A 2-day filming of the Roxborough area concluded this Wednesday.  The purpose of this area video is to share and promote our wonderful neighborhood, lifestyle and surroundings. 

Here’ a behind the scene snapshot of the production….

STRONTIA SPRINGS, Colo. – The areas near Waterton Canyon will be closed for close to a year to allow for dredging of a nearby reservoir.

 Denver Water says more that one million cubic yards of sediment has accumulated in Strontia Springs Reservoir because of forest fires and intense rains, causing water quality issues for the Foothills and Marston water treatment plants.  

Contractors will remove at least 625,000 cubic yards of the sediment, which Denver Water says is enough to fill Invesco Field at Mile High to a height of more than 200 feet.  

The work will take place from Aug. 2, 2010 until Dec. 3, 2010, and then resume again from Feb. 28, 2011 until Dec. 31, 2011.

 Waterton Canyon and the parking lot near the entrance will be closed during the project.  

Denver Water says those looking to access the Colorado Trailhead will want to access CT Segment one via the Indian Creek Trailhead on Highway 67, 10.5 miles west of Sedalia. 

Link to article

Location: Roxborough Market Place/Perella’s

When: Sunday, May 23rd, 5:00 PM

Phone: 303-978-0158 

The Marquez family is in need of our help (Please see below for more information), and as per the usual, the Roxborough Community is stepping up!  We are still working out the details, but please mark your calendar for Sunday, May 23rd, 5:00 p.m.  At the Roxborough Market Place, there will be live music, a silent auction, Andy Marquez photography for sale, and great pizza and beverages provided by Perella’s and Sterling Ranch!  Lots of affordable fun for the whole family, so come on out and join us!  All donations will be tax deductible through Hands Across Roxborough!

We will have many great silent auction items like art, services, gift certificates, golf, and other merchandise, but we need more!  If you have something that you would like to donate, please contact Kim DeGrande at degrande@aol.com

Theresa Marquez was diagnosed with breast cancer and has had surgeries and is currently undergoing chemotherapy treatments.  Andy is in intensive care with a life threatening condition.  Andy is a professional photographer, and a local celebrity for his beautiful photographs of the Roxborough area.  He is always generous with his art to local charitable events, and now his family is in need. If you need more information please contact Kim DeGrande 303-978-0158 or Lu Mahan at 303-973-8233

Link to evite

Early dibs on this fun wall of fame can be reserved on Friday, April 23rd from 5-6.   There are some great perks for being a member like 22 oz tab beers for 16oz pricing all the time and 5% off food purchases!

Check out the details at Waterton Tavern’s Website.

Grand opening May 15th!!

Denver Post: Health officials: No asbestos found at water plant “DENVER”Colorado health officials say they found no evidence that asbestos was improperly buried at a water treatment facility in Douglas County where former Denver Water workers alleged they were told to bury hazardous waste.” “The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said Thursday they are preparing a report of their findings. Health officials say they examined the Denver Water property for evidence of asbestos and found only a cement-asbestos pipe stored in a storage area. Health officials say that pipe does not pose a health risk.” “A dozen retired Denver Water workers claim a manager told them to bury cement asbestos and other toxic materials at the Foothills Water Treatment Plant 20 years ago. The workers allege they now have illnesses that may be connected to asbestos exposure.” Read more:

http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_14807183#ixzz0kEg27POC

Sterling Ranch no longer is interested in becoming part of Littleton.

Sterling Ranch officials today informed the Littleton City Manager that it has ceased talks regarding the  possibility of annexing the proposed community in the Chatfield Basin to Littleton, questioning the city’s ability to handle the mixed-use development that is expected to have a completed value as high as $4 billion.  Instead,  Sterling Ranch will continue moving forward with its zoning application in Douglas County.

Last week, the Denver Post quoted Littleton Mayor Doug Clark as saying that the developers of Sterling Ranch are “pretty desperate for water or they wouldn’t be doing this.  Anyone looking at this would say is a stupid deal for Littleton.”“It is clear to us that the Mayor and City Council have differing visions about the future of Littleton,” Harold R. Smethills, one of the developers of Sterling Ranch wrote in a letter to Littleton City Manager Jim Woods.

On March 23, Sterling Ranch officials made a presentation to the Littleton City Council, after the city had initiated interest in possibly annexing the development, which over the next 20 years is projected to house 31,700 people. That would about a 77 percent increase from the city’s current population of 41,000, although even without Sterling Ranch, the city is expected to add people over the next two decades.  During the presentation, the Sterling Ranch team highlighted what they saw as benefits to Littleton- thousands of new construction and permanent jobs, as well as millions and dollars in new and recurring revenue to the city, reducing costs to current Littleton citizens.

Not desperate for water

Smethills, one of the principals of Sterling Ranch, denied that they were desperate for water, in today’s letter to City Manager Woods.

“During the presentation we also made it clear that we had no need for and did not plan to take advantage of the Denver Water agreement currently in place with Littleton,” Smethills wrote to Woods.  Smethills said it is their intention to supplement their current renewable water supply by negotiating a separate agreement with Denver Water and the WISE Partnership. (The WISE, Water Infrastructure Supply Efficiency, is a partnership between the three largest water suppliers along the Front Range – Denver Water, Aurora Water, and the South Metro Water Supply Authority.)

