The last gasp of opposition to Colorado Springs’ master plan for North Cheyenne Cañon Park escaped City Hall on Tuesday as the City Council denied an appeal to the plan.

City Council President Richard Skorman and members Bill Murray and Yolanda Avila voted to uphold the appeal.

Kent Obee, one of seven former Parks and Recreation Advisory Board members who endorsed the appeal, said he would have been surprised if the motion hadn’t been denied. He said the master plan proposes several “solutions looking for a problem” and aims to bring more tourists to an already crowded park.

But Parks Director Karen Palus and Britt Haley, manager of the city’s Trails, Open Space and Parks Program, said the master plan is designed to improve the area in a sustainable and user-friendly way.

The park’s last plan was finished in 1999. Such plans typically have a life span of up to 15 years.

“A portion of the plan recommends paving a stretch of Gold Camp Road. It also recommends evaluating the majority of the canyon’s parking pull-offs, except at trail heads, to see if they should be closed.”

Many residents told parks officials as the plan was under development that they are concerned about substance abuse, speeding vehicles, threatening behaviors and parking problems along the road, Haley said. Improving the road could curb some of those problems, she said.

The council’s vote echoed that of the parks board; the group approved the master plan last month with a 6-3 vote. During that meeting, the board unanimously approved a master plan for Strawberry Hill, though it barred The Broadmoor, which now owns the land, from breaking ground until a lawsuit seeking to rescind a controversial land swap between the hotel and the city is resolved.

That lawsuit was filed by members of the nonprofit, Save Cheyenne, now headed by Obee. It was initially filed in El Paso County District Court but has made its way to the Colorado Supreme Court.

Obee said Tuesday that he expects the court to announce this summer whether it will hear the case. But Obee’s opposition to the North Cheyenne Cañyon master plan ends with the council’s vote Tuesday, Obee said. There are no plans to appeal the case to the El Paso County District Court.