The Colorado Springs City Council on Tuesday approved plans to build hundreds of homes in the city’s north side on land once envisioned for a sports complex.

Before the vote, neighbors who spoke for about an hour and a half again voiced concerns that additional housing in the area could impede emergency evacuations and overcrowd schools.

The council voted 6-2 to rezone about 60 acres of city-owned land north of Old Ranch Road and west of North Powers Boulevard where parks staff previously visualized constructing the Larry Ochs Sports Complex. The council also approved on a 6-2 vote plans to build Ovation, 290 homes developers with La Plata Communities

said would be a mixture of single-family and duplex homes. Councilmen Dave Donelson and Mike O’malley voted against both requests. Councilwoman Yolanda Avila was absent.

Residents in the neighboring North Fork and Bison Ranch neighborhoods urged the council not to rezone the land or approve the land use plan largely because of concerns about wildfire risk. Developers’ plans show only one viable route out of the area for existing and future residents, and that would hinder emergency evacuations out of their neighborhoods, residents said.

Some neighbors recalled the board’s unanimous vote in July that stopped plans to build Kettle Creek North, 250 new homes previously proposed nearby on the east side of Powers. In that case, the council sided with residents who worried about a lack of wildfire evacuation routes and poor traffic flow.

Kettle Creek resident Jamie Nau on Tuesday recalled a previous comment from Planning Commissioner Nadine Hensler that the city has “learned a lot since the last Colorado Springs fires,” including Waldo Canyon and Black Forest.

“If we really have learned a lot and truly care about the citizens, then having ... 580 houses now (in the area) with only one true egress will definitely not be passed by the City Council,” Nau told council members during public comment.

Council members who voted Tuesday in favor of the Ovation development said there was a need for more housing in the area, that residents previously said they did not want a sports complex at that location, and there were differences in the Ovation plan compared with Kettle Creek North that lessened their worries about wildfire risk.

“We take the concerns of residents very seriously. I think that was seen with Kettle Creek North. In this case, I see some very distinct differences,” Councilman Brian Risley said.

The immediate area around the planned Ovation neighborhood includes more commercial and residential development and is not in a wildland urban interface at greater risk for wildfire, he said.

“Because of that, I don’t see where the risk exists when it comes to fire danger, egress and emergency exiting,” Risley said.

Developers said they will install an automatic sprinkler system in each of the homes, meeting city fire code.

Colorado Springs Fire Marshal Brett Lacey said the fire code does not address community or neighborhood evacuations but rather the protection of buildings by ensuring emergency access to the location. Automatic sprinkler systems can help protect the buildings from outside fires by staving off some of the damage until firefighters can respond, Lacey said.

Residents said local Academy District 20 schools like Pine Creek High School are already crowded, pushing some students who live in the area to attend schools elsewhere. They rebuffed statements school district officials made in meeting documents that the district can accept students wishing to attend their schools.

Neighbors said they also did not want the land rezoned because northern Colorado Springs needs more parkland and open space. Many purchased their homes in surrounding neighborhoods with the understanding the Ovation project area would be developed into a sports complex.

The city bought the 60 acres from La Plata for $2.6 million in 2003, intending to build the Larry Ochs Sports complex there, developers and parks staff said. The city abandoned plans to build the complex at that location after neighbors opposed it in 2016.

Residents said Tuesday they did support a sports complex there but opposed city plans at the time proposing one road to bring vehicles in and out of it. Parks staff in 2016 estimated the complex would generate more than 2,600 daily trips.

In a 2022 three-step land exchange plan with La Plata Communities, the parks department agreed to sell the land back to La Plata for around $5.1 million and attempt to rezone the land for residential uses. The parks department would use that money to help build the sports complex elsewhere in Colorado Springs, Director Britt Haley said.

Residents after the council vote Tuesday expressed disappointment in the board’s decision, but some said they were not surprised.

“I just feel that they are not truly taking citizens’ concerns into consideration. I feel they pretend to, or most of them do,” Bison Ridge resident Sarah Larsen said.