Week of September 22, 2022
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DOUGLAS COUNTY, COLORADO
A publication of
HighlandsRanchHerald.net
INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 12 | LIFE: PAGE 14 | CALENDAR: PAGE 17 | SPORTS: PAGE 24
VOLUME 35 | ISSUE 42
Commissioners meet again about San Luis Valley water project More information to come BY ELLIOTT WENZLER EWENZLER@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
A controversial plan to pipe water from the San Luis Valley to Douglas County may be seeing new life after
the county commissioners recently met behind closed doors to discuss it again. Four months after announcing they wouldn’t use federal COVID-19 funds on the proposal from Renewable Water Resources, or RWR, the commissioners heard a legal update on the project from the county’s
outside counsel, Steve Leonhardt, Sept. 13. Leonhardt, who recently met with RWR, provided advice and a piece of “work product” for commissioners to review. “We intend to provide the public with more input and information about any additional discussion
with RWR once each of us has had an opportunity to look at that work product,” Commissioner Abe Laydon said during the public portion of the meeting. In May, Laydon made the decisive vote not to use a portion of the SEE WATER, P10
Home prices see short-term drop Longtime Realtor not sold on recession talk BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Highlands Ranch General Manager Mike Bailey cuts the ribbon on Sept. 14 at the reopening of Eastridge Recreation Center, which PHOTO BY MCKENNA HARFORD underwent renovations to the entrance rotunda and administrative offices this summer.
Eastridge renovations enhance efficiency, safety Special ceremony held to celebrate BY MCKENNA HARFORD MHARFORD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
The Highlands Ranch Community Association celebrated the remodeling of Eastridge Recreation
Center, which finished on time and below budget, with a ribbon cutting Sept. 14. At the ribbon cutting, HRCA staff spoke to the success of the project and offered tours of the building to highlight the new space. Eastridge features a new entrance area and staff offices, which were redesigned to better meet visitors’ needs, General Manager Mike
Bailey said. “There are so many important reasons we’ve been waiting for this renovation,” Bailey told the gathered audience of about 30 people. “We’re proud that it’s not only an efficient use of space, but also health and safety were incorporated into the renovation.” SEE EASTRIDGE, P2
Kelly Moye bought her first house in the north Denver metro area for $120,000. That was in 1991. Prices likely won’t ever come back down to that level, said Moye, who has worked as a Realtor for three decades. But home prices in the metro area and statewide have shown some early signs that they may be breaking the pandemic-era trend of steep increases. August was the fourth consecutive month of decreases in the median price for single-family homes in the metro area and statewide, according to the Colorado Association of Realtors’ most recent report. The median price was $620,000 in August in the metro area, down from $660,000 in April. And while the single-family home prices are still up compared to this time last year, the rate of year-overyear growth in prices has slowed for the last several months in the metro area and statewide. But Colorado’s housing situation is still dire: This spring, the measure of housing affordability tracked by the association reached its lowest level since at least 2014 for both metro Denver and the state as a whole. While the market remains in an affordability crisis, the tracker has at least started to turn in the other direction. SEE HOUSING, P20