Latest southern Colorado news, weather and sports from FOX21 News

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- There's a new plan to house people living in homeless camps in Colorado Springs.

The city estimates there are hundreds of people living in the camps.

On Tuesday city council gave final approval to a camping ban on all public property. That would make it illegal to live in one of the homeless camps.

Now a landowner in the area has come up with an idea he hopes will give the homeless a place to stay without breaking the law.

The idea would use a four-acre plot of land which has sat vacant for years. The owners want to turn it into transitional low income housing for the homeless.

The land is near I-25 and South Nevada. It used to be a KOA campground. And it was also a mobile home park for a while, but no one has lived here in almost four years.

County records show the current owners paid almost a million dollars for the property in 2005. Then the economy tanked and the land was never developed.

"The owners of the property have come to the conclusion that perhaps the highest and best use of the property is what it's zoned for, which is camping," said city council member Tom Gallagher.

There would be two programs for people to live on the site.

The first would be camping in tents, which would be free as long as the camper was in a program for the homeless.

The second plan is for the owners to rent mobile homes and RVs as low-income housing.  

"The model pencils out at $400 a month. All in that’s trash service utilities and your rent payment," Gallagher said.

The owners came up with $400 a month based on what a person on minimum wage would earn in an average month.

"One check would go to pay their rent and leaving the other check to pay for food and other necessities," Gallagher said.

The owners are also looking for a nonprofit organization to partner with them and handle the homeless outreach piece of the puzzle. The hope is that homeless people could transition from tents to more permanent housing, all on this one piece of land.

"There’s nothing in this community with price points like that other than the housing authority, and there’s a five-year waiting list for housing authority housing," Gallagher said.

Gallagher says city council would not have to approve the plan since the land is already zoned for camping.