Tuesday’s meeting on annexation may be moot

“It’s not much of a surprise,” Kelli Narde, communications director for Littleton, said in response to the letter saying Sterling Ranch is no longer pursuing annexation. “It is scheduled for the council meeting on Tuesday night. They never did take a formal vote on it. That might have been the outcome on Tuesday night.” She said the agenda already had been prepared with Sterling Ranch on it, but she said she’s not sure if it is a moot point in light of today’s letter. “They can deal with that Tuesday,” she said. As far at Smethills’ saying that Sterling Ranch wasn’t coveting Littleton’s water, she said:  ”I would have no comment on that. I wouldn’t know how to respond to that.”

$4 billion economic engine

Instead of the money flowing to Littleton, the $3 billion to $4 billion proposed community is projected to be a huge economic engine for Douglas County, generating thousands of construction and permanent jobs, and millions in revenue to the county, Smethills said. The mixed-use community covers 3,406-acres south of Chatfeld Reservoir. The reservoir would be a geographic barrier between most of Littleton and Sterling Ranch, which also was a negative to at least some city council members.

Can Littleton handle Sterling Ranch?

Smethills questioned whether Littleton could handle a project of the size of the size of Sterling Ranch.

“With this current lack of a cohesive future vision we are concerned about the ability of the city to undertake an economic opportunity of the magnitude presented by our $3-$4 billion project,” Smethills wrote in the letter.

Smethills said that the Sterling Ranch principals are confident that “we have adequate water both to serve our Sterling Ranch future residents and to share water with our neighbors, and we will be a key player in the regional water solution.”

Sterling Ranch is being developed by third-generation Coloradans. In addition to Smethills, the team includes his wife Diane and her brother Jack Hoagland. They are striving to make Sterling Ranch one of the most efficient master-planned communities in the country as far as minimizing water usage. They hope that it will serve as a model for other communities across the country.

Article by John Rebchook at www.InsideRealEstateNews.com

In response to the March 17 Fox 31 story about Denver Water and the Foothills Treatment Plant, the Douglas County Commissioners convened a working group of regional and local environmental and public health officials as well as the Douglas County School District as a first step in trying to assemble the facts on this issue. The working group includes:

• Representatives of the Board of County Commissioners, the County Manager and key staff members from Douglas County Community and Sustainable Development Department (Planning, Zoning, and Engineering Divisions), Emergency Management, and Public Affairs
• Roxborough Water and Sanitation District
• Douglas County School District
• Tri-County Health
• Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment

More Information can be found on the Douglas  County Website and Denver Water

Littleton is in the preliminary stage of considering annexing the 3,406-acre Sterling Ranch next to the Chatfield Reservoir, a move that could increase the population of the city by 43 percent over the next two decades. Sterling Ranch, which plans to be one of the most water-efficient master-planned communities in the U.S., is anticipated to have 31,700 residents when completed. The current population of Littleton is slightly more than 40,000 and it for the most part, does not have large areas where it can grow.

Jim Yates, chief financial officer for Sterling Ranch, said that some Littleton City Council members had approached them about the annexation. They also have had some initial discussions with some staff members. The council on Tuesday had a study session on the proposed annexation, but did not go into an executive session to discuss the idea while the snowstorm raged that evening.

Revenues greater than expenses

Representatives from Sterling Ranch made a presentation to the council that projected that annexation would ultimately mean that Littleton would provide $22 million in services at build-out, but it would receive $28 million in annual revenues, for a $6 million annual surplus when it is completed.

“From a financial standpoint, I would not say it is a windfall for Littleton, but it is a huge net positive,” Yates said.

What is attractive to Sterling Ranch and its owners is that the annexation would allow it to tap into the state-of-the-art Englewood/Littleton wastewater treatment plant, instead of building one from scratch. That would save them from creating a metro district to issue bonds to raise about $100 million for a new wastewater treatment plant, and then charge a mill levy to residents to pay for it. Instead, tap fees would be paid to Littleton, as residents and businesses move into Sterling Ranch. In other words, they would “pay as they go,” instead of having to float bonds to cover the cost.

“Frankly, it is the more responsible thing for us to do,” Yates said. ‘There is no point in floating the bonds and raising the money to build a new plant, when there is an existing one that vastly under-utilized. They have the capacity to handle much more and us. It would go from being under 50 percent utilized to maybe 65 percent utilized.”

But the costs would be basically the same, so it provides no huge economic advantage to Sterling Ranch, he said.

Not a retail cash cow

He said that some city council members initially have been skeptical, because Sterling Ranch will not have as much retail space as Littleton and the metro are do as a whole, he said.

“That was viewed as a negative by some,” because communities depend so heavily on retail sales taxes to pay for city services.

“Our model is not economically the same as Littleton’s,” Yates said. “We do not have the 55 or 60 square feet of retail space per person, as they do. We will not have a regional mall, for example. The Denver metro area is roughly 50 square feet of retail per person. We will be more like Highlands Ranch, with closer to 25 to 30 square feet per capita,” he said.It’s anticipated at build-out that Sterling Ranch will have 800,000-square-foot of retail, which will create 2,900 jobs.

