Planning commission recommends approval of Urban Landing PUD, 49 homes; neighbors cite traffic and runoff concerns

The El Paso County Planning Commission on a 9-0 vote recommended approval of PUDSP 243, the Urban Landing planned unit development and preliminary plan, which would rezone about 6.5 acres from R-4 to PUD and allow roughly 49 single-family detached homes. The commission’s recommendation includes seven conditions, five notations and a staff finding of sufficiency for water quality, quantity and dependability; the recommendation will go to the Board of County Commissioners for final action.

The project manager, Ryan Hauser, planner with El Paso County, told commissioners the proposed PUD is consistent with the county master plan’s suburban residential place type and with a Tri-Lakes key-area buffer. Daniel Torres, an El Paso County engineering representative, said stormwater runoff would be collected in a private detention pond maintained by the proposed homeowners association and that fees would be assessed at plat recordation.

Urban Landing’s representative, Brooks Swenson of NES Inc., described the proposal as an attainable single-family product with smaller lots. Swenson said the plans show lots ranging roughly from 2,500 to 3,300 square feet, with two parking spaces per home and 22 guest parking stalls. He said the project is “just under 7.5 dwelling units per acre” and that building elevations are generally two stories and below the PUD zone height limit of 30 feet.

Neighbors attending the hearing raised several recurring concerns. Doug Chanel, an adjacent property owner, said runoff from recently paved surfaces has increased sediment and water flowing onto the existing gravel roads to the east and onto the neighbor’s property, and asked the county and developer to ensure that off-site flows are addressed. “We’ve received considerably more storm water runoff coming down the north side of Spanish Bit,” Chanel said.

Paul Krause, who lives next to the site, requested a privacy wall along the shared property line and urged a smaller-scale build that would be more consistent with surrounding low-profile homes. “I don’t need their dogs coming over to my property,” Krause said, asking for a fence similar to an existing wall along adjacent lots.

Traffic and turn-lane improvements drew multiple comments. Daniel Torres said the developer’s traffic study identified off‑site improvements that would include auxiliary turn lanes and upgrades to Spanish Bit Drive to an urban cross section. Commissioners and neighbors discussed the need for westbound right- and left-turn lanes at the Struthers Road/Spanish Bit Drive intersection; applicant materials and the traffic memo identify proposed improvements and say the development is subject to the El Paso County road impact fee program.

Swenson said the design would cluster homes and provide shared open space, and that much of the traffic from the development would use Struthers and Higbee rather than cutting through the adjacent quieter subdivisions. The applicant also said the detention pond shown on the site’s southwest corner would accept on‑ and off‑site flows and that maintenance would fall to the HOA.

Staff noted several procedural and technical points: the PUD converts an older R-4 pattern to the county’s current PUD standard (R-4 was adopted in 1976); outstanding engineering and drainage comments must be resolved before the PUD plan is recorded; and the department sent notices to property owners within 500 feet of the site, per current practice.

Commissioner Tim Trowbridge moved the recommendation of approval “in accordance with the attached resolution with seven conditions, five notations and a finding of sufficiency with regard to water quality, quantity and dependability”; the motion was seconded by Commissioner Smith and passed on a roll call vote (all commissioners voting aye). The commission’s recommendation will be considered by the Board of County Commissioners at a scheduled public hearing.

The commission’s action is a recommendation only; the Board of County Commissioners will make the final decision when the item is scheduled for their hearing.