Forest City representatives presented a preliminary site plan to the Stapleton Citizen’s Advisory Board (CAB) and Zoning and Planning (ZAP) committee showing land use and circulation plans for the first phase of Section 10 in far northeast Stapleton. Section 10 is bounded by the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge (RMANWR) to the north and east, and by the Dick’s Sporting Goods complex and Commerce City to the west.

Forest City VP Tom Gleason points toward the commercial area (light red) and rental apartments (brownish) along 56th Ave. in Forest City’s preliminary plan for the new neighborhood north of 56th. Affordable for-sale homes are shown in red along CPB (the west border).

The “Filing 49” plan shows a predominantly single family neighborhood for the 130 acres of land located at the northeast corner of 56th Avenue and Central Park Boulevard (CPB), which will be extended north of 56th.

In total, approximately 1,200 dwelling units are proposed: 813 single-family detached units, 81 of which will be affordable for sale; 300 market rate rental units; and 100 affordable rental units. Market rate for-sale units will range in price from the $200,000s to the $800,000s. Forest City hopes to begin grading before year’s end and will develop the filing from north to south.

The plan also sets aside a mixed-use, commercial area along 56th Ave. with about 70,000 square feet of building space. Jim Chrisman, Forest City senior vice president for development, said this will not be a town center nor would it be grocery-store anchored. He expects uses such as day care, office and perhaps a drugstore/pharmacy. By comparison, the 29th Ave. Town Center, including the Crescent frontage, contains about 50,000 square feet of commercial space (excluding King Soopers and other uses not fronting on 29th Ave.).

Longtime CAB member Jim Wagenlander expressed concern with the amount and location of multi-family product in this filing.  He said the proposed plan “accelerates” the trend of Stapleton housing being dominated by market-rate single family housing. He thinks the mix of units is different than elsewhere in Stapleton, labeling the filing as “the suburbs of Stapleton.” Chrisman countered by saying the rest of Section 10 has not yet been planned and he expects significant amounts of multi-family rental housing yet to be built elsewhere in Stapleton such as south of the Central Park Boulevard transit station and in Northfield.

CAB, according to Chair David Netz, will use the Filing 49 plan to complete a “build-out” scenario to assess the likelihood that Forest City will be able to meet their obligations for required percentages of affordable rental and for-sale dwellings.