COLORADO SPRINGS — Residents in one northeast Colorado Springs neighborhood are about to have a different view than they’re used to--as a controversial redevelopment project gets underway in the coming weeks.
Crews wrapped up demolition on the clubhouse at the former Springs Ranch Golf Course off Tutt Blvd. and North Carefree Cir. last week. Soon, Classic Homes will break ground on a project that will bring around 900 homes on top of the old golf course.
For neighbors, change is on the horizon, whether they’re ready for it or not.
Merelyn Brubaker takes pride in her home, nestled away in the Springs Ranch neighborhood.
“I’ve lived here since 2007,” Brubaker said. “I loved the openness of the house and the land.”
That open land came courtesy of the Springs Ranch Golf Course, which until last June backed right up to her backyard.
“It’s just a nice, nice place to be,” she said.
But last week she saw something that she could only describe as--
“Sad, very sad.”
That’s because crews demolished the golf course’s clubhouse--making way for the Classic Homes development.
“Greenways at Sand Creek,” Classic Homes President Joe Loidolt said. “A mix of townhomes and single-family detached.”
He says crews will begin construction on drainage and infrastructure for the development very soon.
“Within the next three to four weeks, guessing,” Loidolt said. “But it all depends on when we get our approvals.”
Then, what remains of the Springs Ranch Golf Course will be just a memory.
“I’m not looking forward to that,” Brubaker said. “The beep, beep, beep, beep all the time.”
Plenty of controversy came shortly after Classic Homes purchased the golf course.
Neighbors, upset they’d be losing their golf course views, and the open space that came with it, called on the city and Classic Homes to come up with a compromise.
“The east side of Sand Creek,” Loidolt said. “We originally had homes in there and now it’s all going to be open space.”
With construction set to start, neighbors still have questions.
“Well I wonder about the traffic,” Brubaker said.
Loidolt said Classic Homes worked with traffic experts and city leaders to come up with a plan.
“You have to do a traffic study, so you hire an outside, third party traffic expert engineer,” Loidolt said. “On Tutt, where both of our entrances are, we’re going to put in roundabouts.”
Beyond that, they want to know, how long will their backyard be a construction zone?
“The market today is obviously a very hot market so in that case we would be in there five years or so,” Loidolt said.
That’s his estimate if the housing market was to stay the same as it is right now. If demand drops, he says build out could take longer.
As for neighbors like brubaker, they’re slowly coming to terms with the fact their golf course view’s days are numbered.
“I don’t want to see it go away,” Brubaker said. “But progress is progress they say.”
