The Gazette ran several articles on the potential troubled skies of Colorado Springs in the last 24 hours. "Height of Controversy", "Should Colorado Springs limit building heights downtown — and should residents have a say?" , and "Comparing Height Limits in 3 Front Ranger Cities - Boulder, Denver and Fort Collins" but unfortunately the "Height of Controversy" piece did not include a link to this petition, and the "..Should residents have a say", which did have a link to the petition, is behind a paywall making it harder for people to access this petition. We have asked the Gazette to include the link to this petition in all pieces as it's the only way the people's voices can be heard, en masse, to let our City Council know that we would like them to refer this issue to the ballot to let the voters of Colorado Springs decide if they want to start adding 400-800 foot buildings anywhere in our city. As the article notes, this is just the beginning. Several skycrapers are in the works with each likely trying to trump the next in height. Four-hundred feet quickly turns to 800 feet in a no height limit city. So, we need your help spreading the word.
Once again, props to Councilmember Dave Donelson for looking out for the people.
There were several inaccurate claims and postulates made by the supporters.
- The projected growth of 1,000,000 people in El Paso County by 2045 has been called into question. Per the state demographer, we have hit record lows due to two major demographic trends: the long-tail Baby Boomer demo hitting mortality age and the dramatic drop in fertility rates with Colorado's being 1.48, 6th lowest in nation. El Paso County grew net 3,350 people in the last census update (2021-2022). Most following this issue believe 2022-2023 will be even worse. More updates to follow on those projections at a later date.
- Did you know that Boulder's height limit is 35 feet, 3 stories, by right and 55 feet by "modification", i.e. variance. In fact, there's an a capella group named 3-Story Limit in honor of this sage policy which has benefitted the city enormously both in financial wins with high-wage campuses and quality of life for residents -- including a large high wage tech workforce.
- The claim that high-wage tech workers want to live in high-rises is unequivocally contradicted by Boulder's tech success gaining a $10,000,000 Google campus, Twitters and a bevy of robotics companies as we added burger joint after burger joint. Boulder has consistently ranked tops in the Kaufman Report for VC investments in start-ups, out-ranking San Francisco at times, and has been lauded for and benefitted from their height restrictions, strong open space protections and very tightly controlled growth which is what attracted the high-wage tech workers. In fact, since COVID and the rise of remote working, tech workers have fled urban living for smaller, more rural living in search of a work-life balance.
- Little to no focus on the price points of this first 400 foot LUXURY apartment complex. It is NOT affordable housing.
So, who is this really for, then? It's not affordable housing. It ruins the views and character of the city. It has negative environmental impacts including poorer air quality and more heat islands. Skyscrapers densify pollution.
The only people winning here are....
The Developers...
...who consistently spend millions funding their candidates into office.
It is disappointing that Councilmembers Risley, Henjum, and Crow-Iverson who are quoted in the articles, show no willingness to refer this to the ballot in November. While they may personally support 400 foot and taller buildings downtown, why won't they let the citizens they represent vote on this? We call on them to let the citizens vote!
It's on us to grow this petition so they see we want a vote of the people. Please share the petition, multiple times, on your social media and send it in your email. We need to drive the numbers high enough so they have to listen to us.