Over the past several years, El Paso County and Colorado Springs have experienced the ongoing tension between building housing within the interior, or infill areas, of Colorado Springs or expanding housing development onto the outer boundaries of the city or even annexing new land for new housing. This tension can be healthy if both housing options are transparently presented along with development costs, public and private infrastructure costs, and, most importantly, ongoing public maintenance costs.

Colorado Springs, like many cities, has a significant backlog of maintenance projects, with road pavement maintenance likely being the most noticeable by our citizens. This isn’t an attack on the city or its road maintenance program; it’s highlighting the fiscal handicap of maintaining over 6,200 miles of roads in a city with a population of 495,000. Denver, by contrast, has only 1,900 miles of roadway with a population of 732,000. Colorado Springs has 80 people to pay for each lane mile while Denver has 385. This difference highlights the fiscal challenges for maintaining infrastructure in a lower-density community.

That explains why after 10 years of the additional 2C sales tax, and despite our city’s best efforts, we have only paved about one-third of the lane miles. Which means that despite the additional tax we are now paying, it will take 30 years to repave each lane mile. And don’t forget, we will have to renew 2C for 20 more years, not 10, to make even that happen.

Meanwhile, we continue to add lane miles ,digging our fiscal hole even deeper.

The city’s 2026 budget shows an expense of $111,743,211 for road maintenance through PPRTA funding and the 2C Road Program. This number may not be the total budget for road maintenance costs, but it’s a good number for us to use as we calculate the costs to maintain our roads and the adjacent curbs and gutters. Dividing this number by our population of 495,000, we quickly learn that the city is paying at least $225 per resident, each year, for road maintenance. This is a lot of money, and it’s just for road maintenance, not capital projects that address new roads for new developments.

Maintaining safe roadways is just one of the many public services provided by our city. Public safety, including police and fire protection, are arguably the most important to our citizens, but it also includes neighborhood park maintenance, and costs to maintain our utilities, like electric lines and gas and water pipes.

For simplicity, we will focus only on road maintenance, but it’s worth noting that all public infrastructure and services are cost burdened when the city doesn’t have enough resident density living within the city limits who are paying the taxes to provide the maintenance of basic city services. Roadways serve as a primary and glaring example of why our city should prioritize infill development incentives. If we are to balance our municipal budgets and ensure that our streets and sidewalks remain well-maintained, such density is essential for guaranteeing that road users can move safely and efficiently through Colorado Springs.

Land use must be economically productive, generating sufficient wealth to fund the infrastructure and services our citizens rightfully deserve. Currently, Colorado Springs is failing to create the wealth necessary to sustain a city of our immense geographic size — a city that must be protected from fire and crime, provide safe roadways, while also providing the high-quality parks and trails we all enjoy.

In light of this, it is vital for citizens to engage in a dialogue about the most effective ways to increase the number of taxpayers within our city limits. This is not a proposal to insert multifamily housing into every residential neighborhood; rather, it is a request to thoughtfully consider how the integration of accessory dwelling units, duplexes and the occasional fourplex can build a tax revenue model that secures our financial stability. This fiscal health is what will allow us to mend the pervasive potholes pockmarking our beautiful city and ensure that public safety officers can arrive at our homes within minutes of an emergency call.

As citizens, we dictate the evolution of our community through our comprehensive development plans. PlanCOS, approved in 2019, advocates for increased housing density because the residents who shaped it understood the direct correlation between robust city services and sales tax revenue. It is time we honored our comprehensive plan and the safety of our neighbors by supporting more diverse housing options within our neighborhoods. This is how we remain fiscally sustainable while investing in the city we love, together building a city that matches our scenery.

Jill Gaebler is executive director of the Pikes Peak Housing Network.