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Stillwater moving swiftly through Silt

Lynn Burton

Stillwater passed one of two Silt Planning and Zoning Commission reviews Tuesday, and is slated for another review June 4, according to community development director Janet Steinbach.Tuesday’s amended sketch plan approval moved the developers forward in their plans to break ground on the 1,470-acre golf course residential community early next year, and to open one of two golf courses in the spring of 2004, said Stillwater board of directors member Dennis Carruth.”We’ve been working on this since 1995,” Carruth said earlier this week. “The time frame leading to active development has been longer than expected, but with financing and development partnerships now in place, we are contemplating final entitlements.”The developers, SWD LLC, received planned unit development (PUD) approval from the Silt Board of Trustees in 1996, and residents approved the PUD in a special election in 1997.The most recent round of P&Z reviews pertain to changes in the original PUD.The developers released their projected development timeline this week, which includes:-Phase 1 – Meadowood Village, to be developed from 2003-2005. This phase, on 502 acres, includes 75 to 160 attainably-priced housing units, 374 homesites, an 18-hole public golf course, a community sports and recreation center, a joint town of Silt and Stillwater wastewater treatment plant, and elementary and middle schools, parks, trails and natural open space.-Phase 2 – Lake Village, to be developed from 2006-2008. This includes 344 homesites, 46 acres of commercial property, 250 lodging units, a golf clubhouse, community areas including a town square and gazebo, plus parks, trails and natural open space.-Phase 3 – Divide Creek Village, to be developed from 2008-2011. This is an upscale golf community located along West Divide Creek, and includes 480 residential units, an 18-hole championship golf course, an equestrian center, plus parks trails and natural open space.The entire project is located south of Interstate 70 and was annexed into Silt in 1996.”Our vision is to create a community that complements the town of Silt, and offers area residents, second homeowners and active retirees something that currently does not exist in the market,” said SWD Vice-President Ed Sutton.”Most of what’s currently available in the Roaring Fork, Eagle and Colorado River valleys is either priced much higher than we expect to be at Stillwater, or is located in higher density subdivisions with few amenities. Our plans target a gap that exists between those two extremes,” he said.Sutton and Carruth said they worked together in the early stages of development at Ken Caryl Ranch and Ken Caryl Business Center in southwest Denver. More recently, Carruth oversaw development of Meadow Ranch golf and residential community in southwest Denver.The development team includes: Hepworth-Pawlak Geotechnical, High Country Engineering, Land Design Partnership, Schmueser Gordon Meyer, West Canyon Tree Farms, Western Ecological Resource, and Zancanella & Associates.Scott Miller Design was selected to design the public golf course.The amended sketch plan approval allows the developers to increase the number of attainable housing units from 75 to 160, and increased the number of homesites from the original 332 to 374.The June 4 P&Z public hearing pertains to PUD changes that alter zone district boundaries in several of the project’s clusters, and moving some zones from one part of the project to another.Planning and Zoning Commission Chairman Dan Becker said he hopes the community will get involved in the P&Z’s review process. Becker indicated that one issue still unresolved is pedestrian access to Stillwater under Interstate 70.”It’s integral to get access under the Interstate,” Becker said. “That’s critical if Stillwater is to be truly connected to the town.”The next P&Z review phase after the PUD change is preliminary plat approval. Then the project goes to the trustees for final plat approval.


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