Developers seeking authorization to build single-family homes within a planned development adjacent to the U.S. Air Force Academy will have to wait a little longer for a final decision from town officials.

The Monument Town Council at its regular meeting on July 6 postponed its vote on a request from applicant Elite Properties of America LLC to allow single-family residential homes to be built in the planned Santa Fe Meadows subdivision. The subdivision is located at the southernmost end of the roughly 214-acre mixed-use Falcon Commerce Center development that borders the 17,000-acre Air Force Academy.

The council also postponed its vote on a request to authorize the development of 205 single-family homes in the subdivision.

Councilmembers said they wanted more time to conduct additional discussions with USAFA representatives to address the academy’s concerns related to long-term land use compatibility, including noise impacts, operational safety, stormwater runoff, trespassing and potential impacts to future military aviation activities.

The developer is requesting the town’s approval to modify a previously approved plan and allow both detached and attached single-family uses within the Santa Fe Meadows planned unit development.

Developers want to build a 205-lot residential community on roughly 43 acres, including 135 single-family homes and 70 townhomes with a maximum height of 35 feet tall.

The requested amendment represents a 59% overall reduction in previously proposed residential density and a 50% reduction in proposed building heights, town planning staff said.

The site’s permitted uses currently include civic, industrial, institutional, multifamily residential and warehouse/distribution uses, said Andrea Barlow, a principal with Colorado Springs-based planning and design firm N.E.S. Inc. If the council approves the plan amendments, developers will build single-family homes, not multifamily homes, and warehouse/distribution uses will no longer be permitted, Barlow’s presentation showed.

Among its concerns, USAFA noted in a project review letter included with meeting documents that the proposed housing development is located in close proximity to the academy’s 3,300-acre Jacks Valley military training complex. During training, activities include pyrotechnics, artillery simulations, helicopter operations, drone activity and other exercises that can generate noise, vibration, dust and lighting impacts for future residents, the academy wrote.

The proposed Santa Fe Meadows is also located nearby the academy’s Aardvark Auxiliary Airfield, though developers said it is not currently in use.

Additionally, USAFA representatives have raised concerns about increased stormwater runoff into their property and the potential for trespassing.

Councilmembers questioned whether developers or town staff had further discussions with USAFA regarding a potential conservation easement between the two properties.

Yes, Barlow said. Developers and USAFA met again in March, but developers are not interested in granting a conservation easement that would negate already established development rights.

“This would’ve been a conversation to have a long time ago, before this process advanced as far as it has,” Barlow said.

Developers have adhered to the town’s required 50-foot landscape buffer between USAFA and the proposed subdivision, which is “included and exceeded” in the final planned unit development plan the council has yet to vote on, she added.

She said developers and USAFA have also talked about, though not substantially, potential cost-sharing opportunities that are available through the military’s Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration program but have had no “substantial” discussions on the topic. The REPI program supports cost-sharing agreements between the military, other federal agencies, state and local governments and private organizations to avoid land-use conflicts near military installations.

“We didn’t actually really come to any conclusion on it,” Barlow said.

No representatives from the academy or the Air Force attended the July 6 meeting, which developers and town staff noted is fairly typical.

Councilmembers said they liked the project but shared USAFA’s concerns. They desired more in-depth discussions with the academy before voting on the proposal to ensure they are adequately addressed.

“I’m worried what was brought up before — the potential (that) if this is approved and then something happens after the fact, and (the military) starts doing an investigation and asks the ‘whys’ and the ‘what nots.’ I just want to make sure that we get it right and we’re being good stewards of our surrounding communities,” Councilmember Ken Kimple said.

The council unanimously voted, with Mayor Mitch LaKind absent, to postpone both of the developer’s requests until the Aug. 3 regular meeting. This will allow the time necessary to schedule a meeting between councilmembers Kimple and Chad Smith, town staff, developers and USAFA, they said.

Monument employees hit milestone anniversaries

At the top of the July 6 regular meeting, Town Manager Madeline VanDenHoek publicly recognized two Monument employees who have worked for the town for five years each.

She presented challenge coins to Public Works employee Shawn Farnham and Officer Chase Dukes with the Monument Police Department, commemorating their milestone anniversaries.

“Really, that’s remarkable: five years of service to our public and making sure that we offer great services and that our residents have a great place to live, a great place to work and even recreate here,” she said of Farnham’s and Dukes’ tenures.