The developer behind a controversial 3,650-home mixed-use project that relied on an annexation by Castle Pines has withdrawn its petition to build the Crowsnest community.
The withdrawal of the request for the city to annex 800 acres in Douglas County was made official Tuesday by the Castle Pines City Council. At the meeting, elected leaders passed a resolution devoting the next four months to hammering out an annexation policy for the fast-growing city that straddles Interstate 25 between Lone Tree and Castle Rock. It will grant no new annexations during that time.
The council had been set to vote on the Crowsnest annexation request in April, but it faced stiff opposition from a group of residents who felt the project was too dense for a county that is still characterized by wide swaths of rural territory.
Developer VT Crowfoot Valley Landco LLC declined to tell The Denver Post whether it would try again this summer to annex the property, which sits at the southwest corner of Crowfoot Valley and South Chambers roads in unincorporated Douglas County. The limited liability company was formed in September and shares an Englewood mailing address with Ventana Capital.
In a , VT Crowfoot Valley said it “reserves all rights with respect to any future petition, application, amendment request, or other entitlement relating to the property.”
Donna Cook, a Castle Pines resident who helped form the citizen group and led the fight against the project, called this week’s move “a huge win for the city.”
She and a group of neighbors argued that annexation of the Crowsnest site would lead to the construction of an overly dense development that is incompatible with the area’s bucolic character. Aside from homes, the project would include about 120 acres devoted to commercial uses.
Further, opponents argued, VT Crowfoot Valley proposed a flagpole annexation, using Crowfoot Valley Road as a narrow connecting conduit to physically link Castle Pines to the Crowsnest site.
They called Crowsnest a “remote, disconnected island that would burden existing taxpayers with unsustainable service costs.”
VT Crowfoot Valley argues that Crowsnest’s plan is less dense than neighborhoods in nearby Parker and will be a multimillion-dollar boon for Castle Pines. It would also devote 132 acres to open space.
Cook said her group would closely watch how Castle Pines’ council crafts the city’s annexation policy over the next few months to determine whether to resume the battle against Crowsnest, should the developer submit another application.
“We would indeed fight, depending on what the final annexation policy states, to ensure that any future annexation is in the best interests of the city,” she said.
