White Acres owners ask city for a delay

The owners of White Acres planned to ask the Colorado Springs City Council on Tuesday to annex the west-side land for development. Instead, with a surprise deal in the works, they asked the council to postpone the decision two weeks so an agreement can be reached to turn the land into open space.

The 43 acres of oak meadows and craggy hogbacks hugging the southeast corner of Red Rock Canyon Open Space have been owned by Bethany Baptist Church for decades. The congregation decided to sell the land last year to fund repairs on its aging building.

The church gave local developer Infinity Land Corp. half ownership in exchange for developing White Acres, on the condition that the land first be offered to the city as open space.

Despite public outcry to make White Acres open space, the church and the developer could not agree with the city on a price.

The owners began planning to build 27 houses and 20 townhouses.

But Infinity president Paul Howard told the council Tuesday he had just had "very productive discussions with the city parks" department hours before the council meeting, and may have a deal within weeks.

Howard said he dropped the price and proposed a financing structure that would allow the city to buy the land over a number of years.

He would not give specific figures, but said part of the cost could be deferred in part by conservation easements, which can be sold to third parties with tax breaks.

A similar deal brought the asking price of recently purchased Cheyenne Mountain down from $12 million to $3.6 million.

The city acknowledged that a deal is in the works.

"The city is optimistic," said Chris Lieber, who oversees city purchases of open space.

"We hope we can make a deal that is a real value for the people of Colorado Springs."

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Contact the writer: 636-0223 or dave.philipps@gazette.com