Franktown – Residents of this rural Douglas County community are debating whether getting much- needed water and sewer systems is a fair trade for more residents, more stores and more traffic.
Franktown is updating its area growth plan, which dictates land development. The county planning commission held its latest workshop Monday night in a contentious process that already has taken four years.
Franktown is not an incorporated town but a community that served as a frontier settlement and as the first Douglas County seat in 1861. Residents still like their wide-open spaces but not wide-open property rights.
As Douglas continues to be one of the nation’s fastest growing counties, Franktown faces subdivisions and retail businesses sprawling east from Castle Rock and south from Parker.
Some residents want to keep the tightest clamp possible on growth and development in their historic community.
“We’re trying very hard to preserve one of the last little towns in Douglas County,” said Charlotte Mirabella, chairwoman of Franktown Citizens Coalition II, which formed to limit development in the proposed growth plan.
But some business leaders, developers and owners of undeveloped land say it is time for the community to grow up. Without a town council to levy taxes for public infrastructure, developers’ money is the only way the county can afford water lines and sewerage.
While the village has just 93 residents, the surrounding areas have another 6,358 – almost all of them relying on wells and septic tanks.
Strapped supplies from wells and the slow poison that leeches into Cherry Creek from septic tanks worry some in the community and those living downstream.
County leaders could solve the problem by allowing two developers to move ahead with proposals for hundreds of new homes and accompanying businesses.
The proposed growth plan would double the number of homes allowed in Franktown’s village, around the intersection of Colorado 86 and Colorado 83.
“If people don’t want growth, they should move or buy all the land because it’s coming out here. You can see it every day,” said Jeff Smith, who has owned undeveloped land in the county for five years.
Deirdre Oss, chief planner for Douglas County, said that without central water and sewer, Franktown’s growth is limited.
“It’s a conundrum,” she said.
Some don’t see why things can’t continue to move at a slower pace, favored by those who have anchored the community for so long.
“I don’t think we have the liberty to change property rights in the name of property rights (for others),” said Lee Willis, Franktown’s fire chief, whose family roots in the community are deep.
Susan Lind, owner of Suzy Q’s restaurant in Franktown, would stand to benefit if her business saw an influx of new residents, but she sees the trade-off.
“I like a small town, and I love my patrons,” she said. “I know all of them, and they are Franktown people. I wouldn’t want another Parker out here.”
Staff writer Joey Bunch can be reached at 303-820-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com.
