Douglas County – Two Douglas County bedroom communities, both named Castle Pines, are racing to become cities and pursuing the same commercial area as their sales-tax base.
The 62 businesses along West Castle Pines Parkway would offer about $1 million annually from a typical 2.5 percent sales tax to either Castle Pines Village or its larger neighbor, Castle Pines North.
“I don’t know how the courts settle this,” said Bill Sanko, chairman of Castle Pines Village’s incorporation committee. “They have two petitions with overlapping areas.”
Each community would depend on sales taxes to help offset the cost of city services, which otherwise would be funded through property taxes. Going forward with or without the stores, and their sales-tax revenue, “is a question for voters to decide,” Sanko said.
The two communities are among many in the Front Range that fear losing their identity and control of their destiny as growth sprouts near their borders. The state has no record of two communities simultaneously trying to incorporate the same property at the same time.
Castle Pines Village leaders announced in October that they would pursue incorporation to manage traffic and growth. Castle Pines North leaders made their announcement this week, saying they have to protect the tax base from the Village and think of their future in a growing region.
“It might have been a lot of anger in our community (toward the Village) that galvanized people to do this initially,” said Maureen Shul, president of the Castle Pines North Master Association board.
“Now, we moved on to the questions of does incorporating make sense, regardless of what the Village does?”
Could the communities compromise and form a single city of about 10,000 residents?
“Probably not,” Sanko said. “It’s not in our interest to become a massive city but to control what we have in the Village.”
North officials explored incorporating their community and combining with the 1,200 homes in the Village, Shul said, but they were rebuffed.
“We were told very clearly that, No. 1, they wanted the businesses in our community,” she said, “and, 2, they had no interest in our 3,200 homes.”
The issue is unique to Colorado, and the courts may have to settle whether one community gets the businesses or whether the businesses are somehow divided or shared, said Charlie Unseld of the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, which helps communities with incorporation issues.
“They refer to the shopping centers as ‘their’ businesses,” Sanko said of Castle Pines North. “But a large number of people in our community consider them ‘our’ shopping centers.”
If distance is the yardstick for the shopping centers, it’s a question of a few thousand feet. The nearest Castle Pine North neighborhood is five-tenths of a mile away; Castle Pines Village’s northern gate is a mile away.
“I’m afraid that all this is a zero-sum game,” said Jeffrey Clark, a Castle Pines North resident who opposes incorporating either community. “I wonder if we’re creating problems much larger than the ones we’re trying to solve.”
Staff writer Joey Bunch can be reached at 303-954-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com.
