Moving to Boulder area - requesting feedback re: schools, commute, amenities

[ADogNamedSam]

I worry that the Pearl Street Mall businesses, especially the restaurants, will not be able to bounce back when we are finally told we can go out to eat again. Leasing those spaces must be hugely expensive. I've carried out from Lucille's and The Post about 1x/week.

[Nufsed2018]

@Bradburn1 ... there are no homes available now in your neighborhood - boo !

What are your thoughts on the Home Farm neighborhood. It's just a little northeast of Bradburn.

[mic111]

Home Farm (SW corner of Huron and 128th) is solidly suburban. It backs to a park with a dog park and connects to an extensive trail system. It is not walkable to grocery or much of anything other than a McDonalds, trails and dog park. There is a large high school across the street that impacts the main exit onto Huron. I don't think the schools are considered that great.


For schools you are better off looking at McKay. Top rated walkable elementary school right in the neighborhood. Well rated middle and high schools.

https://www.recolorado.com/listing/2...ield-co-80023/


Cheyanne Ridge is very walkable to stores, restaurants, grocery, movies etc. And has top rated schools. Not too hard to hop on the trail system.

https://www.redfin.com/CO/Westminste.../home/34838713

[mic111]

McKay Shores (different than McKay above) is also zoned to good schools and in your price range. Walkable to grocery and some restaurants. Meridian filled up while it was being built so some homes are zoned to a different elementary but I think it is still a good one, just not the top rated Meridian.

https://www.redfin.com/CO/Broomfield.../home/56957276

Cheyanne Ridge is very walkable to stores, restaurants, grocery, movies etc. And has top rated schools. Not too hard to hop on the trail system.

https://www.redfin.com/CO/Westminste.../home/34838713

[Bradburn1]

Yes! There were but homes are selling in a week or less and quite a few are selling before market by word of mouth. Not too familiar with Home Farm, but there isn’t a neighborhood in this area I don’t like really. I do second to have a look at McKay and McKay shores, some neighbors have moved to both and they like them.

[mic111]

Our neighborhood seems to be similar in terms of selling time. There is only one house for sale right now that has been on the market less than a week. Will be interesting to see if goes under contract after the weekend. Don't know if Mother's Day will affect sales this weekend. Another house went pending last week and we've had a few that seem to sell via word of mouth as they are sold and change hands almost in the background because they seem to show pending or sold right after being put on the market.

[Nufsed2018]

Thank you for those other neighborhoods. We have taken Home Farm off the table due to schools. We saw those ratings, but was not sure how accurate it was

As far as McKay (both of them) and Cheyenne Ridge ... they seem a bit close to the two big fracking sites just south of Northwest Parkway. Any comments or thoughts on if the smell and noise travels to those neighborhoods?

The houses there are beautiful, with great schools. Wonder if it's too good to be true?

And yes !!! Houses are going very quickly. It's hard to get your foot in the door with some of the deals. They are sold before they hit the market.

[mic111]

Since the pandemic the noise and smells have died down. But the thing with residential fracking is it can pop up anywhere. You could spend alot of time and money getting into Bradburn but then they could decide to frack the open space next to it in the future and then you would be worse off than if you had chosen McKay. There really is no protection in Colorado from them putting a site in any of the open spaces. The fields end at the foothills so moving into the foothills provides some protection but then you end up with wildfire risks and often worse air quality due to how the inversion works and how far up you go.

Too good to be true is an interesting way to characterize our area. Frankly it was like that but it was true. And for the last couple of months it has gone back to being like that. Is it permanent? Hard to say. I don't know at what phase they are with in the fracking. I can say from what I've read they will be permanent air polluters but that will affect the entire front range area as our air quality is pretty bad already and fracking is contributing to that. Maybe with the state of oil and gas the whole thing will go away (we wish). But the damage to the ground has already occured and the local communities/government will likely be left holding the bag with respect to clean-up cost if/when the frackers go out of business. All this (noise, pollution, lack of responsibility etc.) was predictable before they even started but there are alot of greedy people that don't care about other's quality of life.

You may want to consider renting. Bradburn has rentals on the exterior of the community. You can also rent near McKay (they have condos at the edges of the community) and then decide after a year or so.


Edit: I always rank good schools very heavily in my buying equation. We don't have kids so it isn't due to that. It is because in my experience when house prices are going down the neighborhoods with good schools hold their value alot better. Also I believe that you get a better quality of parent/person and thus kid who is willing to sacrifice to get into a neighborhood with good schools vs those who don't put a priority on education. Those are they types of people I want as neighbors. That is my own personal bias and many likely say hogwash but that is how we've always chosen our "walkable" suburban neighborhoods.

[Bradburn1]

Theoretically fracking in our open space is possible but it would be very inconvenient, the part that borders us is in a swale and has relatively steep sides all round and water/marsh. Terrible for vehicle access, it’s not flat at all. One area is on our south side is, but it’s tiny, that one’s possible I suppose but there are a million more accessible areas that are farther from people who will make a ruckus. Not saying it will never happen, but seems unlikely to me, especially now. Oil prices will be low likely for years and most fracking operations are loaded with debt and not profitable below $30-40 a gallon, and it’s likely many will go bankrupt or cease their fracking operations under these conditions, likely permanently. Or so I’ve read, not my area of expertise. When an operator tried to consider a pad in Westminster near Standley Lake a few years ago, the city and the community raised so much opposition that they withdrew the petition and have not returned.

[mic111]

Oh, I agree completely. Very unlikely. We also thought there was no way they would really put the pads in the middle of high end suburban developments with homes up to 2 million dollars. It is just my newly pessimistic view speaking. We also though they wouldn't go next to schools due to health issues but it turns out that is a favorite target due to the setback requirements being easily met. I didn't know much about this issue until it started happening in our community but since then what I've learned is very scary. It is why I stated in my first post that I wouldn't recommend moving to a state that allows residential fracking. With our laws it can pop up anywhere there is open space and there is nothing local citys or counties can do about it.

My husband is quite with you that they will have to go out of business due to it not being financially beneficial or health concerns shutting them down. That is why we haven't moved. Well, that and most areas we have looked at had pads being planned within 2-3 miles.

I remember the Standley Lake proposition. Very scary. There wasn't actually anything the city or community could do about it if they had decided to go forward. I think it was the industry itself that pressured them out because fracking under the city's water supply would draw too much negative attention. Very thankful that they pulled the application. But if they hadn't there is nothing anyone could have done about it. Certainly the local community put in alot of opposition for the current residential fracking pads. Prop. 112 was a community lead effort. And people complained that there were no multimillion dollar television ads in favor of it so therefore it wasn't important. Certainly Oil and Gas can outspend residents when it comes to ads but apparently ads are everything and health, safety and quality of life don't matter.