As the 39th-largest city in America — smaller than Baltimore and larger than Miami — Colorado Springs can become another urban spook town or remain a symbol of excellence. Among the fastest-growing cities in the county, it can easily join the public-safety and crime degradation that defines smaller cities such as St. Louis and larger cities such as Seattle and Portland, Ore.

We certainly don’t want that, preferring to maintain our Mayberry with cosmopolitan amenities vibe. Colorado Springs should grow at a reasonable pace to make space for law-abiding people from around the globe who want to bask in the beauty of the Rocky Mountain Front Range, enjoy a comfortable climate and participate in an economy that affords upward mobility for anyone willing to work.

Responsible growth — the kind that avoids the sudden onslaught of new big-city problems — means planning for the additional public safety needed to protect new homes, condominiums, apartment buildings and businesses. That comes with a price that should mostly belong to future members of the community.

To keep Colorado Springs the envy of the country — the city routinely chosen in national surveys as the place most people would choose to relocate — we cannot outgrow the public safety assets that keep the city civilized. That’s why Mayor John Suthers, a national symbol of effective urban leadership, wants the Colorado Springs City Council to raise “impact fees” on developers.

Development fees are never hard to sell to the public, where an unfortunate “soak the developers” sentiment runs rampant. Developers are rich, they say, and get rich off the public. So, make ’em pay. Of course, that’s not how it works, and Suthers has no intention of leveraging this silly mindset. Fees on developers are overhead, no less than the cost of lumber, and that overhead goes straight into the consumer prices of everything they build.

“This is going to contribute to the cost of buying a house in Colorado Springs,” Suthers said, while pitching fees to the City Council.

This unfortunate consequence comes at a time when home prices have soared above what people of low-to-average means are able to afford. Yet, it is not an adequate reason to avoid paying the costs of growth and charging those who cause it.

Consider countering the costs of new fees by eliminating needless risks and obstacles to development, such as construction defects laws designed only to enrich predatory trial attorneys.

Suthers told the City Council our existing development fees raised about $2 million since 2008. Meanwhile, as explained in a Gazette news story by reporter Mary Shinn, the city invested $32 million in fire and police buildings, such as the new Sand Creek police substation and the Stetson Hills fire station.

Suthers predicts the city will soon need tens of millions to pay for anticipated development of new neighborhoods and business structures. Anticipated growth will likely require five new fire stations and two police substations that cannot be covered by the existing dedicated sales tax for public safety, annexation fees or other sources of revenue.

The proposed fees would cover 70% of the expected new costs — as opposed to 100% — to account for sales and use taxes developers already pay. That seems more than fair to all involved.

As explained by Shinn, Colorado Springs could adopt the mayor’s proposal and continue having the lowest impact fees on single-family homes among seven other major Front Range cities. The proposal would give Colorado Springs the highest fees per square foot of retail space, which raises concerns the mayor and council should try to resolve.

It is not easy working as mayor or a member of the City Council, to say the least. Each branch has functioned so effectively in recent years our community has become the envy of the country and much of the world — a symbol of how to run a large and growing city.

We must count on community leaders to never let our success become the beginning of a downfall. That means they must find a way to keep housing and business space affordable, allow for responsible growth and ensure we charge the fees needed to maintain the highest level of public safety. They can and must achieve all three with the understanding and support of their constituents.