South Jefferson County Community Plan Threatened

Colorado Christian University (CCU) is presently seeking to rezone 282.4 acres west of the Dakota Hogback to allow for construction of a college campus accommodating 5,000 students plus approximately 1,000 support staff. Present A-2 zoning of this property allows one house per 10 acres, or roughly 80 people.  The majority of this property, 189.9 acres planned for the campus, lies directly east of Lyons Ridge, directly west of the Dakota Hogback, and between West Belleview Avenue to the south and US285 to the north. The plan also includes a 77.6-acre parcel to contain 77 custom home sites which lies west of Lyons Ridge along West Belleview.  

This site is undeveloped and provides good habitat for a variety of wildlife, including deer, elk, black bear, mountain lion, reptiles, amphibians, ground nesting birds, raptors, and other small mammals. There is also an active prairie dog colony on site. Department of Wildlife biologists have mapped this area as overall range for black bear and mountain lion, as severe winter range for deer, and as winter range for elk.

This rezoning request conflicts with the South Jefferson County Community Plan (SJCCP), which was written by Jefferson County Planning and Zoning Department with community support and was adopted in 1984 and revised in 1995. This plan addresses policy recommendations developed for the southeastern portion of Jefferson County. The SJCCP recommends a density not to exceed one dwelling per 5 acres in this area.  This planned college campus will result in urbanization of the hogback. It would allow a small city, equivalent to the population of Fort Morgan, in the first valley west of the Dakota Hogback.  A college campus would add an additional 10,000+ vehicle trips per day to the area. It will be necessary to develop West Belleview Avenue and Turkey Creek North to arterial standards. Air and light pollution, increased traffic, negative impact to sensitive wildlife habitat, are just some of the issues with this rezoning.  Community support for this rezoning request does not exist. Please attend the next Planning & Zoning hearing on April 10th at 6pm in Hearing Room 1.