Monday night, August 10, the Calhan Board of Trustees split 4 to 3 on an ordinance that had nothing to do with lot lines, setbacks, or building height. It was about how many years an aquifer has to keep producing before the town will let someone build on top of it. The vote passed by one, and it landed squarely on top of the only large-scale housing proposal Calhan has seen in decades.
If you're pricing acreage on the Eastern Plains east of Colorado Springs, this is the vote that matters more than any listing you've scrolled past this month.
The Rule the Town Never Had to Test
Before this year, Calhan's code asked developers to prove "adequate" water. That word did a lot of unearned work. Town Clerk Cindy Tompkins said as much at an earlier workshop, calling the old standard "which is so wrong." Nobody had ever needed a sharper definition, because nobody had ever proposed building at a scale that would strain the wells.
The new ordinance replaces that vague standard with a 300-year sufficiency rule: any new development has to show its water draw from the underground aquifers can hold up for three centuries. That matches the standard El Paso County already applies outside town limits, but it's triple what the state of Colorado requires under its own 100-year rule. Calhan just chose to hold itself to a tougher line than either the state or, arguably, it needed to.
Here's the detail that should give any land buyer pause. The same reporting that covered the vote noted that the town has never actually studied how much water its own wells can produce at this scale. The rule exists. The data behind it, as of the most recent coverage, doesn't fully exist yet. That gap is the whole story.
What Actually Triggered This
The rule didn't come out of nowhere. It's a direct response to a proposal called the North Tree Annexation, filed in August 2025 by Smith Land Development and Company LLC, with Senior Manager William Vandergriff listed as the applicant's point person. The plan asks the town to annex just under 96 acres on Calhan's northwest edge and build roughly 475 single-family homes there, on lots smaller than 8,000 square feet, with two neighborhood parks. A title commitment filed with El Paso County's planning office names LGI Homes, a national production builder, as the prospective buyer of the finished lots.
Run the math against a town of fewer than 800 residents and a total incorporated area of only 530 acres, and you can see why this single project dominates every trustee meeting. It wouldn't just add homes. It could more than double Calhan's population inside a footprint that expands the town by nearly a fifth.
Compare that lot size to what's actually moving in Calhan's land market right now. Listings across the area still run heavily toward 35, 40, even 100-plus acre parcels, with land pricing averaging somewhere around $7,200 per acre as of late August 2026. North Tree isn't a variation on that pattern. It's a different market entirely, proposing suburban density on ground that has functioned as ranch and dry farmland for generations.
Two Sides, One Number
The developer's side of this fight is on the record too. A letter submitted to the town by Smith Land Development's law firm argued against the stricter standard directly:
"There is no resource-based reason for the Town to hold itself to a standard stricter than the State's."
That's a fair economic argument if you take Calhan's water rights portfolio at face value. But it sidesteps the trustees' actual concern, which isn't whether the water rights exist on paper. It's whether the physical wells can deliver at the volume 475 new households would require, something the town admits it hasn't independently verified.
Garrett Balsick, a fifth-generation rancher whose land borders the proposed parcel, put the stakes in plainer terms at the same meeting:
"We value our water because we don't have a ton of it."
Balsick lives just outside Calhan's town limits, which means he has no vote on an annexation decision that could reshape the property line next to his. That's not a hypothetical for land buyers. It's a preview of exactly the kind of exposure you take on when you buy adjacent to, but not inside, a municipal boundary that's actively negotiating growth.
Resident Kristin Roskos, who has been pushing for bigger turnout at town meetings, summed up the mood of a lot of longtime residents watching this unfold: "We're small-town individuals, so we don't know what to expect or what to do."
Why This Changes How You Should Shop for Land Here
The engineering firm Moore Engineering Inc., which Calhan has worked with before, is handling the annexation impact report that's supposed to answer the water question for good. As of the most recent public reporting, that report still hadn't been delivered to the county, and the annexation decision remains open. Nothing here is settled. That's exactly why it matters to anyone shopping for acreage nearby right now.
If you're evaluating a parcel near Calhan, the questions worth asking have shifted:
- Is the parcel inside Calhan's town limits, or in unincorporated El Paso County, where the 300-year rule already applies regardless of this vote?
- What does the well permit on the property actually say about production capacity, not just water rights on paper?
- If the parcel sits near the North Tree footprint, how would an approved annexation change road traffic, school enrollment, or future utility extensions in that specific corner of town?
- Has the seller or a prior owner ever had the well tested for sustained yield, or only for rights, which are two different things?
None of these questions show up in a listing description. They show up in county water court records, well permit files, and town board minutes, which is exactly the kind of homework that separates a land purchase that holds its value from one that runs into a wall three years after closing.
The Number Worth Watching
Every land buyer eventually asks about price per acre. In Calhan right now, that's the wrong number to fixate on. The number that will actually determine what this town looks like in five years is the one buried in an engineering report that hasn't been published yet: how many acre-feet of water Calhan's wells can sustainably produce, measured against a 300-year clock the town only adopted three weeks ago.
Until that report lands, Calhan's rural character and its comparatively affordable acreage are being held in place by a rule the town itself is still testing. That's not a reason to avoid the area. It's a reason to buy with someone who's actually tracking the annexation record, the water rights, and the board minutes, not just the price tag.
A Few Questions We're Getting About Calhan Right Now
Has the North Tree Annexation been approved? No. As of the most recent trustee meeting, the annexation impact report from Moore Engineering had not been finalized, and the board still holds full authority to approve, modify, or deny the request through a public hearing process.
Does the new 300-year water rule apply to land outside Calhan's town limits? No, the ordinance is specific to land inside Calhan's municipal boundary. Unincorporated parcels nearby already fall under El Paso County's standard, which independently sits at 300 years.
Can you still buy land near Calhan while this plays out? Yes. Parcels outside the North Tree footprint aren't directly affected by the annexation decision itself. That said, any buyer looking at Eastern Plains acreage should confirm well production and water rights specifics before closing, regardless of how this particular vote resolves.
If you're looking at acreage on Colorado's Eastern Plains and want someone who reads the annexation filings before you sign anything, that's the kind of groundwork CC Signature Group does on every land deal. Reach out and we'll walk the specific parcel, its water history, and what's actually pending at the county before you make an offer.
