A long-simmering fight over wildfire evacuation planning is headed to the Colorado Springs City Council Tuesday for a vote on a possible new ordinance that residents say falls short of what is needed. 

The city staff’s proposed ordinance would require breaking the city up into evacuation zones based on topography, the road network and other factors. City fire officials have said smaller evacuation zones could be easier to evacuate. It also calls for an education campaign for residents to know their zone, if a wildfire or another disaster prompted an evacuation. The evacuation plan would be updated every five years under the proposed rule. 

Council President Tom Strand said the seven other board members that could be reached were interested in the staff-developed proposal that was presented to them informally in May. He said he was interested in hearing again from city staff and residents.  

“I am anxious to hear what it’s in the best interest of the city from all parties that are involved,” he said. 

Advocates say the draft ordinance does not include any of the specifics they asked for in November following presentations by evacuation experts. As part of that meeting, councilmembers heard about the long-evacuation times residents would face trying to flee a wildfire in the Broadmoor neighborhood and other areas west of Interstate 25. 

Bill Wysong with Westside Watch, a Colorado Springs wildfire safety advocacy group, said the ordinance seems to be a political move ahead of the coming mayoral and City Council elections in April. 

“It doesn’t warrant the time and effort that the city has spent on it,” Wysong said. The city does not need an ordinance to purchase the ZoneHaven system that would help city officials evacuate the community in smaller zones, he said. 

Residents asked the city to model how long it could take to leave neighborhoods and designate evacuation routes for hazards coming from all four directions. The proposed ordinance would require the city to post evacuation times and routes online. It would also require the city to evaluate how new developments could increase evacuation times and require that longer times be addressed through design changes or added roads. 

“People need to know how long is it going to take you to get out,” said Dana Duggan, a founder of Westside Watch. Residents and visitors also need maps with safe zones where they could shelter identified, because it’s easy to get disoriented in the chaos of a fire. 

Evacuation modeling presented by Old Dominion University Professor Mike Robinson, to the City Council in November showed evacuating the Broadmoor area during the summer with visitors at The Broadmoor resort, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and Seven Falls could take about five hours. The Fast Local Emergency Evacuation Times system Robinson helped develop to model evacuations is available for free to cities and others to plan for emergencies. 

Robinson was hired by Pacific, Gas & Electric Co. to assess evacuation plans in California following the 2018 Camp fire in Paradise that killed about 85 people.

A Los Angeles Times investigation of the Camp fire showed the community was split into zones for evacuation purposes to help prevent traffic congestion. But most of the city’s zones never received an order to leave because the “loss of fiber-optic lines and cell towers shut down the warning system completely.” The community also never used evacuation modeling to determine how long it could take for the whole community to leave, the investigation showed. 

Westside Watch advocates have said they believe a fast-moving fire could move through the Broadmoor area because, in 1950, a wind-driven fire that started in what is now the Broadmoor Golf Course destroyed 92 buildings and killed nine people. 

Strand said he is concerned the evacuation ordinance proposed by the neighborhood could negatively impact development. 

“We don’t want it to negatively impact the growth of the city,” he said. 

Colorado Springs fire officials have said in the past residents can model their own evacuation times and be aware of the risk in their own neighborhoods. 

Wysong said his group is not anti-development, but that new residences and growth should be thoughtfully considered. There is a clear difference between a few new single-family homes and hundreds of new apartments on critical egress routes, he said. 

At the same time, state legislatures are also taking a closer look at evacuation modeling. 

California adopted a new law that requires all communities to “identify evacuation routes and their capacity, safety, and viability under a range of emergency scenarios.”

The Colorado Legislature’s Wildfire Matters Review Committee that meets during the summer could also explore potential of evacuation modeling and how it could help communities understand their risks, said Rep. Marc Snyder, D-Colorado Springs, a committee member. He noted the Marshall fire that destroyed more than 1,000 homes and could not be fought from planes was a game changer.

“We want to protect people and property,” he said.