Planning commission split on housing plan at county border

Calls for 225 homes

BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Faced with a plan to turn a piece of longtime agricultural land near Parker into a residential neighborhood has split a group of Douglas County residents who advise the county’s elected leaders on development.

“We ask you to leave the highdensity housing in the city where it belongs,” said Audra Labak, a resident who lives in the area, calling the potential neighborhood “an eyesore.” e plan could place 255 singlefamily homes, public park space and open space on the land, much of which would be dominated by several home properties that are 35-or-more acres large, in keeping with the rural area. ough the land is vast, most of the homes would be grouped close together in a neighborhood that would appear to have homes somewhat similar in property size to homes in e Pinery area — and similar to properties in some, but not all, other parts of the area. e size of the smaller home lots was a major sticking point for the commenters at the meeting, one of whom told the planning commission: “All of a sudden, we’re bringing in high-density housing, which is what it is.” (“Density” is a term for how many people or housing units occupy an area.)

Her comments met applause from the audience at the Douglas County Planning Commission’s April 17 meeting, where more than a dozen other speakers criticized the proposal in front of a crowd that applauded several other commenters. After hearing the feedback, the planning commission locked in a 3-3 tie vote, unable to send a recommendation to the county’s board of three commissioners, who ultimately make the nal call on development decisions in areas outside of municipalities.

Known as the Fields development, the land sits along Hilltop Road, southeast of the Town of Parker and close to the Elbert County border. Flintwood Road runs along the proposed development’s eastern boundary, in an area where rural life is not far from suburban neighborhoods.

It’s a proposal that Sharon Wallden, a member of the family that has long owned the land, supports.

“Our parents bought this land from our grandfather over 75 years ago. ey worked hard to pay for it and build a farming operation,” Wallden told the audience at the meeting.

But “farming is no longer an option,” Wallden said, adding that “water has always been a concern” in an area that has seen many residential developments spring up over the years.

‘Does not blend in’ County o cials rezoned the property from agricultural to “estate residential” status in March 2022. (Zoning is a local government’s rules for what can be built where.)

Many properties in the immediate area, especially to the east, are larger than the closer-grouped lots would be.