Tucked into a valley north of the Air Force Academy, the residents of about 80 homes have one way out in the event of a fire — Hay Creek Road. 

Some houses are well hidden in the foothills and accessed by dirt roads that wind down to the main paved two-lane Hay Creek. None have an alternative way out of the valley bounded by Air Force Academy to the south, Forest Service land to the west and a conservation easement to the north.

So, a proposal for 20 high-end homes in the valley has been unpopular with residents who pointed out to El Paso County officials in public meetings that the county’s code limits the number of houses along a dead-end road to 25.

Planning commissioners noted the county is not even close to meeting its own regulations in this area during a meeting where the board voted 5-3 against the project. 

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“This just makes a really bad situation worse,” El Paso County Planning Commissioner Becky Fuller said. 

Despite residents’ advocacy and the Planning Commission’s opposition, the El Paso County Commission approved the project on a 4-0 vote in May. The board sided with the county staff’s interpretation of the code that the houses should be allowed because they don’t front Hay Creek Road, even though they rely on it as the sole exit. 

On Wednesday, Hay Creek valley resident Mike Cloutier filed a lawsuit against the county for its failure to abide by rule that limits the number of houses along a dead-end road to 25. The lawsuit claims the board’s failure to enforce the county’s code creates a significant public safety risk for existing property owners. 

Cloutier noted under the current standard, with the 80 residences listed on a neighborhood roster, the area is 320% over the county’s 25-home limit. 

“They’re putting people’s lives at risk,” he said. 

El Paso County said it does not comment on pending litigation. 

Valley residents live in the shadow of a fire scar from 2009, and worry that the regular high winds will blow a fire down into the valley. 

“Eighty percent of the time here, the winds are howling over these mountains,” Cloutier said. 

Kelly Parr’s property was used as a landing site for the helicopters that fought the 2009 fire and she is concerned about Hay Creek Road getting blocked during an evacuation by a stalled car or another obstacle. 

“It’s just totally scary,” she said. 

She was also concerned the commissioners seemed swayed by the argument that the code states the 25-house limit applies only to those homes that front and take access from the road. It seemed to her the commissioners put semantics ahead of resident safety.

While Commissioner Stan VanderWerf supported the staff’s interpretation of the code, he said he saw a need to better understand the evacuation risk during the recent meeting. 

“Without modeling we don’t know how much risk we are carrying here or not carrying,” he said. 

Speaking on behalf of the Matrix Design Group owner, Jason Alwine told the board that his team was never asked to address the larger problems along Hay Creek Road. 

Joe Stifter, with the owner View Homes, also told the board that while all the residents would likely evacuate at the same time the traffic would be dispersed. 

“Everybody is going to access Hay Creek at roughly the same time, but at different points,” he said. 

View Homes also agreed to put in a cistern that would provide at least 33,000 gallons of water for fire protection at the end of the private road that will serve the new homes — a step the commissioners lauded. 

In addition to the 20 recently approved lots, another proposal, called the Green Mountain planned unit development, could add another 20 homes farther west that would also rely on Hay Creek Road as the sole exit. 

During a meeting between the developers of the Green Mountain project and county staff, Gilbert LaForce, the county’s engineering manager, said that a second means of access for the whole area needs to be explored. 

A road north would be tough to put in because of a conservation easement near Forest Lakes, said Craig Dossey, who was representing the developer of the Green Mountain project. 

However, the former planning manager for the county said he was open to the county’s ideas for a second route to the whole valley.

“It’s sort of a forgotten area,” he said. 

The Air Force Academy cannot provide emergency access because the routes that exist require high-clearance vehicles and Academy firefighting trucks would be heading up the roads to fight a fire, while residents would headed out, spokesman Dean Miller said. The routes are also steep and considered fire breaks by the school. 

“Passenger vehicles cannot reliably and safely transit the fire breaks and would interfere with fire services and other first responders attempting to access and fight a fire,” he said in an emailed statement.