Colorado Springs’ Parks Board has approved a highly anticipated plan for Fishers Canyon Open Space, setting the stage for the city’s next outdoor destination on scenic land acquired in 2021.

The 343 acres of meadows, pines and granite formations soaring to the city park system’s highest point — surpassing North Cheyenne Cañon Park’s Mount Muscoco above 8,000 feet — flank Cheyenne Mountain and Pike National Forest, behind the Broadmoor Bluffs neighborhood. Parking lots and trails are planned through a gate at the end of a residential street.

While eagerly awaited by some, people of the neighborhood have opposed the plan. After more than a year of technical analysis, online surveys and meetings, neighbors raised their voices again Thursday ahead of the Parks Board’s unanimous approval.

One neighbor, Dave Zelenok, praised the plan’s stated aim to balance recreation and conservation.

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“I think no one has a quarrel with that,” he said. “It boils down to wildfire and life safety issues.”

Those are issues among other “grave concerns” outlined in an online petition that has garnered 575 signatures. Other concerns: increased traffic through the neighborhood, parking by homes and “lack of enforcement capabilities.”

Formerly the city’s Public Works director with a career in transportation management, Zelenok insisted Fishers Canyon’s plan “would significantly impact evacuation.” The plan calls for 69 parking spaces to be initially built, with as many as 110 possible.

Modeling showed projected traffic “would not significantly impact evacuations,” the 104-page plan reads. Some are unconvinced, worried by the projections showing as many as 217 vehicles on the busiest weekend days of a fully built open space.

The city’s Deputy Fire Marshal Kris Cooper has voiced his support for the plan, saying trails would bring “more eyes” and “human detectors” to the area. While granting people are the leading cause of wildfire, “I would say adding population to this area is not a bad thing,” Cooper said. “In fact, it’s probably a benefit for us as a fire department.”

Parks Board member Greg Thornton sympathized with neighbors at Thursday’s meeting.

But “if we pass this or not today, you’re still in danger tomorrow. Nothing is gonna change that,” he said. “You live in a beautiful area, but part of that beauty means it’s a very dangerous area.”

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Proponents have suggested the area would be more at-risk if more houses had been built, as had been proposed over the years before the city’s Trails, Open Space and Parks (TOPS) sales tax fund acquired the property.

“Everyone in the city pays the TOPS tax. Fishers Canyon Open Space is for everyone in the city,” said advocate Carol Beckman. “Everyone in the city deserves fair access.”

The goal is to open access next year, said David Deitemeyer, TOPS senior program administrator. That’s if funding comes through.

Deitemeyer said more than $4 million would be needed to build out the trail system’s 9-10 miles along with special engineering and pavement for parking and trailhead infrastructure. The Parks Department would have to be “strategic and creative,” Deitemeyer said — seeking grants beyond its own budget.

But Fishers Canyon would be a priority, he said. As it should be, advocates have said.

Said Glenn Carlson, executive director of the Trails and Open Space Coalition: “Spaces like this don’t come along too often.”

But as the park system grows, some have questioned the city’s financial ability to keep up and address issues that arise.

The plan is being called “adaptive,” meant to be flexible — hence the possibility of more paved parking if demand dictates, for example. Critics, though, have called the plan “reactive” rather than “proactive.” And they have suggested leadership’s recent communication with the neighborhood has similarly been reactive.

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At Thursday’s meeting, Victoria Liu-Elliott was among neighbors pleading for more time “to be able to work through the conversation.” She said she appreciated recent talks, but “I think we can acknowledge there were trip-ups in the beginning.”

Notices were mailed and a neighborhood site tour was held between a series of open houses, proponents have pointed out. That includes members of the TOPS Working Committee, who unanimously approved the Fishers Canyon plan before the Parks Board. One board member, Andrea Perry, observed the process as “really a good example of how government can work.”

Still, some neighbors “felt like they were completely in the dark,” Liu-Elliott said. “I don’t know how that happened. Maybe it’s worth discussing how to engage the community in the future.”

Contentious talks over Fishers Canyon have echoed talks from last year regarding a master plan for an expanded Blodgett Open Space. Neighbors filed a formal appeal to that plan, leading to a long hearing and eventual dismissal by the City Council.

It was another flashpoint in the Parks Department’s mission to grow open space and spread out recreation while neighborhoods sprout and expand across the city.

Wild places like Fishers Canyon up against a major metro made Colorado Springs “unlike any parks department in the country,” Parks Director Britt Haley said during Thursday’s meeting. “And we want to be good stewards, and we want to be good neighbors.”