City bails out Cherokee Water customers for a price

The Colorado Springs City Council has tentatively OK’d a deal that will enable its city-owned utility to provide water to a troubled district located in an unincorporated area of El Paso County.

That agreement means homeowners living within the Cherokee Metropolitan District will have a reliable source of water for the next two years, but they’ll be paying  22 percent more than what Colorado Springs residents pay.

“It’s expensive,” Kip Petersen, Cherokee’s general manager,  said Wednesday.

The Cherokee Metropolitan District, a 6,300-acre parcel of land that serves about 18,200 residents, is roughly bounded by Powers Boulevard on the east, Marksheffel Road on the west, Platte Avenue and State Highway 94 on the south, and Constitution Avenue on the north.

In recent years, the district’s been plagued by problems after losing a total of 60 percent of its water rights in two rulings in Water Court. As a result, homeowners have seen their water bills skyrocket.

“The residents are not happy,” said Petersen, adding that at one time homeowners in the Cherokee district enjoyed some of the lowest water bills in the region.

In order for Colorado Springs Utilities to provide water to the Cherokee district, city councilors agreed in a 6-2 vote to temporarily suspend a  portion of the City Code that  forbids the utility  from providing water to customers outside the city limits unless certain conditions are met.

That provision was enacted to discourage development that would siphon off the city’s share of sales tax collections. But with  the construction of the $1.1 billion Southern Delivery System about to begin, Utilities is looking at developing regional partnerships.

Councilman Tom Gallagher, who cast one of the dissenting votes, suggested that any changes in the City Code need to be approved by the public. “My job is to abide by the City Code, not change it at the convenience of Utilities,” he said Wednesday. “We’ve now established a precedent.”

According to a fact sheet on the Cherokee Metropolitan District’s Web site, it will cost the district $1.8 million to obtain 500 acre feet of water from Utilities. An acre foot, which is equal to nearly 326,000 gallons, is enough water to cover an acre with one foot of water.

Utilities officials said the revenue from the Cherokee agreement will not be considered surplus, but will be used to offset the cost of current operations. “It’s a good deal for both of us,” said CSU spokesperson Patrice Quintero