Flying Horse North homes: The approved sketch plan calls for 846 homes on 912 acres. Scott Riebel's approximation at the meeting ran higher than the verified county figure.
Stage of approval: The March 26 item was a preliminary plan amendment (filings 6–8) — not the original sketch plan, which passed in November 2022. This is a later stage of an already-approved project.
His name is Scott Riebel. He lives in Black Forest. He was there to speak against the latest stage of Flying Horse North — a development moving through county approvals since 2022, on about 912 acres southwest of Hodgen and Black Forest roads.
The original approved plan called for 283 homes. The current approved sketch plan: 846 homes plus a luxury hotel. Thursday's item was a preliminary plan amendment for filing stages 6 through 8.
Scott Riebel came prepared. He had read the documents. He understood the criteria. He knew what he was walking into. And his point — delivered clearly and on the record — was that this isn't just a change in numbers. It's a change in what was promised.
He raised the septic question. Individual septic systems are completely normal in rural areas. They work fine. The soil does its job. It's not the technology. It's the math when that many systems draw from the same aquifer in the same area. At that density, all drawing from the same water, the cumulative load is the whole question.
He asked the commissioners to stop using the phrase "general compliance" with the master plan and start asking whether something is in "substantial noncompliance" with the intent of the plan. Not just the letter. The intent. That is not a small distinction.
Showing up to say it — with the documents read, the criteria understood, and no expectation of winning — is genuinely useful. The public comment period exists because the people who live near these decisions carry information that doesn't always show up in a traffic study. Scott Riebel used it well.
The commissioners heard him. They thanked him. Voted 5–0. He knew that would happen. He said so before he sat back down. He showed up anyway.
The March 26 vote was not the final word on Flying Horse North. More approval stages are ahead — each one requiring a hearing, each one open to public comment. The next opportunity will appear in the EDARP system at epcdevplanreview.com before it shows up anywhere else. Search file number PUDSP252. Set up an alert.
When the next hearing is scheduled, show up to the Planning Commission hearing first — that's where the recommendation is built. Submit written comment through EDARP at least 24 hours ahead and it becomes part of the official record.
And if you want company — nearly 700 members of the Friends of Black Forest have already submitted opposition on this project. That's an organized group with a shared concern. Finding them is probably the most effective thing you can do with an hour. The vote was 5–0. The project is not done moving.
The BOCC hearing on March 26 was not Scott Riebel's first opportunity to speak on this project. It was the second. Every land use application in El Paso County travels through the Planning Commission before it reaches the Board of County Commissioners. That's a full quasi-judicial hearing — staff presents, the applicant presents, neighbors speak for and against, the applicant rebuts, and the commission votes a recommendation.
The Planning Commission hearing is where the official record is built. Citizens who show up there are speaking into the process while the recommendation is still being formed. Citizens who only show up at the BOCC are speaking into a record that was already made.
If there's a development near you moving through the system — and there are several — the moment to engage is at the Planning Commission hearing, not just the BOCC. Find the project in EDARP, watch for the hearing date on the 2026 hearings schedule, and submit written comment at least 24 hours ahead. That comment becomes part of the official record. Planning Commission meets the 1st and 3rd Thursdays at 9 a.m., 2880 International Circle.
In 2004, a developer began building a neighborhood east of Colorado Springs — roads, water lines, sewer systems, drainage. About $58 million in infrastructure total. A metro district was created so the developer could be reimbursed over time through property taxes on homes as they sold.
The infrastructure is in the ground. 220 homes are occupied. Thursday's ask: formal authorization to issue bonds and recover the $47 million in eligible certified costs. That is the real transaction. Everything else Thursday was paperwork around that central fact.
For current homeowners: about $2,040/year on a $500,000 home — roughly $170/month on top of regular property taxes. The rate is fixed and cannot go up.
Who takes the risk if the neighborhood doesn't fully build out? That would be the bondholder. And in this case, the bondholder is the developer, or a related entity they control. The developer builds the infrastructure, issues bonds essentially to themselves, gets repaid through property taxes over time, and absorbs the loss if the remaining homes don't sell as projected. The 220 homeowners already living there are not on the hook. That structure is legal, disclosed, and fairly common. It's worth knowing what it actually means.
We've submitted a records request on the full financial picture. More on the actual numbers when that comes back.
The chair caught something in the fine print. The original 2004 service plan had authorized a 13-mill special tax for fire protection. When the area was later absorbed into the Security Fire Protection District, that district began levying its own taxes for the same services. The authorization to charge residents twice had been sitting on paper — uncollected, but technically active — for over 20 years.
