Fountain not buying dismal forecast

FOUNTAIN - Thousands of new houses, more retail stores, bigger paychecks for residents. By several measurements, Fountain has morphed in recent years from a relatively sleepy burg south of Colorado Springs into a bustling community, city officials say.

“Fountain’s been growing like crazy,” said Economic Development Director Lisa Cochrun. “As a matter of fact, 50 percent of the houses that we have in Fountain have come in the past five years.”

Given the area’s sudden prosperity, city leaders were dismayed in February to see a government forecast predicting high concentrations of poor families living south and east of the city in 2035.

Data analysis by The Gazette found the area was projected to go from having 10 percent of households making less than $20,000 per year in 2005 to 31 percent three decades later.

The income figure is about the official poverty level for a family of four, and it’s not adjusted for inflation in future years. The Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments produced the forecast as part of a plan for using tax money to build highways.

Fountain officials argued that such a high level of poverty would be a drastic turnaround from recent trends, and it seems unlikely with so many houses selling for prices that no poor family could afford.

“I don’t see low-income housing going in there, I see quite the opposite,” Cochrun told members of the council of governments last week.

Fountain hired economist Fred Crowley, whose research found the area is poised to overtake the rest of the county by some measures of prosperity. Crowley projects Fountain’s median household income will be higher than the county average in 2021.

Fountain has historically been poorer and has grown more slowly than the rest of the county, but it’s made up considerable ground.

“The evidence is just overwhelming,” Crowley said. “The Fountain Valley region is not going into poverty; in fact, it’s rising above the poverty level.”

The city’s transformation is evident to anyone who drives along busy streets on the fringes, such as Mesa Ridge Parkway. New neighborhoods are popping up around that road, including the Heritage area to the south. Development company Today’s Homes has sold about 150 houses there since 2003 and has just nine sites left before the project is complete, said Marika Frady, community sales manager. Prices start at $199,000 and go up to a $270,000 model sold this year.

Today’s Homes is starting work on a more upscale Countryside North neighborhood, where the lots will be as big as an acre and prices will start in the low $200,000s. “There, we’re aiming for move-up buyers, people who live in Fountain and Colorado Springs and want to stay here,” Frady said.

The council of governments has revised some of its projections. The new figures for the area southeast of Fountain predict the population will go from 4,863 to 26,556. The projections say 11 percent of households will make poverty-level wages in 2035, lower than the 15 percent average for all of El Paso and Teller counties.

In an area that roughly makes up the Fountain city limits, the projections call for a population of 34,278 in 2035, up 69 percent from 2005. Households making povertylevel wages will account for 11 percent of the total, the projections say.