FROM SUBURBAN TO URBANE

Denver Subdivison Moves From Monstrosity to Model Planned Community

By Headwaters News, 7-24-06

What a difference 25 years can make.

Highlands Ranch, a subdivision near the Denver metro area, was the conceptual brainchild of Mission Viejo Co. The cookie-cutter, tightly packed subdivision created a sea of rooftops on 22,000 acres of scrubby prairie.

It also created a flood of criticism, one pundit called it, “One big smush of beige puke,”

The Los Angeles Times tracks the subdivision’s course, from the epitome of sterile planning to the poster child of master planning.

A picture in National Geographic Magazine published 10 years ago showed a panorama of rooftops, so close they appeared to be touching. And those homes are indeed boxy and beige.

But they also have greenbelts running through their neighborhoods. There are 19 parks within the unincorporated subdivision, all linked by an elaborate trail system.

There are also four community gardens and thousands of acres of green space.

The streets are wide, nearly as wide as airport runways, and provide solid evidence that it was a subdivision created for vehicle travel. But Denver’s light-rail system will soon be extended to the subdivision.

Although the subdivision started out with the usual cul-de-sac suburban elements, the newer portions of the subdivision are tightly packed townhouses that offer retail shops, restaurants and fitness centers just a short stroll away.

The new Town Center offers an urban setting for even the most urbane residents, offering a pub, a bookstore and even brownstones.

And folks who swore they’d never end up in suburbia are now saying they can’t imagine living anywhere else.

And some folks said they recalled being against the development in the beginning, but their recollection on just why they opposed it is fuzzy.

One urban planner, in a post on an online forum for urban planners, is quoted in the Times: "I watched Highlands Ranch grow from my uncle's front yard. It was evil, and we made fun of the mono-colored houses…. In college [I said] that I would never design anything like it. But as I watched my cousins and friends grow up there, I can't remember why it is such a bad place."

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