The chair kept pressing until the applicant confirmed on the record: yes, the authorization was there; no, they weren't collecting it; and yes, this amendment formally removes it so it can never quietly happen. Source: meeting transcript. Verifying independently. Will note if anything changes.
Small thing. Important thing. Someone read the document carefully enough to find it. Fine print in county documents isn't written to be inaccessible on purpose. It's just dense. It accumulates over decades. Most of the time nobody reads it until someone does. The chair read it. Scott Riebel read the master plan. Those are not extraordinary acts. They're what happens when someone takes the time.
This district has held elections every two years. Postcards to every resident. Town halls. Website notices. The board is waiting for someone who actually lives there. Next election: 2027. No experience required. Nomination forms at lorsonranchmds.com.
| Body | Item | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| BOCC | Flying Horse North — Preliminary Plan Amendment, Filings 6–8 (Consent Item 6C). Sketch plan: 846 homes on 912 acres. One public speaker opposed: Scott Riebel, Black Forest. | 5–0 ✓ |
| BOCC | Larson Ranch Metro District No. 6 — Amended & Restated Service Plan. Bond term to 40 years (effective 37 from 2022). 13-mill fire double-levy authorization removed. Max debt $80M → $58M. | 5–0 ✓ |
| Note | All five commissioners Republican. Holly Williams term-limited, final year. Every vote 5–0. The Dais will track dissenting votes. | Noted |
"He didn't come because he thought he'd win. He came because someone should say it out loud, on the record, in the building where the decision gets made."
public improvements
occupied
$500k home
Request 1: Communications Department 2026 AV budget allocation — how much does it cost to film and stream every BOCC and Planning Commission meeting?
Request 2: Larson Ranch District 6 financial analysis and staff notes on the bond term extension and fire levy removal.
Results published here when responses arrive. To file your own: email pio@elpasoco.com — one email, one sentence, date it, three business days. First hour of staff time is free.
- Flying Horse North — Scott Riebel came prepared, read the documents, and spoke on the record. Sketch plan: 846 homes, 912 acres, luxury hotel. Passed 5–0. The project is not done moving.
- The septic concern isn't about the technology. It's the math when hundreds of systems draw from the same aquifer in the same area.
- Every land use application goes through Planning Commission before the BOCC. Two full hearings. Most people only know about the second one. Show up to the first.
- Nearly 700 Friends of Black Forest members have submitted opposition. EDARP file PUDSP252. Alerts at epcdevplanreview.com.
- Larson Ranch Metro District 6 — $47M in already-built infrastructure gets bond authorization. Bondholder is the developer or related entity — not homeowners. 220 homes at ~$2,040/year. Rate is fixed.
- Chair caught a 13-mill double-taxation authorization from 2004 — never collected, technically active for 20+ years. Amendment removes it permanently.
- Every vote: 5–0. All five commissioners Republican. Holly Williams term-limited. Pattern noted.
- Open right now: Planning Commission (2), CDAB (2 — one ends May 1), Board of Health (physician), CSBG (multiple), Fairgrounds (1). One email: volunteer@elpasoco.com
The Board of County Commissioners meets at Centennial Hall, 200 South Cascade Avenue. It is a genuinely nice room — not a folding-table-in-a-church-basement situation. An actual auditorium. Good chairs. A proper dais. The kind of space where, if enough people showed up with poster boards and someone was waving in the back row, the camera could pan and it would look like something.
That camera is run by a small team including Nancy, an AV specialist with over 15 years at the county, and Blake Nielsen, the Audio-Visual Production Engineer. Between them they cover every commissioners meeting, every Planning Commission hearing, every livestream going out simultaneously to Facebook, YouTube, and the county channel. We've submitted a records request on what that operation actually costs. We'll report back when it comes in.
On Thursday morning, there were a handful of people in those chairs. They came on purpose — because something in their neighborhood was on the agenda and they decided it mattered enough to show up for. That is available to all of us.
One Person Came to the Microphone
His name is Scott Riebel. He lives in Black Forest. He was there to speak against the latest stage of Flying Horse North — a large residential development moving through county approvals since 2022, on about 912 acres southwest of Hodgen and Black Forest roads. The original approved plan was for around 283 homes. The current approved sketch plan brings that to 846 homes — plus a luxury hotel. Thursday's hearing was a preliminary plan amendment for filing stages 6 through 8.
Scott Riebel came prepared. He had read the documents. He understood the criteria. He knew what he was walking into. His point — delivered clearly and on the record — was that this isn't just a change in numbers. It's a change in what was promised. He raised the septic question: individual systems are normal at low density, but the math is different when that many systems are all drawing from the same aquifer in the same neighborhood, over the same water. He asked the commissioners to stop using the phrase "general compliance" and start asking whether something is in "substantial noncompliance" with the intent of the plan. Not just the letter. The intent. That is not a small distinction.
