As Colorado Springs continues its steady growth, drawing a stream of new residents and growing businesses, a debate has begun simmering over whether the city should limit building heights throughout its downtown corridor.

In recent months, the discussion has also raised other questions: Will residents have the power to determine the answer? Should they have the authority to do so?

A revised proposal brought forth in the fall to build a 36-story, 497-unit apartment tower in southwest downtown has city planners, elected officials and residents deliberating whether taller, mightier, more towering buildings could be possible in Colorado Springs’ future.

‘Who owns the skyline’

The 350- to 400-foot high-rise proposed on the southwest corner of a block bounded by Sahwatch and Costilla streets and Cascade and Vermijo avenues is estimated to stand about 42% to 62% higher than the 247-foot, 16-story Wells Fargo Tower downtown, the tallest in city history.

The new structure is proposed in an area where apartment building heights are not limited by code or a master plan.

A denser, more urban city core can drive the community’s vibrancy, economic success and sustainability, city planners and project advocates contend.

High-rise apartments downtown attract more people who work at and patronize surrounding employment centers and street-level businesses, restaurants, bars and entertainment venues, Urban Planning Manager Ryan Tefertiller told the City Council during a work session in early December.

Currently, development across about 1 square mile of downtown is governed by the city’s 2009-approved form-based code. It emphasizes form, the look and feel of buildings rather than land use and supports a more urban environment, city planners said.

About two-fifths of this area is made up of the “central sector,” including the core of downtown and the southwest downtown district, where most building heights are unlimited.

Some residents who oppose the idea of more prodigious buildings being added to the Colorado Springs skyline want to restrict their heights downtown to no more than 250 feet.

The cap would preserve the current skyline and the expansive mountain views to the west, including those of Pikes Peak, to which residents have long been accustomed, they say.

For Dutch Schulz, a former project manager and the president of the Old North End Neighborhood association adjacent to downtown, the question at the heart of the debate is: Who owns the Colorado Springs skyline, residents or developers?

If you ask Schulz, he’d say the answer is obvious: It belongs to residents.

“The view is what Colorado Springs is about,” he said one chilly, bright February morning from a western-facing sitting room in his home on North Cascade Avenue.

Outside his front window, Pikes Peak, topped with a cap of snowfall, peeked through winter-bare trees and over neighboring historic Victorian homes.

His view and that of his neighbors wouldn’t be affected by high-rise buildings if they were built downtown, Schulz said. He supports limiting building heights in Colorado Springs’ urban core not because he is anti-development, but because the views are “a value of the community.”

Altering the skyline would change the city’s character, he said.

In an email to The Gazette in early April, Councilwoman Lynette Crow-Iverson said the debate is about how to balance individual property rights with the interests of the broader community.

“I firmly believe that property owners should have the freedom to utilize their land as they see fit, within reasonable bounds,” she said.

For developers looking to build downtown, site density, achieved by building higher rather than outward, “is of critical importance,” Tefertiller told the City Council in December. The number of unit leases and lease rates offset the high cost of downtown land and other construction expenses, he said.

“All those things absolutely affect the equation in what is driving the final form, as far as a property owner trying to develop their property downtown,” Tefertiller said.

Minette Church, a Bonnyville neighborhood resident who teaches and works in the field of archaeology and historic preservation, said in April she doesn’t think too many developers would shy away from building downtown if the city implemented height limits.

“In general, I support infill development and density, perhaps with a height limit — which I don’t believe would be a big disincentive to build in the end,” Church said.

Schulz is concerned that if developers build one massive building, more will follow, he told The Gazette in late April.

“Leaving building heights unrestricted will result in a continuous effort to be the tallest,” he said.

Councilwoman Nancy Henjum said in an April email she’s not inclined to support limiting building heights in the downtown core. Urban lifestyles provide draws and advantages to a community’s arts, culture, walkability and efficient use of utilities, among others, she said.

“Having said that, I am very understanding of and sympathetic to those who are concerned about the exceptional view and proximity to Pikes Peak,” Henjum wrote. “I think having a conversation about possible critical and historic views that may deserve to be preserved is worth having.”

Put it to a vote?

Councilman Dave Donelson, who requested city planning’s presentation on downtown building heights in December, said the topic deserves careful consideration and residents should have a chance to weigh in.

“I honestly believe most citizens think we have a building height (limit) downtown … and when they find out we don’t, they think we should,” Donelson said in an interview in early February. “… I want to give citizens a chance to give it a thumbs up or down before it just happens.”

Schulz said he prefers a ballot referendum over any possible ordinance passed by council capping downtown building heights, because it would codify a limit and could only be changed in the future by another vote of the people.

If the council were to pass an ordinance, council members could easily alter or overturn it in the future, Schulz said.

An online petition launched by Colorado Springs residents on Monday calls on the City Council to allow residents to vote on a building height limit this fall. As of Friday afternoon, the petition at change.org/saveourskies had 119 signatures.

Donelson said he is in early discussions with city attorneys about drafting a proposed document that would, if the council approved it, ask voters to decide in the Nov. 5 general election whether building heights should be limited in all areas of downtown.

In April, he estimated the council could further discuss building height limits at one of the council’s public meetings in June.

If the council supported referring the question to voters this fall, council members would have to vote to do so in August.

Crow-Iverson and Henjum said they weren’t inclined to support that move. The remaining six councilmembers did not respond to The Gazette’s request for comment.

“Direct democratic representation through ballot measures” is important, Henjum said, but building heights are a “complex” issue tied to urban planning.

“Such matters involve multifaceted implications that may not be adequately addressed through simple yes/no voting mechanisms. One of City Council’s primary responsibilities and charges by city charter is land-use decisions. Building heights fit in this category,” she said.

Crow-Iverson believes the best solution is dialogue between downtown residents and city planners.

Residents could also petition through the city clerk to put the referendum on the ballot.