Colorado Springs city officials pitched a plan Tuesday to make the current wildfire evacuation planning steps local law, a measure residents say doesn’t address the core of their concerns around getting out of their homes safely in a major blaze.

Councilman Bill Murray was among those during the back-to-back Colorado Springs City Council meetings who raised concerns that making the evacuation planning process law would not guide development decisions. Some residents are concerned building more homes west of Interstate 25 could make it harder for people to escape ahead of a fire.

“What are the metrics we are supposed to use so we can process and form choices and not leave it to the developer or whims?” he said. 

Long wildfire evacuation delays for parts of Colorado Springs shown in models

Mayor John Suthers, who was not present, evaluated the residents’ request for an ordinance that would have made the time it takes to evacuate a factor in considering whether new development projects can be allowed, Chief of Staff Jeff Greene said. 

City Attorney Ben Bolinger said his office advised the mayor against the residents’ measure. The residents’ proposal that would govern development could create ad hoc moratoriums on construction on certain parcels, he said. 

Suthers asked staff instead to develop a different solution that would translate the city’s existing evacuation planning process into law. The new rules would require city officials to annually review the Community Wildfire Protection Plan and the city’s All-Hazards Evacuation Plan. Reviews happen regularly already, city officials said Tuesday. It would also require the city to have evacuation zones that will be informed by topography, existing neighborhoods and major roads, among other steps. 

Developing rules that don’t take into account evacuation times bypasses a big picture strategy, said Bill Wysong, with Westside Watch, an advocacy group that works on wildfire safety issues. Fast Local Emergency Evacuation Times is a software developed by federal funding that can be used to determine those times.  

“They have left the most important element out,” Wysong said in an interview.

City engineer Todd Frisbie said he tested the software to see how more residents change the amount of time it takes for residents to leave. 

“Population doesn’t seem to have a giant or significant impact on evacuation times,” he said. 

However, expert analysis using the Fast Local Emergency Evacuation Times found wildfire evacuation times are already long on the westside. 

Old Dominion University Professor Mike Robinson, an expert in evacuation modeling, found it could take 3 hours and 50 minutes for all residents to leave the Broadmoor area, excluding tourist traffic.

Colorado Springs fire officials also told the City Council Tuesday the city is purchasing Zone Haven, a software system that can be used to guide decisions during a wildfire. For example, fire officials can use the tool to select the most important areas that need to be evacuated first in a fire and notify residents who live in those areas within minutes, Fire Marshal Brett Lacey said.

Colorado Springs wildfire evacuation models a source of contention; presentations today

The city expects to sign a contract to use Zone Haven in the coming weeks, Police Chief Vince Niski said. The new software will cost $74,000 in the first year and $36,000 annually in the years following, Fire Chief Randy Royal said. 

Colorado Springs would be the first in the state to use Zone Haven, a tool that has been used in California and other communities. 

“It’s what we need to get the job done,” Lacey said. 

Colorado Springs has about 88,000 residents living in the Wildland Urban Interface and the new tool will break up the community into smaller evacuation zones than previously. The smaller zones could allow residents to leave more efficiently. However, if a large fire – like Marshall, which recently destroyed more than 1,000 homes in Boulder County – swept into town, the fire department would still have to call a large evacuation that could cause a slow-moving evacuation, Lacey said.

Wildfire advocates pointed out that Zone Haven and Fast Local Emergency Evacuation Times serve different purposes and the city could pursue both options. 

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Zone Haven is a real time data system that requires communication lines to be working, said Dana Duggan, an advocate with Westside Watch. Fast Local Emergency Evacuation Times could help the city develop evacuation maps that residents could access ahead of a fire. 

The residents’ proposal to have evacuation times guide development is a “cutting edge” idea that impressed Dan Dallas, an expert who manages some of the largest fires in recent years, she said. 

Duggan quoted Dallas in her comments, saying: “People should be aware of how to get out and how long it takes.”