Monument (Denver, Colorado Springs, Black Forest: rental, HOA, chapel)

[Momto4]

Hello all,
Love this forum! I just wanted to find out if anyone can provide more specific information about the Tri-Lakes/Monument area. I have seen some beautiful homes there with nice property on the MLS but I am wondering if it is very "far" out of the way. I have visited CS but know absolutely nothing about Monument. We have 4 young children (age 2 - 9) and they are involved in the typical activities (sports, music, art, horses,etc.). Does Monument have this type of stuff to offer or would we have to drive to CS? If it's CS, would this be unrealistic to do 3 or 4 times a week? Does the I-25 traffic make this more prohibitive during rush hour times? Any information you can provide would be great!
Thanks in Advance,
Momto4

p.s. also, does this area experience more snow or colder weather in general than CS?

[Mike from back east]

Using your favorite search site, like realtor, try these zip codes:
Zip 80132 for Monument and Tri-Lakes.
Zip 80908 for Black Forest, a large area, lots of horses, small ranchettes and some large ranches. Big-time horse and cattle country.
Zip 80920 for Briargate area, has lots of everything you seek except horses, but the horses are not far. We have a large horse boarding operation down the street from us, which is very near Pine Creek High School (Powers Blvd and Old Ranch Rd).

I-25 won't be a big problem if you live in Monument, and no problem if you get in Black Forest or Briargate. It's a busy road, 2 lanes each way, old, and with numerous obsolete interchanges. There are back roads that parallel I-25 (like Rte 83) when it has a problem. Getting to downtown can sometimes be slow, with all the road work to update the highway and bridges, but there are alternatives like Academy Blvd, Powers Blvd, Union Blvd, etc. A pretty good network of roads up here on the north end.

District 20 schools, up here on the north end, are highly rated.

Another poster, CSColorado, lives in Monument and can advise you in expert fashion, she'll be on here soon enough, she's a regular.

s/Mike

[CSColorado]

Hello! I live in the Monument area (near Hwy 83 and 105). I really don't think we are far out of the way at all. I have lived in the Colorado Springs area for 25 years, and this is my personal number one choice for a place to live in the area. I'm just 5 minutes from the grocery stores, gas stations, Home Depot, Khol's, fast food, church, etc. My office is at Chapel Hills near Briargate, and it takes me about 15-20 minutes to get to my there. They are building some office space further north now, and I am considering moving my office to a business park that is going in less than 10 minutes from here. I have 5 kids- ages 6 months to 8 (almost 9) years, and all of their events are local. The parents are very involved in the local schools, and it's a neat community. They are starting construction on a YMCA in Monument- so all of those activities will be right out our back door. We've got lots of shopping going in here. When we do have to drive in to Colorado Springs for something it is on the north side of town and just about everything is within 15-20 minutes- including the mall. We do get a little more snow up here- but it melts off just as quickly as everywhere else in town. It stays a few degrees cooler- but that's one of the reasons we like it here; It doesn't make a big difference in the winter months, but in the summer it is sure nice to be 5 degrees cooler than the rest of the area- plus we're in the trees. So we're in the shade and 90 degrees when Colorado Springs is in the sun and 96 degrees. I hardly ever get on I-25. We take Hwy 83 into Colorado Springs.
-Carla
PS- We do have lots of horses in the area.

[Momto4]

Thanks to both of you for your help. It sounds great!
Momto4

[COflower]

My brother's company owns a large chunk of land up there that they are developing...not Kings Deer but it's something like Jax Creek. I don't want to sell you on it here because that's not my job. I don't want to put a blatent link here so I wont...

However, he and his family are moving in and around there and so very family oriented. No, they are not buying property on their company's land but near to it so they believe in the area. They even attend one of the churchs up there in Jax Creek.

I can honestly say that if the area was not a good place to live, they would not have purchased up there.

I actually work on their website (for Jcreek) and their schools (having worked on and off with the site since 1997) are in an excellent school district. The trip to C Springs is nothing but you are still in a semi-rural area.

It is a little cooler up there but keep in mind the Palmer Ridge, please Google it, we still see less snow around here (I am in northern C Springs) than they do in Denver! Oddly enough and even Denver has fewer inches of snow in the winter. Keep in mind though, that any winter storm can produce a lot of cccccold and sideways blowing snow but in the 38 years I have lived in CO (My entire life) it's not that bad.

Good luck and let us know what you come upon.

[hope07]

Hello everyone, finally got our orders sorted and on the way mid July. Having lost out on a 5 bedroom home in northgate we are now trying to rent something ASAP. We have pretty much narrowed it down now though to 2 choices in Monument. One is east side of the I-25 in the woodmoor area and one on the west side of the highway in the shiloh pines subdivision area. I can see two differences in these areas but not being local I do not know whether there are other ones that I am missing that may prove to be important in this decision. I have done as much research as I can and asked questions, but there is nothing like having some extra knowledgeable help. So hopefully that is where all the very helpful, local people may be able to direct me better. The differences I see are first, the west side of the highway one is closer to the actual town of monument and second the elementary and I think the middle schools will be different, although both in district 38. One is Lewis Palmer and the other Grace Best elementary. The big picture here is that we are only renting for about a year as we plan on buying. The rental is just to get us familiar with COS and find out where we will finally settle. One of the houses is bigger and a little cheaper than the other so if all else was the same we would go with that. Any insights would be greatly appreciated.

