Dave Donelson for City Council District 1

05/30/2025

I have received a lot of emails asking what I think about the Karman Line annexation. Here is the response I have been sending - with my thoughts on the annexation:

Thank you for your email. My wife and I received one of the “Vote yes on Issue 1” mailers a few days ago. It was full of misinformation and lies. The more I see of the propaganda campaign in favor of the annexation the more deceitful it gets.

Issue 1 will ask you if you want to annex into Colorado Springs, approximately 1,900 acres (3 square miles) of land that is 3 miles east of Colorado Springs. For me, that fails the first test for an annexation: Is it a LOGICAL extension of our current city boundary? Something 3 miles away isn't a LOGICAL extension.

Here is the exact language you will see on the ballot:
“Shall the voters approve Ordinance 25-16, concerning annexing that area known as Karman Line Addition No. 6 consisting of 1,876.24 acres located northwest of the Bradley Road and Curtis Road intersection into the City of Colorado Springs?”

If you don’t want the annexation vote “AGAINST THE ORDINANCE” on your ballot.

The developers of Karman Line, who on the “Vote Yes on Issue 1” card claim that Democrats are trying to take over the city by building apartment buildings, don't mention that the planned skyscraper downtown is the project of one of the owners of ONE La Plata (the group that will develop and benefit from Karman Line). Democrats have nothing to do with this. That is a total distraction.

The Karman Line annexation will come within ¼ mile of the Schriever perimeter. Schriever was built far from the city on purpose. City level development so close to their perimeter creates risks for the work that is done at Schriever. THIS DEVELOPMENT IS NOT SUPPORTING THE MILITARY - IT IS THREATENING IT. This is a critical point. The military operations that are conducted at Schriever could be moved to another state if the area around Schriever becomes overdeveloped. Schriever could be closed.

The developer that wants to have Karman Line annexed into the city (ONE La Plata), knows that annexing land 3 miles away doesn't make sense to voters so they are spinning it as a fight against a different developer - Norwood. According to them, if we vote to annex their land (Karman Line) into the city we will be fighting the other developer. It is a clever spin but I disagree with it.

We have a lot of land already inside our current city boundaries that is yet to be developed – that is what the Eastern Wastewater Expansion is going to allow. The houses in Karman Line will start in the mid 400s and the average will be in the mid 500s and up. That is not housing that young military folks can afford (and I used to be one)!

Our Police and Fire response times are slow now and this won't help. We will be adding more roads for maintenance when we really can't afford the maintenance on the ones we have. We do not have enough water now to build out our city in our current city boundaries. Adding this annexation will only make that worse.

However, the investors in Karman Line will make a lot of money if it is annexed into the city.

I have voted NO on this three times on Council – and I will vote NO one more time on this ballot.

Please share this. I have been contacted by a lot of voters asking for help figuring this out.

Here is something with some pros and cons:

https://www.cpr.org/2025/05/23/colorado-springs-special-election-june-17-karman-line-addition/

I hope that helps,

Dave

The so-called Karman Line Addition is about 1,900 acres connected to the southeast side of the city via a strip of land. Potential development plans call for around 6,500 homes along with other infrastructure. Ballots must be returned by June 17 at 7 p.m.

04/14/2025

The Swearing-In Ceremony for the six City Council District Representatives who were just elected happens tomorrow at 10am on the south lawn at the Pioneers Museum downtown. The weather is supposed to be 45 degrees and sunny. Each of us will be sworn in and make a few comments. There will be a receiving line after the swearing in and I would love to shake hands with each of you and thank you for your support!

04/10/2025

Congratulations to three new Paramedics, a Lieutenant, Captain, Battalion Chief, and our new Fire Marshall, Kris Cooper (3rd from the left), all of whom were promoted to those ranks today. That is the Honorable Judge HayDen Kane in the center. Judge Kane administered the Oath of Office to each of them. CSFD Chief Randy Royal is on the far right. Holly and I were honored to be there to show our support!

04/09/2025

Several important votes on council today. One of them created a special election for citizens to decide whether they want to approve the Karman Line annexation.

You might remember that back in January council approved the 1,900 acre flag pole annexation which is 3 miles east of the city along Bradley Road. I and one other council member voted against that, but it passed on a 7-2 vote. Citizens then gathered more than 19,000 valid signatures to have council either reverse its decision, or put it on the ballot for citizens to decide.

Today, we voted first to see if council still supported the annexation. If we voted NO, then that would cancel the annexation and we wouldn't need to call a special election. Only 3 of us voted NO, so the vote was 6-3 in support of the annexation.

Since we weren't willing to repeal the annexation ourselves we were forced to vote to call a special election (for June 17) and put it on the ballot. It is the only issue that will be on the ballot.

THE COST FOR THE SPECIAL ELECTION WILL BE MORE THAN $500,000. THAT COMES FROM OUR GENERAL FUND - YOUR TAXES.

