SIDE STREETS: Big box brouhaha rages on in Soaring Eagles

Sometimes you win and sometimes -- well, the developer comes back with a new plan for that 28 acres of vacant land and, suddenly, the neighborhood loses.

That's what happened recently to residents of Soaring Eagles near the Colorado Springs Airport.

Now, they must decide whether to surrender or try a possibly expensive legal appeal in district court.

In 2006, the residents stopped a 207,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter from being built on the land, which is lined with houses on three sides. It was an example of activists rallying neighbors around a cause.

Wal-Mart declined the city's request to break its gargantuan building into smaller structures more in scale with the adjacent southeast Springs neighborhood, its 550 or so homes and schools. Wal-Mart gave up and neighbors celebrated.

But the investor owners of the property still wanted to develop the land. It has long been zoned for commercial activity, and there are many other "big box" retailers besides Wal-Mart they could court. So they went back to the drawing board.

The neighbors' celebration, it seems, was premature.

Last November, a new concept plan for the property surfaced, triggering Round Two of the Battle of the Soaring Eagles Big Box.
This time, YOW Architects came back with the downsized big box anchor -- if you can call a 175,000-square-foot building "downsized."

Instead of one huge building visible from space, YOW shrank the anchor and added 12 smaller buildings for restaurants and retail shops.

Those and other concessions led the city planning staff to endorse the plan.

"We made them move the anchor building 80 feet away from the property line instead of the 62 feet as was proposed," said Mike Schultz, city planner on the project. "We also required a 25-foot landscape buffer plus an 8-foot-tall berm or wall."

Staff insisted on "four-sided architecture on all buildings" so the project will have a diverse appearance, not a warehouse feel to it.
"The new plan provided a more park-like setting," Schultz said. "It's more walkable, more user-friendly to the neighborhood."

The Planning Commission agreed. On June 9, neighbors appealed to the City Council and lost again. Now, they are weighing a court appeal.

It doesn't matter that Wal-Mart is reportedly eyeing 40 acres a half-mile west at Hancock Expressway and Drennan Road or that the Soaring Eagles center may never be built. They're mad.

"It doesn't belong there; it's too big," said Corey Hepworth, president of the Soaring Eagles Homeowners Association. "The decision was all based on the economic impact. The city is hurting for money so bad that it willing to do anything to get more sales tax revenue."

He said the center will hurt property values and cause families to flee as in 2006 during the Wal-Mart fight.
"When it starts breaking ground," Hepworth said, "you'll see another wave move out."
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