Imagine a company announcing relocation plans. It poses a 30-year expansion of 36,000 jobs, $49 million in net revenue to city government, $434 million in net revenue to Colorado Springs Utilities, and economic growth worth $4.5 billion.

The chosen community would grow by 62,000 taxpaying residents, each sharing the costs of better roads, schools, transportation and public safety.

Every city in the country would fight for this opportunity, with the winner dancing in the streets.

With far less fanfare, the Colorado Springs City Council plans to ignite these economic outcomes by approving a new annexation agreement Tuesday for Banning Lewis Ranch. The agreement will facilitate development of office complexes, parks, trails, open space, and thousands of homes our community desperately needs.

This is not some spur-of-the-moment decision full of exaggerated expectations. City officials have negotiated and scrutinized the proposed agreement for two years, and more than 40 property owners within the proposed development wait to break ground on new assets.

The original agreement, approved in 1988, is full of requirements and restrictions designed to make homes and offices too expensive to develop and sell. That was by design, and for good reason. At the time, 30 years ago, Colorado Springs lacked water, utilities infrastructure, and roads sufficient to serve the area. Development could have come at a sudden burden to the community.

Over 30 years, Colorado Springs and its infrastructure have grown contiguous to the proposed development. Water is no longer in short supply, because Colorado Springs Utilities ratepayers invested in and completed the Southern Delivery System to provide adequate water for at least 50 years of anticipated growth.

During 30 years of prohibiting development in Banning Lewis, Colorado Springs has grown pent-up demand for housing stock and office space. Declining to accommodate this demand – after investing toward it for decades – comes at an enormous cost to taxpayers, utility ratepayers, and people who need affordable homes. It is a cost of $4.5 billion in lost wages, tax revenues, and overall economic growth.

Additionally, failure to develop Banning Lewis will cause expensive sprawl.

Back in 1988, Banning Lewis was an island of proposed development east of Colorado Springs. Because of growth along Powers Boulevard, the ranch is a direct part of the developed city. As it sits undeveloped, neighborhoods emerge beyond the annexed region in unincorporated parts of El Paso County. Those developments create the expenses associated with sprawl, but generate no property tax revenues for Colorado Springs. The developments don’t help pay for our roads, our police, or our firefighters. Most don’t pay for the Southern Delivery System. Residents benefit from the nearby city, creating costs for city taxpayers, but pay almost nothing for the privilege.

Developing Banning Lewis will reduce demand for suburban sprawl, infilling the growing gap between the Springs and unincorporated subdivisions.

The proposed agreement forces developers to pay $2,338 for each developed acre toward police and fire services. A proposed City Council resolution records the commitment of the primary developer, Nor’wood Development Group, to create “a meaningful open space system that improves connectivity of existing city-owned parks, trails, and open space.” It also expresses Nor’wood’s commitment to protect “sensitive landscapes and creek corridors.”

Whatever costs Banning Lewis creates are dwarfed by the $49 million city government will net, as a benefit to taxpayers. When Colorado Springs Utilities nets $434 million in revenue, it represents $434 million in savings the utility can pass along to ratepayers by reducing or negating rate hikes, or even lowering rates.

A professional economic analysis by the Maryland-based economic firm TischlerBise shows no net economic downside to unleashing development in Banning Lewis Ranch, and extraordinary upsides. Development will benefit city taxpayers and ratepayers in the short-term, long-term, and all points between.

Tuesday will be a milestone for Colorado Springs, in the likely event City Council approves this agreement. By doing so, the council will launch economic growth most other cities only get to dream about.