Erie plans to initiate large-scale residential development atop 230-acres at Baseline and East County Line roads, on the eastern border of Lafayette — an area the town has dubbed Erie Gateway South.
The development could potentially hold more than 650 homes on Lafayette’s eastern border if approved by town leaders in coming months.
The development, tentatively titled Parkdale, could hold 550 single-family detached homes and 102 paired homes atop roughly 75 acres, according to sketch plans released Friday. The plans also disclose that about 40 acres will be dedicated to public open space and an another 31 acres will be dedicated for private open space/landscape buffer.
The 230-acres of grazing fields at Baseline and East County Line roads were annexed by Erie under six bundled ordinances last fall and have since fallen under legal scrutiny from Lafayette’s attorney David Williamson.
The plan offers a new gateway into Erie through construction of a new entrance from Colo. 7, a realignment of County Line Road as a landscaped parkway, along with the large-scale residential growth, according to the sketch plans. A single access point into the subdivision would be located off N. 119th Street.
“The marketplace continues to choose Erie as they recognize the resources we’ve nurtured to create an environment attractive to investment, conducive to quality development, emphasizes parks and open space and is a great place to work and raise a family,” Erie spokesman Fred Diehl said Friday.
Development along Lafayette’s border by its neighbor has continued to face resistance, however. Town leaders will meet in Boulder County this week as litigation surrounding the Nine Mile Corner development comes to a head.
As the growth along the border spells promise for Erie in revenue from housing permits, which brought in more than $30 million combined from 2014 to 2015, Lafayette has continually voiced fears that the neighboring growth will threaten its small-town character.
Lafayette’s city attorney filed a motion late last year challenging the validity of the Erie Gateway South annexation, a move that could still embroil the towns in further litigation as they gear up for a courtroom showdown next week over Nine Mile Corner. Erie officially rebuffed the request last month through an ordinance to dismiss the motion, calling it “factually and legally incorrect.”
The motion from Lafayette’s city attorney David Williamson claimed a portion of Erie’s action violates a section of Colorado code prohibiting municipalities from dividing an annexed land parcel into two separate territories without the owner’s written consent.
Such a request is most commonly a precursor to a potential lawsuit, Lew Harstead, a Boulder-based attorney who specializes in land-use law, said last month.
“We asked them to reconsider and they decided not to,” Williamson said Friday. “We haven’t decided what next step to take (with the motion). It could be nothing and the annexation could be valid or there could some be some judicial review next.”
The prospect for such large development at the town’s front door won’t have any bearing on the decision of whether or not to pursue legal action, he added.
“The (size of the development) wouldn’t affect the decision,” Williamson said. “The request is strictly focused on the validity of the annexation.”
Anthony Hahn: 303-473-1422, hahna@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/_anthonyhahn
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