CASTLE ROCK — The proposed Sterling Ranch development in Douglas County suffered a setback Monday night when the county’s planning commission recommended denial of a needed rezoning.
At the same time, the planning commission agreed to allow Sterling Ranch to submit water plans in phases as each parcel is subdivided, as many municipalities currently do. Commissioners also agreed to lower the amount of water necessary for each household.
Current Douglas County policy requires that developers have all their water rights secured at rezoning.
But the planning commission voted 6-3 to recommend denial of rezoning to the Douglas County Commission, which will have the final say. Commissioners raised concerns about traffic and housing density.
“The commission laid out the issues we need to address,” said Sterling Ranch managing director Harold Smethills.
The recommendation to approve the water appeal was also nonbinding, but it will carry weight when Douglas County commissioners consider final approval of the project.
Commissioners voted 5-4 in favor of the water appeal after Sterling Ranch submitted documentation that it has already purchased rights from Aurora for 230 acre-feet a year and has options for about 4,000 acre-feet from the Lost Creek basin in northwestern Colorado.
At build-out in 20 years, it’s estimated that the project will need to supply more than 3,000 acre-feet to homes each year.
“To try to require someone to come up with commitments on this (amount) of water is not practical,” said planning-commission member Scott Kirkwood, who voted in favor of the approval.
But planning commissioner Ed Brewer, who voted against it, said it was risky to lower the individual residential standard from 0.75 of an acre-foot a year to 0.40 of an acre-foot. That’s the equivalent of dropping the amount of water that must be available per home from 244,388 gallons a year to just over 130,000 gallons a year.
“The county doesn’t gain anything by dropping it to 0.4” and hoping for the best, Brewer said.
Sterling Ranch is proposed as a 3,400-acre project south of Chatfield State Park, east of Roxborough Park and north of agricultural land in the Chatfield Valley area.
More than a third of the development is proposed for open space, with 30 miles of trails for hiking, biking and horseback riding. Another third would be for housing, and the rest would be developed with retail and office space, schools and a sports village.
Smethills was confident his project would meet the water demands.
The project has been approved for state’s first rainwater-harvesting test site and is implementing other water-saving measures.
“We will have a secure water supply before any home will be built,” he said.
Carlos Illescas: 303-954-1175 or cillescas@denverpost.com
