Planning Commission Work Session - Regular Meeting

Good evening, this is Commissioner Downs. Welcome to the June 1st, 2026 Planning Commission hearing. We have a couple of items of note as we get started. The public will have an opportunity to provide testimony for each item during the public comment phase for the item on the agenda. If you need any technical assistance to access the meeting, please contact the county staff. and audio enhancement devices are available at the back of the hearing room and please return them after use. Thank you and please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Would the clerk please take the roll call?

Commissioner Ed Kublik?

Present.

Commissioner Jim Smallwood? Present. Commissioner Mark Hampton?

Here.

Commissioner Mark Reier?

Here.

Commissioner Mark Wachowicz?

Here.

Commissioner Mike McKesson?

Here.

Commissioner Linda Russo?

Here.

Commissioner Calvin Downs?

Here. We have eight commissioners tonight and therefore have a quorum to proceed with this agenda. Speaking of that, the chair will now ask the county attorney to certify the agenda.

Good evening, commissioners. Chris Pratt with the county attorney's office. Two items on your land use hearing agenda this evening. The 9757 Hilltop Road Ramblewood Sewer Line location and extent, project file LE2026-007. This was a location extent, required no specialized notice, but was posted 24 hours prior to this hearing. The second item, the Redemption Church Minor Development Final Plat, project file SB2026-005. This item had published notice accomplished May 14th and posted notice accomplished May 7th. Both of these items have been properly noticed and you have jurisdiction to hear them this evening.

Thank you, sir. Do any of my fellow commissioners have any disclosures on the agenda items this evening?

Okay.

With that, we'll move on to the meeting minutes from our prior meeting two weeks ago. May I have a motion and a second for approval of the meeting minutes?

Commissioner Smallwood moves to approve the meeting minutes.

Is there a second?

Commissioner Beyer, a second.

All in favor? Say aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed, nay. The minutes are adopted.

I need to abstain because I wasn't here from the last two weeks ago, so I abstain. Thank you, sir. Commissioner Kubli.

Mr. Chair, this is Commissioner Rakevich. I also need to abstain from that vote. I was not here either.

All right. Thank you. All right. The next item on the agenda is the Hilltop Road, Ramblewood Sewer Line Location Extent Project File LE2026-007 with Trevor Bedford presenting for staff.

Good evening, Commissioners. Trevor Bedford representing Community Development. Ramblewood Metro District requests approval of an offsite sewer line for the Ramblewood plan development. Dan Sheldon and Kevin Loveless are the applicants, representatives. The Ramblewood Metro District requests approval of the location and extent for a proposed 3,900 foot offsite sewer line extension and associated infrastructure to serve residential lots within the Ramblewood plan development. The intent of the L&E process as set forth in section 32 of the zoning resolution is to provide procedures for the timely review of the location and extent of public facilities or uses provided by section 30, 28, 110 of the Colorado revised statutes. Per state statute, the L&E process is established for public applicants who are proposing public uses, facilities, or other improvements on land within the county. The submittal requirements, time frame, and overall scope of the county's review are dictated by statute. The Planning Commission has 30 days after the date of official submission to reach a decision or the application is deemed approved. The L&E process includes a 14-day referral period once the application is submitted and deemed complete. Courtesy notices of an application in process were sent to adjacent property owners as required by the L&E process. One abutting property owner responded to courtesy notices with concerns regarding impacts near their property. The applicant's response to the property owner was provided to the Planning Commission on Friday, along with the remainder of referral comments. Referral comments were standard in nature, generally providing information regarding future permitting requirements. The project site is in Northeast Douglas County within the Northeast sub area as shown on this vicinity map. More specifically, the Ramblewood PD is on the south side of Hilltop Road across from its intersection with Maryvale Trail. The proposed sewer line, shown as a blue line, extends from the southwestern corner of the Ramblewood PD through tracks within Hidden Village and the Riata South neighborhoods. This aerial map shows some additional context. This exhibit shows the proposed route of the 3,900 foot sewer line, which will be located within easements. The line will be constructed by the Ramblewood Metro District and owned and maintained by the Pinery Water and Wastewater District and Parker Water and Sanitation District. The applicant noted that there may be slight modifications to the exact configuration of the easements based on reviews from the water districts, but the impact properties should not change. The line is expected to be primarily trenched with boring expected to be necessary across Betz Ranch Road. But the precise locations of boring will be determined through reviews with Douglas County Engineering. Above ground facilities are expected to be minimal, consisting of communication cabinets, electric pedestals, and manhole access points. The exhibit shows some examples of what might be expected. The project will provide sewer services to residential lots within the Ramblewood PD. The Ramblewood preliminary plan was approved by the Board of County Commissioners in March 2026 with a condition of approval that a location and extent application is approved for this offsite sewer line prior to the Board's consideration of the final plat. And the final plat is currently in process. In addition to the L&E approval, the applicant will be required to obtain any necessary easements and any necessary approvals from Douglas County Engineering, Parker Water and Sanitation District, and Pinery Water and Wastewater District. Staff has evaluated the application in accordance with section 32 of the Douglas County Zoning Resolution. Should the Planning Commission approve the L&E request, the applicant will be required to receive approval of all necessary permits prior to construction. This concludes my presentation. I'm available to take any questions on the staff report. The applicant doesn't have a presentation, but is available for questions.

