In the culmination of a monthslong contention among competing racial, military and geographic communities of interest, the El Paso County Redistricting Commission has selected a final map outlining new commissioner districts.

The redistricting commission, consisting of the five members of the El Paso County Board of Commissioners, said it selected the map from three finalists, because it best accommodated the needs of the most prominent “communities of interest” – including keeping Fountain and Fort Carson in one district and consolidating southeast Colorado Springs precincts in another – brought forth by residents over the four-month process.

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The request to keep together southeast Colorado Springs, defined by residents as a group of 30 voter precincts west and northwest of the Colorado Springs Airport that each have a minority population of 45% or greater, dominated public input.

The move could lead to a potentially further left-leaning district, laying the foundation for election of the first Democratic county commissioner in 50 years.

One other prominent resident request, however, was not included in the new map.

Many residents argued against joining Monument and Manitou Springs, Old Colorado City and other southwest communities in one district, District 3, claiming that the small business- and tourism industry-saturated west side, heavy with historic districts, does not align culturally or geographically with Monument.

Residents also said the move decreases competitiveness in District 3 – which Commissioner Stan VanderWerf narrowly won after a late push by his Democratic opponent in 2016 – in favor of Republicans.

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“You opted to put yourselves in that very difficult position of operating against your instincts,” said former state Sen. Pete Lee, a Democrat from Colorado Springs and current resident of District 3. Lee sponsored the 2021 House bill that outlines county redistricting guidelines, which encourages the use of an independent advisory commission during the process.

“When I see the map with District 3 containing those orphan detached (Monument) precincts, it seems to violate the basic rules of contiguity and a classic case of gerrymandering,” Lee said.

According to data presented Tuesday by county Clerk and Recorder Steve Schleiker, District 3 is now the most politically competitive district on average, with a deviation from zero – or “even” competitiveness – of just under 1% in favor of Republicans. District 1, encompassing much of northern El Paso County, is the least competitive and most heavily in favor of Republicans, while District 5 – where the 30 southeast precincts sit – now leans in favor of Democrats.

The new map was selected from three maps designated Aug. 8, none of which were taken from a number of publicly submitted resident maps on the county’s online redistricting portal.

“The maps that we have here were maps that originated with commissioners … they were not maps that originated with any of the citizens or groups that worked together to put maps together,” Amy Paschal, a District 3 resident, said Tuesday. “All of those maps were dropped out of consideration, and that’s really unfortunate when the whole point of this process was to get more … than just the commissioners’ ideas.”

VanderWerf on Tuesday said that given the vast number of interests in and the size of El Paso County, that give-and-take was inevitable and that the new map does accommodate many other resident requests, like keeping the Patty Jewett neighborhood in one district and keeping smaller municipalities intact.

Monument was split between two districts under the former map, he said.

Commissioners have routinely cited the wildland-urban interface, where wildfire-prone areas meet residential development from Manitou Springs to the Tri-Lakes region, as a crucial community of interest and reasoning for the move.

“We have actually incorporated a lot of features that were recommended to us,” VanderWerf said. “To be fair, it just wasn’t possible to recommend everything and, in fact, many of the (public) comments were in conflict with each other.”

District 2 Commissioner Carrie Geitner, who has been a staunch advocate for the Eastern Plains communities, said the inclusion of two less similar places is not unique to the west side.

“If you went and asked someone who lives in the town of Calhan what they have in common with someone who lives west of Powers (Boulevard), they might struggle a bit … it’s not as if there’s something unique going on in District 3,” Geitner said. “That is a natural consequence of living in a very large county that has a lot of different areas.”

Commissioners also opted for the final map because it better accommodates future growth than the other finalists.

According to Schleiker’s data, Districts 1, 2 and 4 are underpopulated, while Districts 3 and 5, which includes downtown Colorado Springs, are overpopulated due to relatively slow projected growth.

Click or tap here for the final map file.

Click or tap here for information on the new districts’ political competitiveness and racial demographic data.(tncms-asset)3cd62a64-37b4-11ee-b703-676ccb6a311b[3](/tncms-asset)

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