Does Colorado Hate Highlands Ranch? (Denver, Aurora: foreclosures, hoa, condo)

[Katiana]

I agree with Mike From Back East. In fact, I have posted many times about the old houses in Denver looking very much alike. In some blocks, ALL the houses look the same, because they were built by the same builder at the same time. The same is true in almost every city. Someone posted some pictures of a Chicago residential neighborhood here on City-Data, same thing. This cookie-cutter thing is not new. As time goes on, the houses look less alike due to additions being built, different paint colors and/or siding, landscaping maturing, etc. The same will happen in HR and even in Weld County, in due time. BTW, DH and I once rented one of those 20 X 40 built on a concrete slab houses in Champaign, IL. Bad news if your pipes freeze, as was common there in the winter. Could break the slab.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by formercalifornian

Tell you what, I'll send all the "bleach-blond, gum-cracking, tummy-tucked, hyper-parenting, thirty-something [women] driving [their] three or more gifted & talented progeny around in Hummer H3s" to live in the city, and you can come out here to the exurbs. Deal?

Oh no, please don't ruin a great city - that way!

[formercalifornian]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

I grew up in Baltimore. Old industrial city. Block after block of row homes. One block extends at least a full quarter mile, an endless string of identical brick fronts with Baltimore's legendary set of four white marble steps. New? Hell no, they go back a hundred years. Total sameness. But you know what? For some reason, nobody ever referred to them as being cookie cutter.

Yep. Loved those old places. I miss Baltimore.

[steveco.]

Originally Posted by formercalifornian

Tell you what, I'll send all the "bleach-blond, gum-cracking, tummy-tucked, hyper-parenting, thirty-something [women] driving [their] three or more gifted & talented progeny around in Hummer H3s" to live in the city, and you can come out here to the exurbs. Deal?

He he.. I think we've had this thread somewhere on here before. Careful though they are all in denial though and those are fighting words. Just wait till one of them reads that then a whole can a worms is opened

[2bindenver]

Originally Posted by tfox

Around the time Highlands Ranch was first being built, National Geographic did a memorable article about how suburban sprawl was eating up America's open spaces (which it is), and Highlands Ranch was featured as the epitome of sprawl of the worst sort imaginable, complete with "before and after" pictures of pristine rural countryside transformed into row after row of cookie-cutter houses.

That article was written in 1999. HR is not the epitome of cookie cutter or sprawl.

Originally Posted by tfox

(In hindsight, that was an unfair characterization, compared to some of the monstrosities we're seeing today.) At the time, it was worse that was wholly built by one single California Company called Mission Viejo homes (since acquired by Shea Homes), which had built similarly sized "communities" in Southern California, including the namesake Mission Viejo in Orange County.

Mission Viejo was owned by tobacco giant RJ Reynolds.

Originally Posted by tfox

Well, of course, it's been 25 years since Mission Viejo bought the huge piece of land.

Closer to 30.

Originally Posted by tfox

Time passed. I think most people have softened their attitude toward Highlands Ranch and Shea Homes (Mission Viejo's new name).

No. Shea bought the development rights and land from RJ Reynolds.

[formercalifornian]

Originally Posted by steveco.

He he.. I think we've had this thread somewhere on here before. Careful though they are all in denial though and those are fighting words. Just wait till one of them reads that then a whole can a worms is opened

Bring it on. I can take 'em!

[tfox]

Originally Posted by 2bindenver

[font="Century Gothic"][color="SeaGreen"]That article was written in 1999. HR is not the epitome of cookie cutter or sprawl.

Ahh... well I stand corrected on the date of the article then -- somehow that got misplaced in my mind. The article would have been written a good 20 years into the development of HR, then, not at the beginning. Well, shows how memory can be kind of fuzzy. Thanks also for filling in the details of the corporate history of Mission Viejo.

In any case, 2bindenver, I actually agree with you -- HR is now, in hindsight, hardly the epitome of sprawl or cookie cutter, and many of the things that Mission Viejo did in planning the development now seem rather forward thinking. As I've said before, the fact that HR is still considered so desirable 30 years into its development is impressive.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by ditto

Pretty soon the area from Castle Rock to N. Colorado Springs will be filled with more cookie-cutter tract homes instead of open space.

I understand your point however I think the area in extreme southern Douglas County is protected Greenland open space, but other than that you may be correct. Unless of course the open space becomes developed...which I doubt will ever happen.

[steveco.]

The only way for open space to become open to development is if they have a public vote on the issue...(like it would even reach that far in the first place) when that happens I doubt anyone would vote for it

[rkb0305]

Mike and tfox, I think you hit the nail on the head. Suburbs have been cookie cutter for decades. This is not new. if anything, the smaller lots are a better use of land than years ago. If someone wants a newer house that isn't cookie cutter it takes a lot of money to get it. Not that many families have that kind of money.