THE FINAL WORD: RetoolCOS is now before

BY GRETA ANDERSON JOHNS | gajohns@sixty35media.org

sions on significant city legislation, Colorado Springs City Council decided on Jan. 10 to table its discussion about RetoolCOS, the city’s zoning code rewrite.

Council will continue discussions and consider additions or changes to RetoolCOS on Jan. 24. Last week’s hearing ended before these steps were taken, says Alex Ryden, Council’s communications specialist. But public comment on the draft has concluded, he says.

Council is the RetoolCOS project’s last stop for approval, as a 428-page final draft of the code was passed unanimously by the city’s Planning Commission on Oct. 28. The draft, which will replace the decades-old Chapter 7 of the current City Code and overhaul how the city approves development, has been the subject of intense citizen debate and displeasure about its contents since it was presented to the commission in September. If passed, the new code will go into effect in May.

In a Jan. 12 interview on our podcast, The Sixty35, Mayor John Suthers said even if RetoolCOS is passed by Council and signed by him soon, that doesn’t mean it’s set in stone. The mayor’s office and four Council seats are up for grabs in this April’s election.

generally broken down into two camps. Planning staff have said that they’ve tried to balance the wishes of both over the past three years of developing the new zoning code.

One of them is the Historic Neighborhoods Partnership, an organization with homeowner association members that represents older, established neighborhoods. The group still has a number of issues with RetoolCOS.

Overall, HNP members argue the document doesn’t put enough emphasis on protecting “neighborhood character” amid new development, and that new rules could threaten the existence and peace of their neighborhoods.

HNP’s goals are sometimes at odds with those of affordable housing advocates, who believe RetoolCOS does not make enough changes to have a meaningful impact on housing quantity.

Representatives from Colorado Springs Faith Table, a coalition of local religious leaders who advocate for social justice, reiterated concerns that grandfathering in existing properties — and therefore excluding them from code changes — would exclude a majority of the city from cheaper housing.

who peppered Council and Suthers with emails before the Jan. 10 hearing, disagree with RetoolCOS’ new limit on who can appeal development plans.

The new code says that those who may appeal must either: live within 1,000 feet of a planned development, or live within 2 miles and have made public comment or been involved in the public process for the development plan previously — what is called “preserved standing.” Under the current code, anyone may appeal.

The new appeal limit was also debated by the Planning Commission, which decided to leave it in. Residents, though, argue that it’s a move to quash public dissent on controversial developments. (Peter Wysocki, the city’s planning and community development director, has denied this.)

“If you don’t know that something’s getting built in your neighborhood until you see it in the news, you don’t have an opportunity to have preserved standing, so you can’t appeal the decision,” Barbara Novey, a Mesa Springs resident and HNP member, said during public comment. However, Rev. Daniel Smith, pastor of Ascension Lutheran Church and co-chair of the Faith Table, said his group is in favor of the new appeal limits. “The changes to the appeal process will limit the cost of appeals [to the city] brought forward by folks from outside the neighborhood,” Smith said. Neighbors have also questioned public participation in the RetoolCOS drafting process itself, some arguing that the city did not inform people it was happening. Several have contacted Suthers and Council to express that they just learned about it, though the department began the project in November 2019.

The department says it held more than 80 public meetings. In an email, Michael Tassi, assistant director

of planning and community development, said it relied media to spread the word about open houses.

Peter Wysocki, planning and community development director, reviews the RetoolCOS draft process with Council on Jan. 10. RetoolCOS is the city’s first zoning code overhaul since the late 1990s.