Fellow commissioners, does anyone have a question for staff? Okay. So the applicant does not have a presentation. All right. Do we have any questions for the applicant? Okay. Okay. With that, we will now open the hearing for public comment. As you approach the microphone, please state your name and general location of where you live for the record, spell your last name, and you will have three minutes to speak. At the conclusion of public comments, the Commission may ask the applicant and staff to respond to these comments and questions. Do we have any public testimony? Seeing none, We'll close for public testimony. If the commissioners have any questions, any other questions that have come up since then, now's the time to ask them. Okay.

Yes, I do have a question.

Okay, Commissioner Ryer.

Commissioner Ryer. I guess this would be for the applicant. Was this originally, and I'm pretty new to this, and I think I remember actually sitting in the audience when I saw this, but was this originally supposed to be a, I apologize, I've lost my words, a self-contained lift station when this was originally designed? And at what point was, I guess, it changed to the gravity-fed lift? Just trying to get some perspective on the totality of that.

Yep. Can you all hear me? Okay, I gotta bend down here. I'm not supposed to touch the microphone. Dan Sheldon, Miller United Real Estate, 6900 East Bellevue Avenue, Suite 300, Greenwood Village, Colorado, 80111. I'm also here tonight in the capacity as the president of the Ramblewood Metropolitan District. To answer your question, Commissioner, yes. Originally, we had intended on installing a lift station on site on the premises of the Ramblewood PD project. At some point during the process when we were processing with Parker Water, they had come to us, this was maybe a year ago, they had come to us and said, we really don't want another lift station because what we were going to do was put in a lift station that would pump our sewer north up to Hilltop Road and then it would travel down Hilltop Road to the southeast then it would travel via gravity, then it would travel into the fields project, which I believe has recently been renamed to something else. But Toll Brothers is building a project there called the fields into their lift station and then get lifted from there further downstream to get into the Parker Water sewer system. So as a result of that complicated connectivity for the sewer line and how to get our sewer into their system, Parker Water came to us and asked us if we had looked at possibly bringing sewer south and southwest in that alignment that you saw on the screen. via gravity flow and not putting in a lift station. It made more sense from a neighborhood impact standpoint, not having a building on the site with all that equipment contained in it that occasionally have issues or failures. Hopefully they don't have sounds and smells, but occasionally some of them do. So that was really driven by the Water and Sewer District making a strong recommendation to us to pivot to a gravity flow. Did I answer your question?

Yes, sir, I appreciate that. I have one more follow-up. There's a 30-foot easement that has to be accounted for for this project, and I wondered if you could quickly articulate the impacts of that 30-foot easement through the Hidden Village private common open space.

Yeah, so Trevor, would you mind going back to a map showing the alignment? And is there a clicker? Do you mind going back to a slide that shows it in more context? The one where you had the blue line? That's great, right there. So we have three easements we need to obtain. The first is through Hidden Village HOA, which is this piece here to Village Road, and then this piece here on the west side of Village Road. to essentially this section line right here. That's through Hidden Village that we need to obtain. And we have been working with them since December. December 2nd is when I first started dialogue with them about getting those easements secured. Since then, we have drafted the easements, we have surveyed the location for the easements, and we have negotiated a compensation package for the HOA, and all those documents are coming together right now, and they'll be ready to record and make the payment to the Hidden Village HOA very soon.

I appreciate that comment, thank you. You're welcome.

Okay, with that, we'll bring it back to the commissioners for any discussion on this matter. If there's no discussion, do we have a motion?

