With a sense for the pulse of the community and a desire to serve, for Don Dezellem election to the Woodland Park City Council would give him a voice.

“I just want to see the city progress into the future the right way,” he said.

While cautious about development, Dezellem likes the middle road.

“We have to find a balance between growing bigger, which is limited by water and the fact that we’re surrounded by national forest, so there’s not a whole lot of land left to develop,” he said.

The balance, he added, must include workforce housing to attract people to the city.

“Being competitive with other communities means bringing teachers up here, public safety people, firefighters, police officers,” he said. “We need to be good stewards of what we have, make sure we have the right project in the right place at the right time.”

The candidate considers the city’s purchase of Shining Mountain Golf Course a sign of good stewardship due to the pending conservation easement on the property.

“The purchase takes 288 (potential) houses off the market,” he said. “That’s 288 water taps that aren’t getting used, plus we have the open space.”

To top it off, Dezellem notes that the golf course is a natural firebreak with the national forest as a boundary. 

To maintain the city-owned golf course, Avenger Open Space, Meadow Wood Sports Complex, the aquatic center and Bergstrom Park, Dezellem would look at initiating a small sales tax, maybe .2%, for instance.

“In the long run, a sales tax will keep these recreational things that people have wanted over the years,” he said. “It would be something like the TOPS (Trails, Open Space and Parks) tax in the Springs.”

Member of the city’s planning commission, Dezellem sees a new phase of change in the city that comes with an identity.

“We are a rural mountain college town,” he said, referring to the opening of Charis Bible College.  “Whether we like it or not, it’s here. So how do we interface now that we’ve become a rural mountain college community?”

Some changes arrived after the planning commission rejected an application more than a decade ago to build a subdivision of tiny homes. The meetings were long and controversial.

“Tiny homes took up over two years’ worth of excitement,” he said. “One of the good things that came out of that was the charter review that unified the building code.”

The charter review eased the path forward for developers, in a less cumbersome way.

“A person can take a look at those codes and decipher for themselves what they need to do in order to comply; the procedures for things are laid out,” Dezellem said.

A regular at city council meetings, Dezellem highlights the responsibility councilors have for the citizens.

“In the U.S., the government that affects the people the most is their local government,” he said. “This is where we can the biggest impact on our community.”

Among his civic contributions is co-chairing the committee that launched the scholarship program for the Pikes Peak Rotary Club.

Dezellem is one of five candidates who will be part of the forum hosted by the Greater Woodland Park Chamber of Commerce from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. March 10 at city council chambers in City Hall.