The Colorado Springs City Council rejected a plan to build two apartment buildings next to The Classical Academy after receiving hundreds of complaints from neighbors and parents who said the project would worsen traffic congestion around the charter school.

The Mississippi-based Blackburn Communities wanted to build 236 units near Briargate and Voyager parkways directly west of TCA’s Central Campus on Springcrest Road.

In a unanimous vote Tuesday, the council denied the land use plan proposed by Blackburn and the developer’s rezoning request for the 7.9 acres of property from a business park to mixed-use development.

Concerns centered largely on traffic issues that the charter school already faces.

“Without doing a major transformation of the intersection itself, I find it hard to believe we’re not going to add to the safety problems,” Councilmember Roland Rainey said.

The primary exit from the project would have gone onto Springcrest. In addition to serving the charter school, Springcrest is a main access road for the neighborhoods north of the Pine Creek Golf Club.

The secondary access for the apartments would have been available by right turns on and off of Voyager Parkway, which could be close to the Interstate 25 exit at Briargate. Traffic exiting from that gate would have to cross Springcrest or make a U-turn to reach another major road.

Sarah Pramanik, whose daughter has attended TCA for five years, showed the council a video clip of the line of parents trying to drop off students in May. Cars stretched along Springcrest outside of the school and for several car lengths south along Voyager.

Pramanik said the school had already taken steps to ease traffic, including doubling the drop-off lanes, but the number of families driving across the city to attend the charter school would always create congestion.

“There is a gentleman’s agreement about how the traffic operates around there for school events,” Pramanik said. “If you have a bunch of apartments where people are just zooming through there, kids are going to get hurt. That’s just going to happen.”

Andrew Ritter, development partner for Blackburn, said the lengthy traffic backups were limited to the beginning and end of the school day, and the future apartment residents would have been able to navigate around the traffic.

The estimated average rent for the apartments would have been around $1,800 per month, a price that Ritter said would have supported working-class professionals in northern Colorado Springs and families who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford to live near a major charter school.

“We’re not trying to come in and set the market. We’re wanting to have one that’s competitive but also gives people an opportunity to live in this area,” Ritter said.

Also on Tuesday, the council annexed 19.9 acres of land along Old Ranch Road west of the Kettle Creek Open Space. The zoning changes and land use plan approved for the Kettle Creek annexation are meant to support 123 units of single-family housing.

Both projects in northern Colorado Springs are in City Council District 2, represented by Councilmember Kenneth Casey. The land at Voyager and Briargate would have been better served by the same mixed-use neighborhood zoning as the Kettle Creek project, Casey said: “I think many of us would agree that is a more appropriate use for this area.”