Editor’s note: This story has been updated from its original publication to clarify that metropolitan districts like Falcon Highlands are government entities can work inside and outside city limits as a financing tool for public works in a community without access to municipal utilities. 

Three Falcon Highlands Metropolitan District board members are facing a recall election in July over groundwater issues and what some community members believe is a developer conflict of interest.

Over several months between this year and last, Janelle McNeil’s Falcon Highlands home would not stop flooding. She said water started coming into her basement in summer 2023, quickly overwhelming the capacity of the sump pump. Two more sump pumps later, the water still poured in, forcing her to forgo vacations in case of power outages and pay for water damage whenever the pumps did stop.

“Our basement flooded twice in six months,” she said.

McNeil’s flooding issues are not unique to the housing development located in north El Paso County. Multiple homeowners have had to empty thousands of gallons of water onto the street due to what the county and some community members have identified as a failed underdrain system unable to handle the area’s high groundwater.

The underdrain problem has sparked debate over the interests and responsibility of the metro district, El Paso County, and the current active developer in the district, Challenger Homes. It has also prompted some community members to band together over a petition to recall three of the district’s board members: Erin Ganaway, Leo Schuhmacher and Tom Dickey.

A slate of five candidates are running for the seats, which if recalled will be filled in the same mail-in election ballot. Each seat had over 400 signatures on the petition, enough to trigger a recall election according to designated election official Wayne Williams. District residents Ainsley Sinclaire and Angelinda Rush are running for the seat occupied by Ganaway, while residents Bob Aamodt and Cory Nyugen are running for Shuhmacher’s seat.

Curtis Fletcher, running for the seat occupied by Tom Dickey, could not be reached for comment, nor could Ganaway, Schumacher or Dickey. The Falcon Metropolitan District declined to comment.

The underdrain

Recall committee chair Kayla Higbee said that the board was reluctant to claim responsibility for the underdrain failure that allowed groundwater to back up into homes. While spot repairs started earlier this year to address the issue, she said she felt the problem came about due to “mismanagement” of the board.

“We got a lot of push back from the board members who didn’t really do a lot of research into what was going on,” she said.

Metropolitan districts like Falcon Highlands are government entities that typically work inside and outside city limits as a financing tool for public works in a community without access to municipal utilities. The Falcon Highlands Metro District board has funding authority though property taxes to regulate public utilities, like water and sewer. The original builder, which has since gone out of business, no longer has responsibility for maintenance.

Some public infrastructure, like roadway repair, is still the responsibility of the county. Falcon Highlands resident Cristina Welch said she believes this overlap caused ongoing issues with the underdrain system to drag on as neither entity took responsibility for needed repairs.

“Metro districts in general are really convenient for the developer and for the county and really inconvenient for the homeowners that don’t know what they’re getting themselves into,” she said.

Welch had a higher load on her sump pump until a repair was done to the underdrain near her house in December. She said excessive water has returned twice since as other parts of the system were flushed.

“It’s still unsettling, and they still need to do more work,” she said.

El Paso County Engineer Josh Palmer said that while the underdrain was the responsibility of the metropolitan district, Falcon Highlands might not have been aware until it became an issue. The county has taken recent steps he says to “clear up” its policy on metropolitan districts when before there might have been more ambiguity on the county’s responsibilities.

The county was made aware of the problem at the beginning of 2023, when water runoff affected a roads project in the development.

“I think if they had known then they would have had a maintenance plan in place for this,” he said.

Several of the candidates said they disapproved of how the metropolitan district handled the issue. Candidate Bob Aamodt, a Falcon Highlands homeowner since 2008 who works self-employed in technology, said he felt the board had been “secretive.”

Cory Ngyuen, a cybersecurity expert who lives in the development with his parents, said that the board ought to have taken responsibility sooner.

“That could have been a very solvable problem when it was first brought up,” he said.

Angelinda Rush, a retired lieutenant colonel and Space Force engineer, agreed, saying that the board had the resources to solve the issue within the metropolitan district.

“There’s always sources of funding out there.”

Challenger Homes 

While basements flooding has provided a rallying point for the petition, developer influence and concerns about expansion are also fueling the recall. Current board members Ganaway and Schuhmacher are also current employees of Challenger Homes.

Higbee said she was also participating in the recall in order to lessen the influence of Challenger Homes on the management of the metropolitan district. The company gained approval recently for the construction of over 300 new homes in the district despite concerns raised by homeowners and the El Paso County Planning Commission.

The company has conditional approval to increase the number of single family residences in the district from 178 to 378, despite a current water capacity sufficient for only 50 new homes. The developer told El Paso County commissioners in December of last year that it would be looking at seeking new water rights for the district.

Higbee said she was worried about the effect Challenger’s plans would have on the water-poor district.

“I’m concerned about our community overgrowing and not being sustainable,” she said.

Aamodt said he was running to take the developer’s interests off the board.

“Although they may say they have the best interests of the homeowners in mind, I’m sorry that’s a fish story as far as I’m concerned.”

Ganaway and Schuhmacher have both addressed conflict of interest concerns in response statements to the recall. Schumacher said he believed he had represented the “best interests of the community.”

“However, not being the original developer of the community, I do believe that Challenger Homes is a value to help build out the community,” he wrote.

“I believe it is beneficial to the board to have at least one development representative in order to assist with the various issues in the district, including the financial, water, and infrastructure issues,” wrote Ganaway.

The mail-in election will be held July 16.