we do."
For Henjum, she points out that city council members are elected to make these decisions on behalf of their constituents.
“Annexations are, in fact, really complex, and there's lots of factors, from economic development to infrastructure to, you know, all the things that that impact a city, any municipality. So I think ideally, it really is a decision that should be made by informed elected officials that are representing the people,” Henjum said.
She added that she felt city council was not listening to constituents during Karman Line discussions.
“I actually don't love that that went to the voters, I think what we need to say to the voters is we heard you, and clearly there's something that we're missing,” Henjum said.
The process to approve annexations is lengthy, there’s a petition that land owners fill out and the city can decide whether or to approve or reject it. After that, there’s multiple other steps and presentations to both Colorado Springs city council and the planning commission.
“There are a lot of very important milestones and boxes that need to be checked along the way. Everything from utility infrastructure, the cost of utilities, who pays for the utility expense or infrastructure cost. For a city like Colorado Springs police and fire and other public safety expectations,” Risley, an at-large member of city council said.
Risley echoed Henjum’s sentiment that city council serves as a representative government. He also brought up concerns that Palmer Lake’s ballot question could lead to some legal discussions.
“I think the implications for the city would be extreme,” he said about putting annexations to the ballot, “one from a pure cost standpoint, but two, procedurally.”
The cost of the June special election in Colorado Springs was $500,000.
Risley also raised concerns over how the process will play out in Palmer Lake.
“There will be a a long process to determine whether it's one valid, two legal, and three procedurally, how it dovetails with the state statutes regarding annexations,” Risley said.
Risley faced criticism over comments he made after the special election where he said he felt voters did not understand the nuances of the Karman Line decision he and six other council members initially approved.
"I stand by that statement. I was not calling our voters, uneducated. I was not saying that people don't know what they're voting on. I was simply saying that there are a lot of nuances when it comes to these types of decisions, and our job as elected officials is to be fully educated on what we're voting on," Risley said. " I don't know that everyone who gets a ballot in the mail spends tens or hundreds of hours researching the topic, going to hearings, listening to all sides of an argument, and then ultimately making a decision," Risley said.
Councilman Dave Donelson said he thinks he would support putting annexations on the ballot for voters, in certain circumstances.
“It may be that in Colorado Springs we need to allow smaller annexations just to be approved by city council, say below 50 acres. I don't know what that amount is. We'd have to work with [the] planning department and other stakeholders to figure that out,” Donelson said.
Council members say most of the annexations that come before council tend to be smaller proposals, often times they are enclaves currently surrounded by springs city limits. Larger annexations like Karman Line and Amara, which was a proposed 3,200-acre annexation rejected by council, are more rare.
He said Karman Line is an example that the council is not operating in the interest of voters and that it may be necessary to put annexations on the ballot.
“If we want to grow by thousands and thousands of additional acres, we need citizen buy in on that. We shouldn't do it as a body of nine here, with 82% of the citizens thinking it's a bad idea, but we do it anyway,” Donelson said.
When it comes to the cost of annexation special elections, Donelson said he believes elections happen often enough that annexations could be included in those elections.
City elections are held in April of odd-numbered years, the city can refer ballot questions for coordinated elections in November.
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