Heritage Estates, Lone Tree (Highlands Ranch, Mead: low income, assessor, big house)

[tulips&roses]

Does anyone know anything about this particular subdivision? Are people friendly, etc.?

[dj32]

Sprawling mcmansions is the best way to describe it.
I know one family there and to me the best comparison is "the real housewives of Orange County" . I have never seen a more "keeping up with the joneses" attitude in my life.

[.gif]

very expensive to live there. close proximity to supertarget, the park meadows mall, and I-25.

[livecontent]

Originally Posted by dj32

Sprawling mcmansions is the best way to describe it.
I know one family there and to me the best comparison is "the real housewives of Orange County" . I have never seen a more "keeping up with the joneses" attitude in my life.

I agree, you hit right on the head; it is so true. My Brother lives there and I been there many times. It literally makes me sick because even though all the homes are individually designed--they look all the same, in the blandness and colors. Trees are all mostly small pines, very few leafy trees in well manicured lawns---I never see birds or squirrels, do not hear crickets---My brother even got very upset because he found a little rabbit droppings on the lawn "they are eating and destroying the grass, I'm going to trap it." It seems that people there like to spotlight their houses at night to give it that show effect. With all the fertilizer, insect spray, and night lights, no wonders nature finds it repugnant--that one lone rabbit must have gotten lost looking for the "LoneTree".

One Fathers Day, I picked up my parents, in the northern suburbs and drove through the metro area to his house. In the less affluent neighborhoods people were barbecuing, relatives and neighbors were mingling, children were playing outside. I got to Heritage Hills and there was nobody outside and I mean nobody, no smell of barbecues, no children playing.

OK, I now I am going to get attacked by all the yuppie green lawn fanatics. So I should say something nice: it is a good location to shopping and the light rail stations and...gee, I cannot think of anything else.

[.gif]

there is a taco bell/pizza hut down the street. oh, and a safeway.

[tulips&roses]

Thanks for the replies. Does this pretty much apply to all the different areas within Heritage Hills (Hillside, Summit, etc.) or is just in the more expensive Summit area? I had thought that since there are probably a lot of SAHM living in the neighborhood, that there might be more kids out playing and more neighborly socializing.

[gpraceman]

Originally Posted by lovetntx

Thanks for the replies. Does this pretty much apply to all the different areas within Heritage Hills (Hillside, Summit, etc.) or is just in the more expensive Summit area? I had thought that since there are probably a lot of SAHM living in the neighborhood, that there might be more kids out playing and more neighborly socializing.

Lone Tree has other neighborhoods, that IMO would give a more family friendly feeling. Once you get into McMansion neighborhoods, and not just in Lone Tree, I think you will find that people will keep much more to themselves and will be less socialable. You might also want to check out neighboring Highlands Ranch. It is hard to find a street in HR that doesn't have kids around.

[livecontent]

Originally Posted by lovetntx

Thanks for the replies. Does this pretty much apply to all the different areas within Heritage Hills (Hillside, Summit, etc.) or is just in the more expensive Summit area? I had thought that since there are probably a lot of SAHM living in the neighborhood, that there might be more kids out playing and more neighborly socializing.

I do not know about all the areas of Heritage Hills. The area I am referring to is East of S. Yosemite at S. Heritage Hills Pkwy. This area has homes in the neighborhood of about .8 to 2.5 Million, it runs east to newer construction toward Park Meadows Drive and South by way of Heritage Hills Circle to Lincoln.

How friendly people are??? I do not know. I am only given my impressions. Big Houses allow for big house entertaining and the yards are only for window dressing. To me the homes are too close together for the price with very large multi-story windows looking out into other yards, small yards for the price of the homes, and into other windows.

It does not seem to be any open space or parks between homes but one park, manicured entrances, small recreation center and pool. It seems that the homeowners fees are very steep, however they figured out a way to put them into the taxes so they can be tax deducted. Check out assessor records for this area and you will see this cost.

This Gated Community is to me seems somewhat of a farce. I have never seen any guards and the gates have been always opened. Certainly, they are accessible during the day to allow the migrant laborer to maintain the yards and on holidays and weekends, in all times I been there, they have been open, even in the evenings when I left. My brother says all what the gates do is show to anybody doing any maintenance in the houses--it is OK to charges much more money for the work.

Areas that appeal to me include more open space, trails and parks that meander between homes and are maintained by the municipalities and not supported by homeowners fees, but by general tax revenue.

So not to insult anybody, these developments are attractive to a certain type of people who enjoy conspicuous consumption--everybody their own way.

[gpraceman]

Originally Posted by livecontent

This Gated Community is to me seems somewhat of a farce. I have never seen any guards and the gates have been always opened. Certainly, they are accessible during the day to allow the migrant laborer to maintain the yards and on holidays and weekends, in all times I been there, they have been open, even in the evenings when I left. My brother says all what the gates do is show to anybody doing any maintenance in the houses--it is OK to charges much more money for the work.

I have never liked gated communities. It strikes me as a "we're better than you" and that "we don't feel safe being around you, so we need to keep you out". Lone Tree is a very middle to upper class area. It is not like they have low income housing in the area with "undesireables" around. To me, it just seems like snobbery.

[livecontent]

I wanted to add that the Gated Community of Heritage Hills does not really have large difficult to scale walls, like I have seen in real secure gated areas with guards in California and New York. It just seems to exist so people can say "oh, we live in a gated community."

Of course the gated communities does serve another purpose then pretending to keep people out. It keeps the people in one area so when the proletarian uprising occurs, they will be easy to locate.