Falcon says no to incorporation

Falcon-area residents voted overwhelmingly against creating a new city Tuesday.

By a nearly 4-1 margin, voters rejected incorporation of what would have been a 12-square-mile town, preferring to remain under the rule of El Paso County.

“We didn’t ask for this. We didn’t want it, and it was a resounding ‘no,’” said John Seetch, member of the anti-incorporation group Falcon Area Residents Operating Under Truth (FAROUT).

Seetch said residents’ anger against the incorporation movement likely brought out almost half of the 1,600 registered voters living inside the proposed town boundaries.

FAROUT members gathered at local restaurant Frankie’s Too after the election to celebrate.

Jeff Harrell, leader of the group, said volunteers spent the few days before Election Day calling all registered voters inside the proposed boundaries. He said many people hadn’t heard about the election or weren’t sure if they could vote.

Incorporation advocates said they wanted to form a town to have a better grip on area growth and they warned that failing to create a new city may have dire consequences.

“All I can say is, watch and see what happens,” incorporation committee member Mark Schermer said.

Many incorporation opponents said they moved to Falcon to live in the country, avoiding municipal boundaries, taxes and ordinances. The official tally was 573 against and 166 in favor.

The Falcon Incorporation Committee said residents should form a town to control their own destiny in the face of housing developments creeping east from Colorado Springs.

It was the second such election in two months eastern El Paso County residents have rejected incorporation. In Black Forest on April 24, about 70 percent of voters said no to forming a city.

About 78 percent voted against creating a city in Falcon.

Falcon incorporation advocates proposed paying for the town with a 1.6 percent sales tax levied on nonfood items at the area’s chain stores such as Wal-Mart and Safeway.

The rest of the town would have encompassed mainly 5-acre residential lots, excluding dense housing developments such as Woodmen Hills and Meridian Ranch.

Two hours before the polls closed, cars packed the parking lot of the Falcon Fire District headquarters, the election’s lone polling place.

Across the street, Shawn Rouse sat in his black Chevy truck with two yellow signs in the back reading “Save your money, vote NO on incorporation.”

Rouse, who lives on Gull Lane inside the proposed town boundaries, said he’d been sitting there since 6:45 a.m.

“We don’t need an additional layer of government, No. 1. No. 2, I can’t see our seniors paying for a service that’s any better than the one we already have right now,” Rouse said.

Incorporation committee members worked for months gathering signatures for the petition to incorporate, then got the go-ahead from a district court to hold the election.

They said the sales tax would generate about $752,000 per year, but they never drew up a proposed budget, saying that would be up to officials elected later.

Incorporation advocates also said they fear Colorado Springs will one day annex Falcon’s commercial center. City officials have denied plans to annex the area.