This is Commissioner McKesson. I'd like to make a motion to approve the 9757 Hilltop Road, Ramblewood Sewer Line location extent project file LE2026-007.

Is there a second? We have a second. The clerk will now read back the motion and take a roll call vote.

Motion to approve the 9757 Hilltop Road Ramblewood Sewer Line location and extent, project file LE2026-007. Commissioner Ed Coopley.

Yes.

Commissioner Jim Smallwood. Yes. Commissioner Mark Hampton. Yes. Commissioner Mark Reier.

Yes.

Commissioner Linda Brusso.

Yes.

Commissioner Mike McKesson. Yes. Commissioner Mark Lukavich. Yes. Commissioner Calvin Downs.

Yes. And with that, the Planning Commission has approved the application by a vote of eight to zero. We will now proceed to the second item on the agenda. The next item on the agenda is the Redemption Church Minor Development Final Plat Project File SB2026-005 with Eric Pavlenik, Principal Planner, presenting for staff.

Good evening, Commissioners. Eric Pavlenek with Community Development. The item before you is the Redempton Church Minor Development Final Plat. The project number is SB2026-005. The applicant is the Parker Water and Sanitation District. The request is for approval of a minor development final plat to establish one non-residential lot on 4.5 acres. The lot is proposed to be developed for church use. The intent of the minor development process is to provide a streamlined review for non-residential and multifamily subdivisions. The process begins with the submittal of an application. Following a review period by referral agencies and the public, public hearings are held before the Planning Commission and Board of County Commissioners. Public comment was received from adjacent property owners within the Parker Homestead residential subdivision which is east of the site. In general, public comment focused on drainage impacts, traffic impacts, compatibility, noise and safety. The applicant received a copy of public comment and submitted a written response. All referral agency comments were included as an attachment to the staff report. The project site, identified by the red star, is located at the intersection of Heirloom Parkway and Hess Road, north of the Rudder Hess Reservoir, and east of the district's headquarters and maintenance operation building. The property is within the Parker Municipal Planning Area, as identified by the 2040 Comprehensive Master Plan. The property is zoned Agriculture 1, or A1, but due to the size of the parcel, it conforms to rural residential zoning and is limited to the uses allowed in the RR zone district. Church use is permitted in all the county's residential zone districts. This is an aerial view of the parcel. As background, the property is part of a 549-acre parcel owned by the district. This portion of the property which is proposed for the minor development plat was physically separated from a larger parcel when Heirloom Parkway was dedicated as right of way for the Parker Homestead subdivision which is in the town of Parker. This town owned road but now bisects the district's property. Once the minor development plat establishes the 4.5 acre parcel as a separate lot, the district intends to sell the lot to be developed as a church. A site improvement plan application is currently in process for the one-story church building. This is the minor development final plot exhibit. The district will provide water and sewer services to the development. Access to the project is from Parkway. A 10-foot general utility easement is proposed along the boundary of the project. At the request of the town of Parker, a site diseasement is proposed along the portion of Heirloom Parkway to restrict landscape and other visual intrusions. Next are some site photos. This is a view from Heirloom Parkway looking east. And one more. near the intersection of Heirloom Parkway and Hess Road looking east. This slide lists the approval standards for a minor development final plat. Staff's assessment of these standards are discussed in detail in the staff report. Staff has evaluated the minor development final plat request in accordance with Article 6A of the subdivision resolution. Should the Planning Commission find that the approval standards for the minor development plat are met, The following proposed conditions should be considered for inclusion in the recommendation to the Board of County Commissioners. Condition number one, during construction activity within the development, the applicant, its successor, and assigns shall take all reasonable care to watch for historic resources, paleontological resources, and other cultural history resources, and shall immediately notify Douglas County in the event of such discovery. And condition number two, prior to recordation of the minor development final plat, technical corrections to the plat exhibit shall be made to the satisfaction of Douglas County. Section 604.06 of the subdivision resolution sets forth the parameters for the Plans Commission recommendation on a minor development final request, which is noted on the slide. This concludes my presentation. I'm available for any questions at this time. Otherwise, Joe Coco with CKE Engineering is here with an overview of the project on behalf of the district.

Do any of my fellow commissioners have any questions for staff? If not, I'd like to ask the applicant to speak on this item. Please state your name and address for the record. And I don't know that we need to have you spell your last name, but you could. All right.

