On Dec. 4, developer ProTerra Properties LLC, held a town hall meeting in the conference room of the Latigo Trails Equestrian Center in Falcon to get community feedback on plans to develop 766.66 acres of the McCune Ranch property.Scott Smith, chief executive officer for ProTerra, and Andrea Barlow, principal planner with N.E.S. Inc., presented the plans and answered questions from the more than 100 community members who attended.The McCune property at the northwest corner of the intersection of Hodgen Road and Meridian Road in Black Forest, is currently zoned RR-5, residential rural with 5 acres as the minimum lot size,and A-35, agricultural with 35 acres as the minimum lot size.Barlow said the preliminary plan is to rezone 355.9 acres of the property from RR-5 and A-35 to RR 2.5, which is residential rural with 2.5 acres as the minimum lot size, to create 143 single-family lots and one commercial lot. The remaining acreage would remain RR-5, she said.Smith said ProTerra is renaming the project to Winsome, and the vision for the property is to meet the demand for people who want a rural lifestyle by retaining open space, providing a trail system, implementing a ìdark skiesî initiative that limits the amount of outdoor lighting, while maintaining community connectivity. ìWe want to keep this property nice and be good neighbors,î he said.Barlow said the initial submittal for the preliminary plan was made Oct. 17, and the target date for a hearing with the El Paso County planning commission is March 2019. If all goes well, she said the plan should be in front of the EPC Board of County Commissioners in April 2019, with grading and infrastructure construction in early 2020.Smith said the complete buildout of the property will take about six to eight years and the home prices will range from about $600,000 to $800,000.Community membersí main concerns focused on the increased traffic the development will bring, water sufficiency and the rezoning to 2.5-acre lots in certain areas.Kailey Bullock, a resident who lives near the proposed development, said, ìThis will create a city in the middle of the country.î She added that the lots should not be smaller than 5 acres and almost all community members voiced their agreement.ìChanging the plan to all 5-acre lots would change the dynamic of the development,î Smith said.ìYou are changing the dynamic of that whole area,î Bullock responded.Smith said phase 1 of the development, if approved by the BOCC, will begin at the southwest corner of the property.Kelly Champlin said she has been a resident of Black Forest since she was 4 years old. ìThe view of that open area is my favorite and there is nothing like it. I am really heartbroken about this.î