[Charles]

I am assuming you are familiar with the schools on both sides of the I-25. If not, go to the Great Schools web site and use its school comparison tool. If you already have an eye as to where you are going to buy later, rent in a location which would reduce the likelihood that your kids will have to change schools.
Little things that matter: If you have kids (sounds like you do), it is probably better to have a level street for them to play on. Which location is more conducive to skating, bike riding, ball kicking? Either location on a more quiet street? Which location has more kids their age? Which location is closer to a fire station for emergencies? Are you going to go to a particular place daily (like Starbucks)? Which location will reduce the number of inconvenient left hand turns for these frequent trips? Orientation: Which location will give you more winter light (south facing windows) and less summer heat (east and west facing windows)? Also, are trees placed to block hot sun? Or block desired winter sun? Does either location look like you would have to do more yard/home maintenance? For snow/ice, which location has a preferred south facing driveway vs. a north facing driveway? Does either location have better snow removal services? Preferred trash days? Some neighborhoods do not have fire hydrants. Does either location have preferred HOA rules? (Some HOAs require you to park your cars in the garage; could be a hassle if you are storing stuff in there.) Is either location well versus street delivered water? Well pressure is low, like 50 or 60 psi since it services your house pipes. Street pressure can be like 120 psi (and pressure regulated into your house); makes it easier to use your garden hose for cleaning up. Which location has better high speed internet? Does either location have better cell phone reception (is one of them in a "shadow")? Gas versus wood burning fireplace? Double wide front door for moving furniture?

[hope07]

Hi Charles, boy that was great information. Sounds like you may have done this a time or two before. We had thought of some of these things but not all and they are on the list to ask now. I think too, when you rent, you have to be able to compromise and look at what it is your family values at that particular time and go with that. So we may get some positive responses to these questions and some negative and it is just a matter of weighing it out. But just great questions to keep in mind. Even though GB and LP both get a '9' on the great schools website there is only parent reviews for GB. I think what I am a little worried about is that there is nothing huge we are missing, like oh yeah..didn't you know x was planned there and the whole place will be torn apart next winter (Of course you can ask owners but some may be uninformed). Or that the west side of the highway gets way more snow than the east. The stuff that you don't know to ask if you know what I mean. Many thanks for the help.

[Mike from back east]

Hope07, glad to know you're on your way, you're gonna love it here.

We rented six months just off Struther's Road in the Gleneagles area, very near to Northgate Highlands (NGH). Our SFH rental was practically on I-25, in fact, you see these homes on your right as you drive north on I-25 past North Gate Rd (exit 156). We got way too much highway noise at that location. When you pick a home, get at least a mile away from the highway. NGH is far enough away to be quiet. Huge new shopping is going in about 2-3 miles south, where Voyager meets Interquest (exit 153) and Hwy 83. NGH is nicely positioned to access that; dirt is now moving there and in less than a year I expect to be watching movies there. Our dentist is at that corner.

As far as I-25, remember, all such roads are 'barriers' of a sort, i.e., only a select few roads cross over or under these things, the cost is high to do so. So, if you live WEST of I-25, you have a mountain range behind you to the west (no way out) and to get ANYWHERE you will have to cross over I-25. You can't go further south than Baptist road as below there is USAF property. Right now Baptist Road is a 2-laner that is grossly overloaded and antiquated, thus bottleneck traffic lights on the bridge over I-25, then at Jackson Creek. There is a road project there now, but it will take a year to two to rebuild that bridge/interchange. IMO, it is far better to live EAST of I-25, where you'll have access to all sort of things without needing I-25. We are EAST of I-25, just down the street from Pine Creek HS, (Powers and Old Ranch) and we rarely use I-25, will use it less as more cool stuff gets built nearby (many hundreds of acres now coming to fruition or will within a year). The situation in Monument is better, exit 159 (Rte 105) was rebuilt and the road widened but you still get to sit at the lights if you want to cross I-25 from west to east.

Our herbal-life coach lives in NGH and seeks to sell her home and move east to PA for family reasons. Her home is on a ridge and she has no one behind her and a great view of the Front Range. She tells us that homes in NGH have two main issues: (1) Roofing sub used 3 nails per shingle, whereas code requires 5 nails per shingle due to wind loads - most homes get re-shingled; and (2) Many homes have window problems, leak air/water. Many homes had complete replacement of windows by the builder.

One insight we got from Tami is that people are allowed to pick which school in the district they attend, thus Tami's kids may have neighbor kids who go to other schools and Tami feels this negatively impacts the childhood experience. Tami thinks her neighbors are into 'keeping up with the Jones'es' sort of thing....some have attitudes about 'my kid goes to such and such a school' etc etc. I guess that's the downside of school choice.

We visit Tami monthly and often see a NGH home surrounded by scaffolding for window work. If you buy in NGH, check these two aspects. If your realtor is not aware of this, fire them and get another realtor (I'm not one).

There is a great thread in here about 'buyer brokers' (basically, this sort of a broker looks out for YOUR interests, not the sellers) so would suggest you search on broker or buyer broker and read it. Ben Wolfe and 2bindenver posted most of it, or google the internet to learn more.

s/Mike from back east

[vfrpilot]

Hi Hope,
We are in Woodmor and love it. Our house might be further east as our daughter attends Prairie Winds Elementary. The hills and the trees are beautiful. My vote goes for Woodmor.