Cragmor residents are vowing to stop a proposed housing complex they say would be akin to a fortress towering over the working-class neighborhood of 3,500 modest, 1950s homes just south of Austin Bluffs Parkway across from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

Some are upset they may not get to voice their objections to the Colorado Springs Planning Commission because city planners may use their administrative powers to simply approve it. The neighbors say many public policy issues are at stake that deserve to be considered by the commission.

First is the scale of the project.

At a public hearing last week, some neighbors were shocked to learn that Chicago developer GG Land Group had expanded it to include 621 bedrooms in 187 furnished apartments and that it would stand five stories tall on the site of the now-closed Bates Elementary School.

“It’s way bigger than it was described before at the first public meeting,” said neighbor Grant Smith, a real estate agent. “It’s a monster property. It’s a significant block of people. That’s as big as anything in downtown Colorado Springs.”

Neighbors also object to the proposed density, saying 621 is too many students living on a 5-acre parcel.

“It’s like a fortress,” said Jennifer Speer, who grew up in Cragmor and now is raising her family near the proposed site. “It’s huge. Monstrous. It doesn’t belong in our neighborhood. It’s not compatible.”

She noted the design has it climbing the hillside from Stanton Street and Cragmor Road up to the parkway, blocking views of the bluffs to the north.

Then there are the traffic issues.

Speer said everyone who drives Austin Bluffs Parkway should object because developers are proposing a single entrance/exit on the parkway.

It would be right-in, right-out on a curving stretch of the road. Students leaving the complex and wanting to travel west toward Nevada Avenue would be forced to drive east several blocks to Meadow Lane and make a U-turn at a main entrance to the UCCS campus.

“It’s asinine,” Speer said. “I can’t believe the city would entertain the idea. It will be so dangerous. And rather than risk a U-turn, most students are going to turn right on Meadow and then onto Mountview Lane, making it into a racetrack west to Nevada.”

But neighbors are not content to simply complain.

Speer and a core group of about 20 neighbors have resurrected the Cragmor Neighborhood Association and enlisted the help of the Dave Munger, president of the Council of Neighbors and Organizations, and his staff to develop strategy.

They believe a united approach will force a hearing before the commission where the project will die.

“Everybody opposes it,” Speer said. “We’ve been meeting with the builder. They are trying to keep everybody happy. But we’re still trying to chase them out of here.”

It doesn’t matter that similar large complexes have been built recently or have been approved north and east of campus. Speer said the group is unwilling to surrender Cragmor and let it become a college slum so common around American universities with rundown rentals, loud, late parties and frequent police calls.

“They are building a parking garage with just 621 spaces,” she said, citing one of many objections to the plan. “That’s one per bed. So none of these kids are going to have guests? Of course they will. So where are their guests going to park? All over our neighborhood.”

City planner Lonna Thelen said it has not been decided whether the project will be submitted to the Planning Commission for approval. If not, she said neighbors could pay $176 to appeal any administrative decision to the commission. She expects to make a decision by late June.

Regardless, Speer said neighbors will be ready.

“We may hire an attorney,” she said. “We’re willing to take this all the way to the end.”

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This artist rendering shows the propposed Bates Student Housing complex at Stanton Street and Cragmor Road and Austin Bluffs Parkway where GG Land Group of Chicago hopes to build a five-story complex with 621 bedrooms in 187 furnished apartments and a parking garage catering to students of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Neighbors in Cragmor opposed to the plans for the five-acre site of the closed Bates Elementary School. Bill Vogrin / The Gazette

Bill Vogrin – Side Streets

This architectural drawing shows the propposed Bates Student Housing complex at Stanton Street and Cragmor Road and Austin Bluffs Parkway where GG Land Group of Chicago hopes to build a five-story complex with 621 bedrooms in 187 furnished apartments and a parking garage catering to students of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Neighbors in Cragmor opposed to the plans for the five-acre site of the closed Bates Elementary School. Bill Vogrin / The Gazette

Jennifer Speer, front, and the neighbors around the former Bates Elementary School are opposed to an apartment complex at the site of the old school. Picture taken at the school March 3, 2015. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)

CHRISTIAN MURDOCK, THE GAZETTE