By Terri Wiebold; photo courtesy of Bob Wiebold

Alberta Development is requesting the Town of Castle Rock annex 21.7 acres of property on the east side of I-25 (across from its mixed-use development Promenade at Castle Rock) for Promenade Center East, a proposed new project that could include 475 multi-family units or 300,000 square feet of commercial development.

Alberta Development Partners (Alberta), the developer of Promenade at Castle Rock (Promenade), submitted a preliminary project application to the Town of Castle Rock (Town) on May 24 requesting the annexation of two parcels of land from Douglas County’s jurisdiction into the Town. If annexed, the combined 21.7 acres would be joined with another 34.9-acre parcel already within the Town, for a total of 56.6 acres to be developed as “Promenade Center East.”

The three parcels are adjacent to each other and are located directly opposite Promenade on the east side of I-25. They are bounded by Happy Canyon on the north, Grace Chapel on the south (just north of Founders/Meadows Parkway), Silver Heights neighborhood and Solterra Senior Living on the east, and I-25 and the new Castle Rock Parkway interchange to the west.

In a May 16, 2017 letter from Alberta partner Peter Cudlip to the Town of Castle Rock Development Services, Cudlip indicated the proposed uses to be residential and/or commercial. “We anticipate that there could be up to 475 multi-family units or 300,000 square feet of commercial space.” The letter also stated, “The Castle Pines Commercial PD that is presently in force on the north parcel will need to be amended to include multifamily.”

Two roadway accesses would be required for the development. Currently, there is no direct connecting roadway infrastructure in place to serve Promenade Center East; the only access to the property is from Allen Way to Evalena Road in Silver Heights and an easement across one of the parcels. Because the Colorado Department of Transportation will not grant access to the new I-25 interchange north of Founders/Meadows Parkway, Alberta is proposing access from the Happy Canyon subdivision to the north to get secondary access to the Silver Heights subdivision. And while Douglas County is currently pursuing an emergency vehicle access (with gates) that would connect these communities, according to Douglas County Development Review Manager Matt Williams, the roads within Happy Canyon South and Happy Canyon subdivisions are designed as rural local roads.

According to written comments from Douglas County planning and engineering staff regarding Alberta’s proposed accesses, neither Happy Canyon nor Silver Heights roadways would support the estimated 3,000 to 4,500 trips per day generated by Promenade Center East, due to their original design and infrastructure.

According to Town planning staff member Brad Boland, Alberta’s request is a preliminary project application, which is an information application used to receive high level responses to a “what if” scenario. If the proposed project were to move forward in any form, neighborhood meetings would be required prior to an application’s submittal; once a formal application is submitted, formal referrals would also be sent out.

For the Town, this project would provide up to about $11,257,500 of assessed valuation if it is residential and $26,100,000 if it is commercial, according to Cudlip. It would create 500 construction jobs and $1,200,000 of use tax. If it is retail, the Town could see up to $2,000,000 of sales tax.

To view documents related to this proposal, visit https://apps.douglas.co.us/planning/projects and type “Promenade Center East” in the project search. For additional information, email Joe Fowler with Douglas County government at jfowler@douglas.co.us. For the Town of Castle Rock, email Brad Boland at BBoland@crgov.com.