Homebuilder Shea Homes is proposing a residential community in fast-growing northern Douglas County with as many as 1,250 homes.
The proposed 380-acre Plum Creek community would be south of Chatfield State Park and north of
Shea Homes is the master developer of Highlands Ranch and one of Colorado’s largest homebuilders.
Shea, based in Walnut, Calif., has owned the property since 1997, when it acquired the 22,000-acre Highlands Ranch from developer Mission Viejo Co.
“We just think the timing is right,” said Marcus Pachner, a community-outreach consultant for Shea. “We do not have specific development plans, but it’s the right time to start the discussion with Douglas County.”
Pachner said preliminary plans call for the project to be exclusively single-family detached housing, with no ancillary development of retail or office space.
If built to its full projected size of 1,250 homes, the subdivision would be the 12th-largest in Douglas County, behind existing or planned communities such as Highlands Ranch, Sterling Ranch, The Pinery, Stonegate, Roxborough Park, Roxborough Village and Castle Pines Village.
Pachner said Shea has a commitment for water and sewer service from the Centennial Water District. The water, he said, where groundwater sources are being depleted by existing development.
Shea plans to begin seeking regulatory approval from Douglas County next year, Pachner said.
“We have not seen anything yet,” said Steve Koster, the county’s assistant director of planning services. “They have come in for some pre-submittal meetings to see what kind of process they would need, but we have not seen anything submitted yet.”
The property is now zoned agricultural. It would require rezoning for residential development, a process entailing approval from the Douglas County planning board and county commissioners, including at least two public hearings.
In a recent financial filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Shea said its Mountain West division comprising Colorado and Washington took 340 orders for new homes in the first nine months of this year, up from 306 in the same period of 2013. Nationwide, Shea has taken orders for 1,618 homes this year.
Shea Homes was a finalist in the national production builder category of an awards competition by the Home Builders Association of Metro Denver. The winner was Brookfield Residential.
Steve Raabe: 303-954-1948, sraabe@denverpost.com or twitter.com/steveraabedp