Members of the commission, my name is Joe Coco, COCO. And I'm with CKE Engineering. My address, in case you need it, is 14257 West Evans Circle. And that's in Lakewood. Let's start out with Eric's presentation was pretty thorough. So please bear with me. I may be repeating a few things he had to say. So we'll just get right to it. Parker Water and Sanitation District owns a 549-acre parcel north of Hess Road. And with the construction of Heirloom Parkway, it created a four and a half acre parcel that is a remnant of the original 500 acre parcel. So as part of this application, Parker Water and Sanitation District is looking to subdivide plat this portion of property so that they can sell. Currently, this parcel is under contract with Redemption Church for church use. And as Eric had stated, it's an acceptable use as part of the zoning of the property. Although this hearing that we're having today is for this application for a plat of the parcel, I did have a chance to review the hearing packet. I noticed there were some public comments from the neighbors, some public comments. I just wanted to address a few of those just for your use since you have all of the information in front of you. The comments that were received there were with respect to use, scale of mass, lighting, traffic, drainage. You know, I understand. This is a vacant parcel. They've backed to this parcel for 10 years. So essentially, they've had a 4 and 1 half acre backyard for a number of years. So I can understand why they would come out and they would come out with any of the comments that they possibly could to preserve what they currently have today. However, it is the right of Parker Water and Sanitation District to subdivide and sell this property as long as it meets the criteria of Douglas County. That doesn't mean that you can just go off and develop. You have to have responsible development. That is the purpose of the site plan process that we're currently going under for the Redemption Church. Some of the items that were in the comments that are addressed in the site improvement plan package is things such as building height requirements, building setbacks, Florida area ratios. landscape requirements, landscape buffers, lighting, traffic, drainage, and so on. Redemption Church will meet the requirements as part of the SIP process. Otherwise, I'm sure Eric would not approve our project. So I would have to say I feel pretty comfortable about that. Additionally, Redemption Church plans to be a good neighbor with the adjacent neighbors that back to the property. And the last item is this project is in compliance with the Comprehensive Master Plan. So if you have any questions for me, I'll be happy to answer them.

Are there any questions from the commissioners for the applicant at this time? Okay. Mr. Coco, you may sit down for now. We might have you answer some questions later. So with that, we will now open for public comment. Please approach the microphone if you have public comment for us this evening, and please state your name and general location of where you live for the record. Please spell your last name. You will have three minutes to speak. At the conclusion of public comments, the Commission may ask the applicant and staff to respond to these comments and questions. Okay, no public comment this evening. So we will close our period of time for public comment and bring it back to the commissioners. Do we have any other questions now for the applicant or the staff? Commissioner Abruzzo.

For the applicant.

The applicant. Mr. Coco, please return to the microphone. Don't go way too far.

Yes, I actually have three questions. One is on the drainage impacts. And I understand what you were saying about some of the neighbors being backed up for 10 years to the open space and then that changing, that happens. But I don't think that dilutes the concerns of those same residents because they basically understand a church is gonna go there, but they still have their concerns. So I was just wondering on the drainage impact, since there supposedly is already drainage issues on the property in question, what is being done to minimize any further drainage impact on the current property?

Certainly. Can I have that back? Okay, so as part of the drainage, And I'm looking at the drainage going off to the east into the residential subdivision over here. And on the northern portion of the site, there is no change in the drainage. It's an existing slope that slopes down to those houses, to their backyard. And that area is not being disturbed, that slope. So their future drainage is exactly the same as their existing drainage. Now, the comment you're referring to is more specifically, let's see, does this have a pointer? Oh, it does. Very good. The area of the comet is right there. There is a tract. What happens is the drainage for this area comes down to this tract and comes through, and that's where their concern is. What we've done is we have reduced the drainage coming to this point right here by 75 percent of what it's currently seeing today. So a portion of the drainage that used to come to this point, it is now going to drain this way into the detention pond for the site. And then it's going to discharge down here and come around. So it will miss the subdivision. So we're removing drainage, essentially, from the subdivision that's there today.

Okay, thank you for that answer. Question number two, it's related to the possible noise and light effects it might have. What are you doing as far as mitigation of unnecessary noise and light? Is there a plan of action at this point, or is it too early for that part?