Showing up to say that — with the documents read, the criteria understood, and no expectation of winning — is genuinely useful. The public comment period exists because the people who live near these decisions carry information that doesn't always show up in a traffic study. Scott Riebel used it well. The commissioners heard him, thanked him, and voted 5–0. He knew that would happen. He said so before he sat back down. He showed up anyway.
If You Want to Stand Next to Scott Riebel on This One
The March 26 vote was not the final word on Flying Horse North. More approval stages are ahead — each one requiring a hearing, each one open to public comment. The next opportunity will appear in the EDARP system at epcdevplanreview.com before it shows up anywhere else. Search file number PUDSP252 and set up an alert. When the next hearing is scheduled, show up to the Planning Commission hearing first — that's where the recommendation is built. Submit written comment through EDARP at least 24 hours ahead and it becomes part of the official record.
If you want company: nearly 700 members of the Friends of Black Forest have already submitted opposition on this project. That's an organized group with a shared concern. Finding them is probably the most effective thing you can do with an hour. The vote was 5–0. The project is not done moving.
The Two-Bite System — What Most People Don't Know
That BOCC hearing on Thursday was the second opportunity to speak on this project, not the first. Every land use application in El Paso County goes through the Planning Commission before it ever reaches the Board of County Commissioners. Full hearing. Staff presents. The applicant presents. Neighbors speak for and against. The commission votes a recommendation. Then — and only then — does it travel to the BOCC. Two bites at the apple. Most people only know about the second one.
The Planning Commission meets the 1st and 3rd Thursday of every month, 9 a.m., 2880 International Circle. The hearings are open. You can speak in person, or submit written comment through the EDARP system at least 24 hours before the hearing — that comment gets entered into the official record and handed to every commissioner before they vote. You don't even have to be in the room.
A fair warning: the first time you sit in one of these hearings, some of what you hear will be confusing. Terms you don't recognize. Acronyms nobody explains. Documents referenced that you haven't seen. That is completely normal. Bring a notepad. Write down what you don't understand. Look it up later, or bring it here — we'll do our best to translate. The confusion itself is useful: if the process is consistently hard to follow for the people it most affects, that's worth saying out loud.
And if you want to go a step further, most of these boards are looking for volunteers who can give between 4 and 12 hours a month. You don't need a law degree. You don't need to have read every document. You need to show up regularly and be willing to ask what something means. That turns out to be rarer and more valuable than it sounds.
Larson Ranch Metro District 6 — The Developer Gets Paid Back. Also: Fine Print.
Back in 2004, a developer started building a neighborhood from scratch east of Colorado Springs. Roads, water lines, sewer systems, drainage — all of it. About $58 million in infrastructure total. A metro district was created so the developer could eventually get reimbursed through property taxes on homes as they were sold. Fast forward to Thursday: the infrastructure is in the ground, 220 homes are occupied, and the developer needs formal authorization to issue bonds and finally get paid back for the $47 million in eligible certified costs. That is the real ask. Everything else Thursday was paperwork around that central fact.
For the homeowners already living there, the math looks like this: about $2,040 a year on a $500,000 home — roughly $170 a month on top of regular property taxes. The rate is fixed and cannot go up. Who takes the risk if the remaining 775 homes don't sell as projected? That would be the bondholder. And in this case, the bondholder is the developer, or a related entity they control. The developer builds the infrastructure, issues bonds essentially to themselves, gets repaid through property taxes over time, and absorbs the loss if buildout stalls. The homeowners already living there are not on the hook. That structure is legal, disclosed, and fairly common. Worth knowing what it actually means.
The more interesting moment was when the chair caught something in the fine print. The original 2004 service plan had authorized a 13-mill special tax to help fund fire protection services. But the area was later absorbed into the Security Fire Protection District, which levies its own taxes for the same thing. The authorization to charge residents twice for fire services had been sitting on paper for over 20 years — uncollected, but technically active. The chair kept pressing until the applicant confirmed on the record: yes, the authorization was there; no, they weren't collecting it; and yes, this amendment formally removes it so it can never quietly happen. That's from the meeting record. We're verifying independently and will note if anything changes.
Small thing. Important thing. Fine print in county documents isn't written to be inaccessible on purpose — it's just dense, and it accumulates over decades. Most of the time nobody reads it until someone does. The chair read it. Scott Riebel read the master plan. Those are not extraordinary acts. They are what happens when someone takes the time. That is exactly what these meetings are for.
This district has held elections every two years — postcards to every resident and elector before each election. The board is waiting for someone who actually lives there. Next election: 2027. No experience required. The nomination form is on the district website at lorsonranchmds.com.