Photo Credit: Wienerschnitzel.com

In March of last year, we brought you the story of a piece of taxpayer-owned land that the City of Colorado Springs sold to a builder of low-income housing for the price of $1. The land, located at Austin Bluffs and Templeton Gap, was valued at $570,000. We thought that was a bad deal for the taxpayers.

We can all agree that residents need affordable housing, but is this the best way to accomplish that goal?

Last week, neighbors from the area showed up to the Colorado Springs City Council meeting to protest that the builder is planning a 54-unit apartment complex, on just a tiny 1.14-acre lot. See the full 37-minute clip of that conversation here.

The financing mechanism for the project was all that was on the agenda for the City Council meeting. The citizens weren’t allowed to speak on their specific areas of concern, as City Council President Richard Skorman told them he only wanted to hear comments about the Council’s upcoming vote on the issuance of private activity bonds to help fund this project.

Had they known that their comments wouldn’t be welcome during that portion of the meeting, might they have spoken during the open citizens’ discussion that is standard at the beginning of each City Council meeting? Perhaps in the future, City Council President Richard Skorman can make that more clear.

Still, one gentleman —an engineer— got his point across. He said that the size of the lot is suitable only for an, “A-Frame Wienerschnitzel.” We thought the vision he presented is amusing, as well as accurate.

We’re giving serious thought to calling this the “Wienerschnitzel property” instead of the “$1 land deal.”