About
Lone Tree decides, and Surrey Ridge lives with it
Hillcamp’s traffic and its emergency way out would run onto roads in unincorporated Douglas County. We have no fire hydrants and no street budget of our own, and we stand with the Lone Tree residents who spoke against this project. We are asking the City to build the project’s second way out inside its own city limits, where the people who approve it also live with it.
Who we are
A coalition of Surrey Ridge homeowners and neighbors
We live on the roads this project would use. We have no developer, political committee or business behind us.
Surrey Ridge is a covenanted rural-residential and equestrian neighborhood of roughly 170 homes. It sits in unincorporated Douglas County between Lone Tree and Castle Pines, outside the city limits of both.
This site is published by the CPSR team, the Coalition for the Preservation of Surrey Ridge, a Colorado nonprofit corporation of Surrey Ridge neighbors supported by member dues. We work alongside the groups listed below.
Surrey Ridge is not in the City of Lone Tree
Its residents don’t vote in Lone Tree elections and didn’t vote in the 2000 annexation election. They will still live with the traffic, evacuation constraints and water demand that follow from a City of Lone Tree land use decision.
Nobody has proposed annexing Surrey Ridge. No application before the City would change our jurisdiction, covenants, or address. Our interest is what gets built on the neighboring property inside Lone Tree and how it connects to the roads, water and hillside we share.
Colorado land use rules let affected people comment whichever side of a city line they live on. The county is one of the agencies the City sends these applications to for comment.
Who we work with
Other groups working on the same applications
Save the Lone Tree Bluffs
The petition campaign focused on the bluffs and the open ridgeline, launched October 2025.
The Retreat at RidgeGate Homeowners Association
A homeowners association within Lone Tree whose members are affected by the proposed road network and construction traffic.
The McArthur Drive Coalition
Residents along and near McArthur Drive, one of the two proposed emergency access routes.
These groups do not share officers, funds or covenants, and they do not all want the same outcome. They rely on the same facts about fire access, water, slope stability, traffic, the Comprehensive Plan and wildlife.
What we are asking for
Eight things we want the City to require
None of them is in the file yet.
Notice to the affected households
Written notice to the neighborhoods this would affect, including ours across the city and county line. A preliminary plan carries no mailed-notice requirement, so many households still do not know this application exists.
Independent experts, billed to the developer
The City’s own traffic, ground, wildfire, drainage, groundwater and wildlife experts, hired by the City and billed to the applicant. Lone Tree Municipal Code § 16-1-60(a) and § 16-2-140 already allow this. The technical studies in the file today were paid for by the developer.
A finding that the water supply is adequate
A clear finding under state law that the water supply is adequate for the development as proposed. The City should make it before approval.
A second public access inside Lone Tree
A second way out that meets the fire code for a development this size and sits inside the city. The current plan offers a locked gate for emergency vehicles, over ground the developer itself says cannot hold a public road.
A written check against the City’s own plan
Matching the Comprehensive Plan is a condition of approval under Lone Tree Code § 17-3-20. For the bluffs, that plan asks for unbroken open space, preserved views, and respect for wildlife habitat. The file should show the City did that analysis.
The ground studies finished and accepted
The deliverables CGS asked for, in final form and accepted, before the road is approved. The September 4, 2026 report is still marked preliminary and says a 1.3 safety factor is acceptable where staff require 1.5. The State geologist’s August 20 letter says its concern about weakened ground is not fully addressed.
A complete traffic study
Traffic counts that include weekends, the other development already approved along the corridor, and how the two emergency gates would work.
Independent evacuation modeling
Model the plan as submitted, with every household that would be on these roads at the same time. That includes Surrey Ridge residents trailering horses and livestock, Oak Hills, The Retreat, McArthur Ranch, Hillpoint, the communities along Monarch Road, and Hilltop. Someone the developer did not hire should do the modeling.
The City has the power to require each of these, and the developer can supply them. So far the City has not required them.
Questions
The questions we get asked
Are you opposed to all development?
No. Homes are built in Douglas County all the time, and most draw little objection here. We object to this plan on this site, as it stands in the file.
The eight asks above are conditions the City can attach before it decides anything. This application, as it sits, should not be approved. If the City required all eight, its decision would rest on evidence. Right now much of it is deferred to an agreement that has not been made public.
Would you object to any development here?
No. Our objections rest on code requirements and Colorado laws, and we cite them. Each of them would apply to anyone building on this land.
The International Fire Code sets two fire-apparatus access roads as the default above 30 dwelling units, and Lone Tree adopted that appendix in 2018. This proposal is 343 homes behind one public road. The Colorado Geological Survey, a state agency with no stake here, found the ground studies too thin in January, and in August still called them preliminary. Colorado law requires a finding that the water supply is adequate, and no such finding appears in the file.
No one has yet shown that the ground, the roads and the water can support 343 homes.
We also do not want to be stuck in an evacuation line behind several hundred more households on a rural road.
Doesn’t the developer own the land?
Yes. Owning land does not guarantee an approval. Before the City can approve a site development plan it has to make findings about water, access, hazard, and whether the plan matches its own plan. Each one needs evidence in the official file.
The proposed emergency route also crosses roads and easements the developer does not control. We have found no recorded document in the file granting that right.
Didn’t voters approve this in 2000?
Voters approved an annexation. On August 29, 2000, Lone Tree certified an election in which 824 voted yes and 606 voted no, out of 1,430 ballots cast. It approved the annexation of the property and the adoption of zoning ordinances 00-05 through 00-08.
Voters were not asked to approve a development plan, a density, a unit count, or a road alignment. Those did not exist in 2000. Supporters argued then that local oversight was better than none, which assumes the City would use its judgment on future applications.
The 2000 vote settled which city has jurisdiction and what the base zoning is. It did not make the findings the City has to make on applications filed in 2024 and 2025.
Is it too late to comment?
No. The Planning Commission recommended the road (SB25-0014) and the booster pump station (USR25-0002 / SP25-0023) on October 13. City Council decides both on November 17, and the record is open until it votes. The other three applications are still with City staff and have no hearing date.
Comments can be submitted on each application separately through the City’s project pages. See where it stands for the sequence and the links.
What makes a difference?
Three things you can do.
Write a letter in your own words. Name the application number and one or two specific concerns, and say what you want the City to require. Every letter goes into the official file.
Speak at the hearing. What you say goes in the record too, and the Council hears it directly. Speakers get two minutes, or four for a group.
Talk to neighbors. Many people affected still do not know about this. Tell five of them.
Contact
Get in touch
For questions about Surrey Ridge, the coalition, or how to file a comment:
Volunteers check both addresses, so replies may take a day or two. For the status of a specific application, check the City’s project pages.
This site is not legal advice
Residents publish this site to make the public record easier to read. Its summaries of documents, statutes and code provisions are short. Nothing here is legal advice. Reading it creates no attorney-client relationship. Do not rely on it in place of the underlying documents or your own counsel.
Sources, document citations, and photo credits are listed on the credits page.
The official file is still open
The road and pump station go to City Council on November 17. Write the Council now.
