El Paso County Parks and Community Services on Monday announced the dates for the next two public meetings concerning the long-awaited Fox Run Nature Center.

The next public meeting is set for Feb. 16, from 5-7 p.m., at the Black Forest Community Club, located at 12350 Black Forest Road in northeast Colorado Springs, according to a news release. An open house is scheduled for March 14, from 6-8 p.m., at the Pikes Peak Brewing Co. at 1756 Lake Woodmoor Drive in Monument.

The public meetings will be the 23rd and 24th outreach events organized by the county parks agency, according to executive director Todd Marts.

“We’re trying to reach out to as wide an audience as possible, and we want to make the Fox Run Nature Center a facility that’s adaptable for everyone,” Marts said. “So we’ve done a little more outreach than we normally do.”

The meetings are the latest events in a years-long effort to bring a nature center to the north Colorado Springs region. The center was proposed in a 2013 county master plan, officials said.

“One of the things that was identified as a need was a northern nature center, because of the success we’re having at Bear Creek and Fountain Creek,” Marts said.

A 2019 feasibility study identified Fox Run Regional Park as an ideal location for the park.

The county parks agency has hired an architect and the building’s design should be completed by mid-2024, with construction tentatively set to begin next year, Marts said.

“We’re also in the middle of a capital campaign that will last all year,” Marts said. “That will also determine when (the center) is built.”

One purpose of the February and March meetings will be to address some concerns about the nature center’s long-term effect on the park, officials said.

“There are some neighbors who are not as excited about

it,” Marts said. “We want to make sure people are aware, and we also want to listen.”

The project will affect less than 1% of the park’s acreage, Marts said.

“We’re going to restore part of that area and reforest it,” he said. “Overall it will be a net gain for the park, which I think has not been conveyed well, and so I look forward to talking about that, but we also want to listen, and hear their concerns.”

Individuals who cannot make the public meetings can send questions or comments to parks@elpasoco.com. For more information on the project, visit the project website at https://www.tdg-frnc.com