It’s been nearly 44 years since Terry Ten Eyck bought 35 acres at the mouth of Coal Creek Canyon, motivated by a dream of buying up more land and building a community of custom-made luxury homes.
After several lawsuits, a failed ballot measure to thwart the development and a cratered real estate scene during the Great Recession, the first two homes in Canyon Pines finally have begun to rise from the ground at the base of Coal Creek Peak. The construction is Arvada’s first major residential foray west of Colorado 93, where the foothills begin to rise above the northwest suburbs.
Critics long feared the development would significantly blemish a nearly unmarred mountain viewscape that’s rare in metro Denver. More than two decades after the fight over Canyon Pines in Arvada subsided, the impact of building as many as 93 homes steeply perched on 185 acres in the city’s westernmost stretch won’t be known for years.
But now the project is moving from the drawing board to reality.
“It was a challenge, but we elected not to walk away from it,” said Ten Eyck, now 78. “And if I live long enough, I’ll see many families living in a place that was our vision.”
While he stayed in the fight for more than 40 years, Ten Eyck won’t be the one offering the home sites. He sold the land along Colorado 72 to Denver-based Peak Development Group for $9 million in 2021. Canyon Pines’ new owner plans to release lots in phases over the next decade or so. Buyers will contract with their own architects and builders to design and construct their dream homes, which could cost as much as $6 million or more.
The first eight home sites went up for sale in March. Lots at Canyon Pines will range in size from a half acre to 1.5 acres and will cost anywhere from $500,000 to $1.4 million, depending on size and views.
Chad Ellington, Peak’s owner and principal, said it’s not a free-for-all for prospective buyers. Architects and builders must follow a list of design guidelines to keep houses as unobtrusive as possible, preserving views for those living to the east or passing by on Colorado 93.
“One of our goals is to learn the existing landscape and topography and build homes that fit into the community and don’t stick out like sore thumbs,” Ellington said.
The design guidelines, created as part of the legal settlement over Canyon Pines 20 years ago, include certain color palettes for houses (“muted” or “deeper” earth tones, depending on location and backdrop) and “tree screening” to obscure structures.
There will be no streetlights in Canyon Pines, Ellington said. And Peak is looking to buy an adjacent 90 acres to be dedicated to trails and open space.
“We are dark-sky compliant,” he said.
A vast swath of land directly west of Colorado 93 is Jefferson County open space, making any development closer to the canyon that much more noticeable. But the potential for degraded views is “a bit speculative until we see some homes up there,” Arvada Planning Manager Rob Smetana said.
Former Arvada Mayor Ken Fellman was the lone no vote on an annexation for the development in January 2001, telling The Denver Post at the time that Ten Eyck and his wife, Diana, hadn’t provided enough evidence that the homes would be sufficiently concealed. But he was outnumbered on City Council.
Opponents concerned about Arvada’s mountain viewscape weren’t satisfied with the council’s decision. They launched a citywide ballot measure in November 2002 to reverse the annexation. It lost 53% to 47%.
“Anytime you have a new group of rooftops to look at, especially near the mountains, people have concerns about that. It was important to me that we try to keep that,” Fellman said last month. “I still wish we wouldn’t have homes in the mountain backdrop, but I’m resigned to the decision.”
Plans submitted by Peak to Arvada city officials in recent weeks show renderings of what the hillside will look like from three vantage points to the east. They show trees planted in the foreground, and visible behind clumps of trees is a collection of what looks like floating rooflines.
“It was never the intent to have underground homes, which is what you’d have to do to completely hide them,” Ellington said.
As recently as last month, Arvada City Council approved the annexation of another seven or so acres into the city for a water pump station for Canyon Pines, as well as the addition of a new lot. The bulk of the development was annexed in 1989.
Canyon Pines is on city water and sewer and receives fire protection from Coal Creek Fire Rescue and the Arvada Fire Protection District, Ellington said. There are more than a dozen hydrants scattered alongside freshly paved roads winding throughout the development.
Garret Ball, Coal Creek Fire Rescue’s chief, said the “vast majority” of devastating wildfires in the wildland-urban interface have been caused by people or human infrastructure. As such, Canyon Pines will have “defensible space inspection requirements, mandatory home sprinkler systems and the use of non-combustible building materials.”
Ellington said his project received a boost from the ongoing robustness of the luxury home market in Colorado, especially as the costs to build from scratch in nearby Boulder remain high. An extra push, he said, came from the coronavirus pandemic, which dramatically altered work and commuting patterns. While Canyon Pines is nearly 30 miles from downtown Denver, it will be serviced by high-speed fiber internet that will make working from home a breeze.
Terry Ten Eyck once had plans to build his own home in Canyon Pines, and he still owns four lots there. But he said that likely won’t happen at this point. For those who do build, however, Canyon Pines will be a special neighborhood in a special location, he said.
And while preserving views is important, he said, so is respecting private property rights.
“The idea that we can have Colorado look the same as when the buffalo were hunted here,” he said, “is unrealistic.”
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