Neighbors living on the west side of Colorado Springs are fighting to keep a piece of open space land developers want to start building on. The land in question is called White Acres.

It's just off 26th Street and Upper Gold Camp Road, it's the piece of land that lies between Section 16 and Red Rock Canyon. The property owners say they need to sell and if the city won't buy it for open space they are going to build houses, 25 to be exact and a couple dozen town homes.

"This is a very very special place," said Rita Ague who lives nearby.

Owned by the Bethany Baptist Church for the past several decades, it's been an outdoor refuge.

"It was left to the church by the White family approximately 40 years ago with the provision that it would be kept at open space," Ague said.

But facing financial trouble the church sold 50-percent of the land to a development company, now they want to sell.

"The city approached us to acquire the land, made an offer that we agreed to but city council said no to it," said Paul Howard, President of Infinity Land Corporation.

A year later no deal has been reached so they are moving forward with development plans.

"We fought hard to do this, to save White Acres," said Howard.

He co-owns the land with the church and he heard from concerned residents who packed into Midland Elementary School Gym. Among them, Merrilyn Caduff, her aunt and uncle were the original owners of White Acres.

"If it's destroyed it would devastate them, it would devastate me," Caduff said.

The owners say they would still rather sell to the city to preserve the land as open space, something Rita Ague and her neighbors are still hopeful for.

The church and Infinity Land Corporation have put in a request to get White Acres annexed into the city, something they must do before they can develop.