In October, the El Paso County Board of County Commissioners approved a request by Falcon Properties and Investments to amend the plan for the Courtyard at Woodmen Hills development, which sits on the north side of Woodmen Road, near the west side of Meridian Road.The changes include reducing the number of lots from 227 to 197, allowing only ranch-style homes, slightly increasing the size of the lots and decreasing yard size to accommodate the bigger footprint of the ranch-style homes.As reported in the October issue of The New Falcon Herald, the developerrequested the changes in order to market the development as an age-restricted retirement community.New development approvedAlso in October, the BOCC approved the preliminary plan for a new development, Ranch 51, in Black Forest.Ranch 51 will be located west of Vollmer Road between Burgess Road and Pogo Road on two parcels totaling 153.09 acres.The preliminary plan includes 11 2.5-acre lots and an 87.19-acre conservation easement. Each lot will have an individual septic system and an individual well that draws from the Dawson aquifer.According to a document prepared by the county’s development services department, Ranch 51 is surrounded by 5-acre lots.Ranch 51’s 2.5-acre lots ordinarily would be inconsistent with the county’s development policy; however, as stated in the document, the “80-acre conservation easement tract within the preliminary plan area is used to establish an overall density greater than one dwelling per five acres.”On the same day they approved the preliminary plan, the BOCC also approvedthe final plat of the development’s first filing, which consists of four 2.5-acre lots and the conservation easement.The BOCC also required the developer to construct Wildflower Road as an emergency access road from Huntsman Road to Vollmer Road.