April meeting scheduled

Yates said the next meeting with the city council is on April 6.

“Hopefully, they will go into executive session, and come out saying they would like to explore and evaluate this further,” Yates said.

He said Sterling Ranch is at kind of a crossroads.

“We are already down the road with working with Douglas County, so this really is the time to determine which direction we will be heading.”

Sterling Ranch is south of Chatfield Reservoir, west of Hwy. 85 (South Santa Fe Drive) and north and east of the Roxborough community. For more details, visit this link.

Property Type     Square Feet         Jobs

Article provided by John Rebchook

Sterling Ranch, a proposed master-planned community on one of the last major “infill” sites in Douglas County, has added another 415 acres of land to accommodate additional commercial, retail, office and research facilities that will bring more jobs to the community in the Chatfield Basin.

The additional land increases the size of Sterling Ranch by more than 13 percent to about 3,500 acres. The land also will improve wildlife corridors, reduce density, serve as a buffer, and assure more water storage space. The last is especially critical because the developers of Sterling Ranch plan to make it a model for water conservation for master-planned communities. $4 billion, 4,000 jobs Neither the number of new jobs nor the amount of square feet associated with the additional 415 acres have been calculated at this time. But there is no doubt Sterling Ranch will have a huge economic impact. It’s total build-out costs are estimated at $3 billion to $4 billion, over the next two decades. It is expected to take 4,000 construction workers to build it and when completed, it will be responsible for creating in the neighborhood of 8,000 jobs.

The proposed development is expected to have an economic and fiscal impact of more than $435 million annually, according to Development Research Partners, headed by economist Patty Silverstein. Anti-sprawl The additional land also allows Sterling Ranch to decrease the proposed housing density, provide a softer buffer to existing neighborhoods and secure water storage. Sterling Ranch’s goal has always been to become one of the nation’s most frugal water-use communities using innovative conservation methods.

This will be reflected in a highly sustainable model for future development in the New West. Created by a family of Colorado natives, Sterling Ranch will preserve more than 37 percent of the land as open space and parks, located less than 30 minutes from downtown Denver. The plan is to avoid sprawl and preserve a large percentage of the natural landscape for wildlife migration by clustering homes in seven walkable villages with bike and horse trails. “This additional land completes several important wildlife corridors in northwest Douglas County,” said Sterling Ranch member Jack Hoagland. “The new land also answers the county planning commission’s request that we bring together as many nearby parcels as possible at one time to create a more cohesive land plan.” It’s a family affair The partners—Harold Smethills, his wife, Diane, and her brother Jack Hoagland—expect Sterling Ranch to use one-third of the water that Douglas County has historically required for a development of its size. Sterling Ranch will use the latest water-wise techniques and Colorado’s most sustainable water conservation methods. This water science has been proven in neighboring states and in smaller projects in Colorado. Sterling Ranch’s development team will amend its plan on file with Douglas County to reflect the addition of the new property. Sterling Ranch is south of Chatfield Reservoir, west of Hwy. 85 (South Santa Fe Drive) and north and east of the Roxborough community. For more details, visit this link.

Article by John Rebchook

Life with children is expensive, but in some places a dollar goes a lot further. Bloomberg BusinessWeek evaluated information provided by community data company OnBoard Informatics to determine the best affordable suburb in each state.

While many of the places on this year’s list are near amenities such as country clubs and golf courses, the focus is not luxury, but rather communities where families can live well for less and enjoy good schools, low crime, and reasonable commutes. The selected suburbs were limited to towns within 25 miles of the most populated city in the state, with populations of 5,000 to 60,000, median family incomes of $51,000 to $120,000, and lower-than-average crime rates. We weighted a variety of factors including livability (short commutes, low pollution, green space), education (well-educated residents, high test scores), crime (low personal and property crime), economy (high job growth, low unemployment rate, high family income), and affordability (median household income, cost of expenditures). Affordability was most heavily weighted in our calculations. We penalized places with bad weather, a lack of racial diversity, high divorce rates, and few children.

The results range from established high-income neighborhoods to growing middle-income communities. For example, the smallest town on the list, Cave Creek, Ariz., has a population of about 5,000 and a median family income of $108,546, while Moore, Okla., one of the largest, has more than 51,000 residents and a median income of $63,309, according to OnBoard’s estimates. Despite their differences, all these places offer young families an attractive location to raise children and remain close to employment opportunities

7. Roxborough Park, Colo.
Nearest major city: Denver
Population: 8,211
Median family income: $94,084
Median home price: $230,000
Unemployment rate: 5.9%
Violent crime index: 16

The red rock formations near Roxborough Park, a community that developed in the 1970s, are considered some of the most spectacular mountain scenery in Colorado. The 3,339-acre state park offers residents hiking and biking trails, cross-country skiing, and educational programs for Colorado geology and wildlife. The Douglas County School District is one of the best in the state.

Article by Venessa Wong, BusinessWeek