The 2 minute news report below has a short clip of part of my comments before the vote to put it on the ballot.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - The contentious Karmen Line annexation will head to voters in June. Petitioners recently gathered signatures urging city

04/08/2025

There was an important vote on Council today. It was a 6-1 vote, and as you might have suspected, I was the 1.

I voted against denying a citizen appeal of an approval by the Downtown Review Board (DRB) of a 315 foot luxury apartment building. The current tallest building is 247 feet.

The citizens' concern is that this high-rise will change the character of our downtown and opens the door to more skyscrapers. It also ignores the 6,800 citizens who have signed an online petition asking Council to allow citizens to vote on a downtown building height limit of 250 feet.

Council needs to listen to the citizens. We don't need to compete with cities like Denver by trying to develop a downtown of skyscrapers. We need to have the courage to embrace the reason General Palmer chose this site to found a city. We don't need to distract from the natural beauty, which is the reason Colorado Springs was founded at the base of Pikes Peak.

The Colorado Springs City Council voted 6-1 to support the design approval the Downtown Review Board gave for the 27-story, roughly 300-foot tall downtown apartment building earlier this year.

04/06/2025

THANKS AGAIN FOR THE BIG WIN!!!

This picture shows ALL THE PRECINCTS IN DISTRICT 1 (and some above and below it). The darker the green the higher the percentage of voting. Far upper left is Peregrine with 45.6%, far lower left is Cedar Heights with 44%, and two precincts to the right of that is Kissing Camels with the highest turnout of all precincts in the city at 52.7%. District 1 had the highest overall average of any District at 32.6%.

I-25 runs north and south, roughly cutting this image in half, and Garden of the Gods/Austin bluffs runs east west, roughly cutting it in half in that direction. Academy comes up from the bottom right corner. If you zoom in you can see major street names.

For those interested in seeing voter turnout in their precinct (pretty much your neighborhood) you can find that info at https://coloradosprings.gov/voterturnout

04/05/2025

THANKS AGAIN to the voters of District 1 - and the citizens of Colorado Springs! We received more votes than any other candidate in any district race. We received campaign donations from citizens in all six districts. All that in the face of a "dark money" smear campaign of lies. THANK YOU!

04/05/2025

Congratulations once again to City Council District 1 for having the highest voter turnout of the six districts! 20,458 ballots were returned from the 62,736 sent to District 1 voters. This map shows percentages from each of the six districts. You can drill down all the way to precinct level at https://coloradosprings.gov/voterturnout

04/03/2025

THANK YOU to all who have helped and supported our campaign for re-election!

BIG VICTORY IN DISTRICT 1! A 16 point spread - and that was achieved in the face of tens of thousands of dollars (? more than $60,000) spent by a "dark money" PAC in a smear campaign of lies! These election results demonstrate voter support for what I stand for on city council!

A few people spent a lot of money on a smear campaign to try to "take me out" and it failed miserably. It's good to see that. THE CITIZENS WEREN'T FOOLED!

04/01/2025

Our final text message to the voters of District 1 went out this morning:

𝐃𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮, 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐥𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐬. 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 $𝟒𝟎,𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝐨𝐧 𝐚 𝐬𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐦𝐞.

Why? Because for the last four years on city council I have proven that I represent YOU - not them.

● I don't take developer money (my opponent does).
● I have voted against high-density apartments at fire evacuation choke points, and against annexations of thousands of acres that are miles outside our city.
● I have called on council members not to vote on developer projects if they have taken thousands of dollars in "donations" from that developer.

𝐑𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 - 𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐢𝐬𝐧'𝐭 "𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐚" 𝐨𝐫 "𝐝𝐲𝐬𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧" - 𝐧𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐢𝐭.

𝐕𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐢𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬. 𝐕𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐃𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐨𝐧 - "𝐇𝐞 𝐕𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐘𝐨𝐮!"

03/30/2025

Text message that went out to many District 1 voters today:

"𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐥𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐃𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐯𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐛𝐲 𝐓𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲, 𝐀𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐥 𝟏𝐬𝐭.

As you can see from the attached picture, developers and special interests have hired a Virginia-based dark money PAC to try to defeat me with their smear campaign of lies. You've seen them.

When I am asking serious questions on your behalf, that isn't "drama" or "dysfunction." I am representing YOU, the citizens, and they don't like it.

𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐝𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐥𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 - 𝐦𝐲 𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐧𝐭. 𝐃𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐩𝐮𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐥.

Vote for former Green Beret and Iraq War Veteran "the honorable Dave Donelson, councilman for the people" before April 1st!"

03/29/2025

What are they so afraid of? Developers and special interests have now reported spending $40,728.52 on a smear campaign against me.

Why? Because for the last four years I have proven that I represent YOU - not them!

You see their smear ads right here on Facebook.

Vote Dave Donelson - "He Votes for You!"

davedonelson.org for more