Council approves South Slope access, but funding questions linger

More than 40 years ago, voters told the city of Colorado Springs to open the watersheds on Pikes Peak to the public.

Tuesday, the city council took a step toward fulfilling that wish, voting to allow public access in the remote South Slope watershed.

The land is owned by Colorado Springs Utilities, and while officials said hikers could be allowed there as soon as this summer, major questions remain about who will pay to build and maintain the trails, picnic areas, parking lots and restrooms in the plan.

One of the answers: the hikers, cyclists, anglers and others using the area, through a fee system, perhaps $5 per car. And with guided tours expected to begin in June, they may soon get the chance.

“When ultimately we are going to get up there to utilize it, you’re going to have to pay to play,” Kurt Schroeder, the city’s Parks, Trails and Open Space manager, told the council.

But user fees would be for maintenance, not the $3.9 million to build the facilities. Utilities spent $262,000 on the watershed access plan, and Tuesday’s vote allows Utilities to pay for planning and design.

Councilman Randy Purvis noted that when voters approved public access, there was a city utilities department, not a separate city-owned enterprise.

“I view this as probably the one exception to the principle that the utilities department should not be funding and maintaining general city operations, simply because of the history of this vote,” said Purvis.  “Forty years later, we are just now, very belatedly, getting around to doing what the citizens told us we should do.”

“I share the frustration that it’s taken this long, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to rush forward and get on a slippery slope where we’re going to turn the utility into a recreation provider on the South Slope,” said  Councilman Sean Paige.

“If we’re going to open this area, we need to have private funding and we should privately contract it and all the groups who have been lobbying so hard to open it should come forward and put up some cash,” he said.

Schroeder said the city will apply for grants and has been talking to non-profits and trail advocates, and that much of the work could be done with volunteers. The guided tours, with dates not yet set, are to “whet peoples’ appetite,” he said.

Tuesday’s vote was 7-1, with Councilman Tom Gallagher voting against the measure. Parks and Utilities officials will have to come back to the council with the plan for funding construction.

Despite the questions, and the short construction season in the high-altitude watershed, Schroeder said work could begin this summer.

Said Schroeder, “I think there is a large enough contingent of folks out there who have been anxious to see this open and are willing to participate in helping to get it open, so I think we stand a good chance of getting some trails built this year.”

Public meeting on the south slope

Colorado Springs Utilities will host an open house April 27, where it will release its final plan for recreation on the South Slope of Pikes Peak. The meeting begins at 5 p.m. at the Leon Young Service Center, 1521 Hancock Expressway.