El Paso County commissioners are expected on Tuesday to consider a new metropolitan district intended to fund a new subdivision of nearly 150 homes in a rapidly growing area near Monument.

Planning documents show the Cloverleaf Metropolitan District proposes issuing $8 million in debt over 30 years to help build the new neighborhood and open space on county land once envisioned for a golf course.

Last month county commissioners approved plans for 144 single-family residential lots and approximately 6 acres of open space on 38.78 acres near the intersection of Higby Road and Jackson Creek Parkway, behind Lewis-Palmer High School. The land was originally intended as a golf course as part of the Woodmoor Placer Subdivision in 1972, but the course was never constructed and neighboring residents have used the area as open space in the interim.

The proposed metropolitan district would include about 37 acres of the new neighborhood, excluding three lots included in the subdivision’s approved preliminary plan because water, wastewater, electric, gas and transportation infrastructure already exists for those lots, according to planning documents.

If approved, Cloverleaf Metropolitan District developers expect to build about 48 homes a year in the subdivision from 2022 through 2025 and capture about 8% of the market in the county.

Developers expect the homes to sell for around $650,000 on average, with costs projected to inflate about 3% every year, planning documents show. Developers plan to charge 65 mills per residence to finance the needed $8 million in metro district debt.

The new metropolitan district must be formed because there is no other public entity that can take on the needed debt, or construct and maintain required water and wastewater infrastructure, planning documents say.

The area included in the Cloverleaf Metropolitan District is within the boundaries of the Woodmoor Water and Sanitation District, which currently services the developed areas adjacent to the new subdivision. The water district has enough water to supply the new development, according to planning documents. If approved, the planned metro district anticipates extending current water infrastructure so the Woodmoor Water and Sanitation District can adequately serve the new subdivision.

Commissioners last month granted the developer’s request to delay the finding of water sufficiency until the subdivision’s final plat is approved.

The developer could construct necessary infrastructure like roadways, sidewalks, drainage facilities, parks and open space, and create a homeowner’s association responsible for maintaining the subdivision’s open space and detention ponds without creating a new metro district. But county planners said the developer’s desire to secure financing to construct the necessary infrastructure and generate funds for its ongoing maintenance are “traditional reasons” to form a special district.

El Paso County commissioners will convene for their regular meeting Tuesday at 9 a.m. at Centennial Hall in downtown Colorado Springs, 200 S. Cascade Ave.

Viewers may also watch the meeting, streamed live, on the El Paso County Facebook page, facebook.com/ElPasoCountyCO.

Meeting agendas are on the county website at agendasuite.org/iip/elpaso.