With construction costs rising and commercial development heating up east of the city, El Paso County commissioners today will consider a sharp hike in fees in the Sand Creek drainage basin.

County staffers have proposed that bridge fees increase to $4,110 per impervious acre from $1,653 per acre.

Officials estimate that the basin, which contains 1,561 acres subject to the county’s fees, is among the largest in the region.

Half lies in the city and half in the county. The basin discharges into Fountain Creek south of Las Vegas Street and extends north to Woodmen Road and east to Marksheffel Road.

Fees for drainage and bridges in all other basins would go up by 6 percent this year under the county proposal. Developers pay the fees when land is platted.

The increase in Sand Creek’s bridge fees stems from a recently completed update to the 1996 basin-planning study, which showed that rising construction and engineering costs have outpaced current fees.

County engineer Andre Brackin said the study also showed that a rise in commercial development translates to the need for larger bridges.

The county collects the fees and uses them to reimburse developers only for drainage and bridge projects they build.

Projects estimated to cost more than $2 million need to be built, the study found, including bridge work at Galley Road, Omaha Boulevard and Genoa Drive.

The proposal has the blessing of the Housing and Building Association of Colorado Springs, said the HBA’s immediate-past president, Bobby Ingels.

“It appears it’s fair and probably should have been incrementally raised several years ago,” he said.

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Contact the writer: 636-0238 or pam.zubeck@gazettedev.gazette.com  

People crowd the National Mall in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington Monday, Jan. 19, 2009, in anticipation of the swearing-in of President-elect Barack Obama Tuesday. Photo by (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Alex Brandon