It’s a landslide: No Black Forest Inc.

Black Forest residents have decided city life isn’t for them. By more than a 2-1 margin, locals Tuesday voted against incorporation, keeping the heavily forested area outside city boundaries.

“They did not want to incorporate,” said Pam Devereux, one of the leaders of Keep Black Forest Free. She attributed the success of the group’s campaign to “just a lot of hard work with a lot of volunteers.”

Eddie Bracken, who led the incorporation effort, said “I think the people have expressed their desires and we accept that.”

Black Forest was white early Tuesday as heavy snow blanketed the northern end of El Paso County. That didn’t prevent voters from casting ballots. Hundreds of absentee ballots also were cast before Tuesday, election officials said.

The final vote was 2,350 against incorporation, or about 71 percent, and 959 votes for the incorporation measure.

An hour before the polls closed, about two dozen vehicles packed the snowy parking lot outside the Black Forest fire station, the sole polling place.

In the morning, more than 200 people streamed in during the first hour of voting, officials said. After 7 p.m., some residents escaped the snow by warming up with a beer in The Spirit Keeper.

The opinions of owner Shari Warren were clear, with gold “Vote No” bumperstickers affixed to the front door and placed behind the bar.

Eli Montoya said he voted against forming a city because the taxes would make it too hard for older people to live in Black Forest.

Incorporation committee members “don’t know all the facts,” Montoya said.

But Doug Finley said he voted in favor of incorporation because the county doesn’t take care of Black Forest. Case in point: the Milam Road eminent domain incident, he said.

“I don’t trust the county commission,” Finley said.

Members of the Black Forest Incorporation Committee have worked for about two years and spent thousands of dollars drafting plans for the city and tryint to persuade locals to vote for it.

Committee members said that without the city, developments would creep northeast from Colorado Springs.

The incorporation committee spent plenty of cash on the effort, spending more than $40,000 on legal fees alone.

Members hired Denver attorney Robert Cole, an incorporation expert who worked with the Centennial incorporation effort.

The opposition group Keep Black Forest Free fought efforts to incorporate, saying the area didn’t need another layer of government and more taxes.

Opponents sought to block the election by filing a suit seeking to dismiss the petition that incorporation advocates filed in January with the 4th Judicial District Court.

Judge Timothy Simmons approved the petition in February and dismissed the group’s lawsuit last week.

The city would have included about 8,600 people and an estimated 42 square miles.

Because the Black Forest area doesn’t have many businesses, most of the tax burden would have fallen to property owners in the form of tax increase and franchise fees. A $300,000 house paying average utility bills would have paid about $360 per year.