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Headwaters hearing slated
A public hearing has been set to evaluate the development plan of the proposed Headwaters golf resort and subdivision. It would be built in the Jackson Creek Ranch area of Sedalia if approved by the Douglas Board of County Commissioners.
The hearing is set for 7 p.m., Jan. 12, 2004.
By By: Sean Hadden
A public hearing has been set to evaluate the development plan of the proposed Headwaters golf resort and subdivision. It would be built in the Jackson Creek Ranch area of Sedalia if approved by the Douglas Board of County Commissioners.
The hearing is set for 7 p.m., Jan. 12, 2004.
An additional hearing will occur at 7 p.m., Jan. 26, 2004, should more time be needed after the Jan. 12 hearing, said Douglas County planner Mark Knight, who is representing the county in the Headwaters plan review.
The hearing will take public comment and evaluate developers' plans to build golf courses and a luxury subdivision.
County commissioners granted a water supply waiver March 10 that would allow a planned 133-house subdivision to use nonrenewable water from Denver Basin aquifers.
The subdivision would be, if approved, in the county's Margin A water supply zone.
By county regulation, new developments in Margin A must supply water needs from renewable surface water sources.
At the hearing, commissioners also waived the limit of 2.5-acre feet of water allowed for golf courses, lowering the limit for Headwaters golf courses to 2-acre feet per year.
The Margin A restriction exists because it lies over the edge of the Denver Basin and new wells there can cause existing wells to go dry more quickly than if situated in the deeper areas of the aquifers.
On June 23, county planners told Headwaters developers their proposed development seeks a combination of uses that could force the county to classify it as an urban area, Knight said.
If the county determines the development plan is urban, it would not be compatible with the county master plan's requirements for the Jackson Creek area, county planners have said.
The land on which the development would be built now carries agricultural zoning.
"The overall effect is that the combination of uses proposed is urban," Douglas County Community Development Director Peter Italiano told developers at a June 23 meeting.
If all that the facilities developers want at the site are built, the intensity of uses layered on one another would have an impact on the surrounding community, which is not the intention of the agricultural zoning now in place, Knight and the county's assistant community development director, Betty Allen, told Headwaters developers at the June 23 meeting.
Tom Ragonetti, attorney for Headwaters developers told county planners at the meeting that the development plan leaves up to 90 percent of the proposes development as open space.
"The project has lower density than the surrounding areas. It is 90 percent open," Ragonetti told planners at the meeting. "How can this be too intense? How is this urban, with 90 percent open space?"
Planners responded, saying the agricultural zoning allows only the least intensive development.
Ragonetti then asked what intensity Knight referred to.
"Wedding receptions, golf tournaments, and instructional clinics at the private club all create intensity of use," Knight told him, minutes of the meeting say.
Knight also said that in the newest proposal from developers, they are seeking an exchange of 400 acre feet of surface water from another district to use for use in the 49 proposed cabins and on the proposed golf courses.
These elements of the development would not be allowed access to aquifer water, the county has said.
This is simply an exchange of water rights, not the delivery of wet water, Knight said.
This means that even if developers owned the rights to that much water, depending on when they needed access to it, its source might be dry, he said.
This could make developers unable to use the water, Knight said.
By By: Sean Hadden
A public hearing has been set to evaluate the development plan of the proposed Headwaters golf resort and subdivision. It would be built in the Jackson Creek Ranch area of Sedalia if approved by the Douglas Board of County Commissioners.
The hearing is set for 7 p.m., Jan. 12, 2004.
An additional hearing will occur at 7 p.m., Jan. 26, 2004, should more time be needed after the Jan. 12 hearing, said Douglas County planner Mark Knight, who is representing the county in the Headwaters plan review.
The hearing will take public comment and evaluate developers' plans to build golf courses and a luxury subdivision.
County commissioners granted a water supply waiver March 10 that would allow a planned 133-house subdivision to use nonrenewable water from Denver Basin aquifers.
The subdivision would be, if approved, in the county's Margin A water supply zone.
By county regulation, new developments in Margin A must supply water needs from renewable surface water sources.
At the hearing, commissioners also waived the limit of 2.5-acre feet of water allowed for golf courses, lowering the limit for Headwaters golf courses to 2-acre feet per year.
The Margin A restriction exists because it lies over the edge of the Denver Basin and new wells there can cause existing wells to go dry more quickly than if situated in the deeper areas of the aquifers.
On June 23, county planners told Headwaters developers their proposed development seeks a combination of uses that could force the county to classify it as an urban area, Knight said.
If the county determines the development plan is urban, it would not be compatible with the county master plan's requirements for the Jackson Creek area, county planners have said.
The land on which the development would be built now carries agricultural zoning.
"The overall effect is that the combination of uses proposed is urban," Douglas County Community Development Director Peter Italiano told developers at a June 23 meeting.
If all that the facilities developers want at the site are built, the intensity of uses layered on one another would have an impact on the surrounding community, which is not the intention of the agricultural zoning now in place, Knight and the county's assistant community development director, Betty Allen, told Headwaters developers at the June 23 meeting.
Tom Ragonetti, attorney for Headwaters developers told county planners at the meeting that the development plan leaves up to 90 percent of the proposes development as open space.
"The project has lower density than the surrounding areas. It is 90 percent open," Ragonetti told planners at the meeting. "How can this be too intense? How is this urban, with 90 percent open space?"
Planners responded, saying the agricultural zoning allows only the least intensive development.
Ragonetti then asked what intensity Knight referred to.
"Wedding receptions, golf tournaments, and instructional clinics at the private club all create intensity of use," Knight told him, minutes of the meeting say.
Knight also said that in the newest proposal from developers, they are seeking an exchange of 400 acre feet of surface water from another district to use for use in the 49 proposed cabins and on the proposed golf courses.
These elements of the development would not be allowed access to aquifer water, the county has said.
This is simply an exchange of water rights, not the delivery of wet water, Knight said.
This means that even if developers owned the rights to that much water, depending on when they needed access to it, its source might be dry, he said.
This could make developers unable to use the water, Knight said.
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