Welcome to Crockett Lane – a bizarre collection of houses, garages and barns converted to living space and jammed together along a dirt road amid big, beautiful trees in a low-lying area that was adjacent to Fountain Creek before Interstate 25 was built.

In the photo below is vew of Crockett Lane taken from the Vanguard School, a new charter academy built by the Cheyenne Mountain School District on a hill overlooking the neighborhood. The photo looks north.

Another look at Crockett Lane, below, shows the dirt street facing to the east. The Vanguard School is out of view to the right. 

The neighborhood was created by Lee Jeffers, a disgraced ex-investment broker — his career ended in 2000 when he pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud, paid a $28,000 fine. State and federal regulators accused him of using an investment strategy deemed too sophisticated and risky for some elderly clients to understand.

Jeffers bought the property in 1987 and subdivided it into 12 lots in two filings with the city planning department. A couple houses existed. He built one. Moved a couple in. Remodeled barn space and garages into living space. Soon he had 24 rental properties and a large horse barn along Crockett Lane.

Below is a look at the neighborhood from www.FlashEarth.com

Only problem, he didn’t get building permits for many of the houses and he piggy-backed utilities from existing houses. That made the houses illegal.

 

 

 

 

Here is a link to my August 2007 column  about Crockett Lane.

 

 

In the 2007 column, I exposed the illegal houses and the folks at the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department and Colorado Springs Utilities vowed to investigate and take action.

Not so much, as it turned out. In fact, several of the houses sold before Regional Building got around to slapping “Certificates of Non-Compliance” on them. That means the buyers didn’t know they could not be occupied.

 

Now the buyers are trying to get the houses up to code so they can be rented or sold. But they are being told to pay for Jeffers’ sins. 

 

Each house must have development permits purchased and building permits and inspections and water, sewer and power lines installed. There are zoning and setback variances to get.

Even worse, the owners are being told the houses sit in a floodplain for Fountain Creek, which is on the other side of Interstate 25. Doesn’t matter that the houses are surrounded by houses not considered in the floodplain.

Here’s a closer look at Crockett Lane.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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