The next major land addition to Colorado Springs could be a planned industrial park located between Fort Carson and the southwest side of Fountain.

The Southern Colorado Rail Park is a 3,100-acre complex owned by the Edward C. Levy Co. Since 2018, a collaborative agreement between Colorado Springs, Fountain and El Paso County includes a rail line extension and a "megasite" for industrial and manufacturing businesses.

The annexation will have a public hearing and first vote by the Colorado Springs City Council on Tuesday. The City Planning Commission unanimously recommended the project in February.

Developers for the annexation presented the work as a benefit for Fort Carson by creating a more resilient rail connection and a resource for a future major interchange between Powers Boulevard and Interstate 25. The industrial park was projected to provide more than 7,000 jobs and a new location for large-scale manufacturing.

"What you're going to find is that we are a very unique situation. We are not going to be a cookie-cutter in the annexation plan. We are what's called a special opportunity," Steve Milliken, attorney for the Levy Co., told the City Council during a January work session.

The original plan was for the property to be annexed into Fountain.

Negotiations with the city fell through in 2024 over Fountain's ability to provide water for the project. Updated proposals for a metropolitan district and a design plan were approved by the El Paso County Board of County Commissioners in the fall and the company applied to be annexed into Colorado Springs in November.

The property would not normally be eligible for annexation into Colorado Springs because it is not adjacent to the current city borders and no part of the land is within three miles of the current borders of Colorado Springs.

According to the project presentations, annexations can exceed the three-mile limit if the area is part of an enterprise zone, and the park falls within the county's Pikes Peak Enterprise Zone. The rule for contiguous borders allows the city to jump across "intervening public land," which the developers and city staff said covers Fort Carson.

"If Fort Carson were disregarded, more than one-sixth of the perimeter boundary of SCRP is contiguous to the City," the project summary states.

At the Planning Commission meeting on Feb. 12, staff stated that the development would cost the city around $61 million over the next 20 years and provide around $67 million in revenue.

The development will require around 1,281 acre-feet of water per year, according to Colorado Springs Utilities.

Utilities staff told the Planning Commission they would continue working on wastewater agreements with the Fountain Sanitation District to help support the project.

The planning commissioners raised questions about the unusual approach for the annexation, the utility connections and economic details that were not included in the presentations. The members ultimately voted to recommend it because of the scale of potential benefits to Colorado Springs and Fort Carson.

"It brings a lot of positive things to the region in a way that we don't have," commission chair Andrea Slattery said. "I think the positive benefits for future generations outweigh how we got here."

If the annexation takes place, the first work on the site would be building a rail line between Fort Carson and the Ray Nixon Power Plant to provide access to the military complex. The first phase of commercial development was projected to begin in 2030 and cover 900 acres, mostly on land adjacent to the rail line.

Further industrial development and reclamation would take place over the next 20 years.