A proposed downtown land swap due for a Colorado Springs City Council vote Tuesday drew plenty of questions from council members Monday, as city staff repeatedly outlined the benefits of the deal.

With the U.S. Olympic Museum set to break ground in southwest downtown this spring, city officials want to push forward with the Urban Renewal Area established there in 2001.

Nor’wood Development Group is the master developer for that quadrant, and its subsidiaries own a 1.12-acre plot that the city wants to acquire in exchange for two city parcels totaling a little more than 5.5 acres.

Nor’wood would benefit because a planned pedestrian bridge from the Olympic Museum to America the Beautiful Park would end at the land now owned by the city, property that Nor’wood could develop to serve visitors.

But the city would be well-served too, staff members emphasized.

Council members earlier had insisted they could approve the trade only if the city would be indemnified from any responsibility for the environmental contamination on its land, created by a coal-gasification plant that once operated there.

Now a new real estate contract is being drafted to contain that caveat, as the cleanup could cost up to $4 million.

The city also would get a better deal from the Colorado Department of Transportation, which expects to finish the massive intersection at Interstate 25 and Cimarron Street in October.

CDOT is obligated to create a stormwater project to compensate for the vast amounts of impermeable surface it is introducing to that area. And it’s agreed to create a trail for the city too.

If the city gets the Nor’wood land, CDOT could create a detention pond, which is far more efficient than the underground vault the agency otherwise would provide, said Public Works Director Travis Easton.

The detention pond wouldn’t be on the Nor’wood land, though; it would be on city-owned right of way, said Chief of Staff Jeff Greene.

The trail would be better too, because the existing configuration has eight switchbacks that would be difficult to traverse and likely impossible for disabled people using handbikes, said city Traffic Engineer Kathleen Krager.

With the new design, the trail would cover a gentle slope with only two wide switchbacks, Krager said. And it would be on one side of Cimarron, rather than having two separate one-way trails flanking the street.

She said the new trail would continue the connection from the Midland Trail to downtown.

Council concerns continued, though, especially after a consultant revealed that the last environmental study on the city site was done in 2007 and 2008.

“Nothing on the surface has changed,” said Councilman Don Knight, “but there’s been a lot of groundwater movement possibly, considering all the rain we’ve had. I don’t want us to be stuck with a $3 million or $4 million bill ourselves.”

Greene said, “There needs to be language included that once we start construction and identify any further contaminants, that there’s indemnity by the previous property owner.

“If there are major environmental issues with that property, the mayor’s not going to execute that contract. With America the Beautiful Park, the environmental contaminants were very different than those associated with 25 and 125 Cimino (Street),” the city-owned parcels.

The council meeting begins at 1 p.m. in council chambers at City Hall, 107 N. Nevada St.