You know, as far as noise, it's a little early for that. But I can tell you that currently the church, some of the services that they do, you know, Sunday is the big day. Sunday is when everyone's there. We're talking about during the week in the evenings. And, you know, they have things like Bible study, men's and women's Bible study. And those events are small in nature. It's only 20 to 30 people. And they usually finish those activities by about 8.30 at night. So that gives time for people to leave. And again, it's only 20 or 30 people. It gives them an opportunity to leave and that dissipates the noise. And then also for the lighting, it gives them an opportunity to turn off their lights before 10 o'clock at night or by 10 o'clock at night, which will, that'll help with the light concerns. They will use full cutoff fixtures per the county standards. And we had a photometric study done for the site and we meet the, Criteria of the county where the spillover is at a level of zero foot candles at the property line And has that information been conveyed to the concerned residents in any fashion We you know, we had a response letter written to You know to the comments that came to us now. I don't know if it made it back to The residents that had these concerns, so I can't tell you for sure.

Okay, so Okay, my third question, it's in relation to Centennial Airport, since I'm an aviation type guy. It was stated that any objects that penetrate the 101 slope from the nearest point of the nearest runway, they're gonna be required to fill out FAA form 746, or 7460-1. Do you know if that's gonna be a problem at this point, or you still have to wait and see on,

no it will not be i did my own calculations for this um and again this is google earth so it's not a survey or anything um so i took the distance to the closest runway i took the elevation of the runway i took the elevation of the site calculated the slope angle and it is less than that one to 100. okay however they still need to meet the criteria if they do bring cranes out which is further in that comment yes they will they will need to put in the application for the crane

Okay, that's it, thank you for the answers. Thank you.

Any other questions for the applicant or staff? I guess I would like to just clarify, I think tonight, Our main objective in this meeting and what we're being asked to recommend to the county commissioners is whether or not to subdivide this four and a half acre plot or piece of ground off to be available then for sale to the church. It's already been, it's under contract, but this has to happen before that can be concluded, correct? And that's really all we're being asked to do this evening, correct? That is correct, sir, okay. So with that, we'll bring it back to the commissioners for any discussion amongst ourselves or for a motion if there is no discussion.

I've just got a quick comment. that I was the land development manager for Parker Homestead, the backing up to this, so way back 10 years ago with the builder. So I was familiar with the overall site and some of the drainage issues there, because I still remember the challenges that I had when I was building the development there. But after seeing everything tonight, reviewing the package, I have, determined that this does meet the minor development final plat in accordance with the conditions. meets the standards that we look for in our approval standards and criteria that are right there. So it's great to have some new, that they're using that property for something. Then, yeah, sure, nobody wants to maybe look out and have that nice free open space. But like Commissioner Bruzo said, that building and improvements are going to happen. So I think it's great, and I'm in support of that tonight. So I just wanted to say that. Thank you.

Anyone else? Yeah, my main concern this evening as I thought about and read comments from neighbors was that whole drainage issue. Thank you for addressing that. It sounds like that has been now removed from going into that neighborhood, right? It's gonna be off to the side somewhere, correct? There'll be no downstream drainage going into that development, correct? Beyond existing, correct, yep. Okay.

Okay.

Thank you, Mr. Coco. All right. With that, we'll entertain a motion.

I'll go ahead and put forth a motion to approve the Redemption Church Minor Development Final Plat Project File SB2026-005. Commissioner, could we have a friendly amendment?

It's a motion to recommend. Motion to recommend. Yes, there you go. Could you reread that? I didn't hear you say recommend, and I just want to clarify that.

I'm in support of and I do recommend the approval vote for the Redemption Church SB2026-005.

And is that subject to the two conditions by staff? Yes, subject to the two conditions, which I mentioned before. Thank you. Is there a second?

Commissioner, I'd like to second that motion.

Okay, with that we have... A motion that has been made and seconded. The clerk will now read back the motion and take a roll call vote.

Motion to recommend approval of the Redemption Church Minor Development Final Plan, project file SB2026-005, subject to the two conditions recommended by staff. Commissioner Ed Kubli?

Yes.

Commissioner Jim Smallwood?

Yes.

Commissioner Mark Hampton?

Yes.

Commissioner Mark Reier?

Yes.

Commissioner Lana Russo?

Yes.

Commissioner Mike McKesson?

Yes.

Commissioner Mark Wachowicz? Yes. Commissioner Calvin Downs?

Yes. With that, the Planning Commission has recommended approval of the motion by a vote of eight to zero. And with that, if there's no other objections, this meeting is adjourned.