Like the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz, Lone Tree boasts a shiny exterior but lacks a heart.
Someday, city officials believe, it will have several.
They won’t be like the historic downtowns of Parker, Littleton and Castle Rock. Lone Tree’s most logical community centers will revolve around its arts center near Lincoln Avenue and Yosemite Street, and in an urban, multi-block area RidgeGate plans to someday develop near the southeast corner of Lincoln and Interstate 25.
No firm timeline is set for either area, though it’s likely the stretch of now-mostly vacant property east of the arts center will develop before the urban center. City plans for the area depict wide walkways flanked by buildings with a lively mix of retail and residential, providing a connection between the arts center and Belvedere Park, and continuing beyond the park toward Sky Ridge Medical Center.
“We hope we have something similar to Streets at Southglenn,” Mayor Jim Gunning said. “First, you need rooftops and bodies.”
RidgeGate, south of Lincoln Avenue, extends east for six square miles from Yosemite Street to the Meridian Village development in Parker. Existing gaps in RidgeGate’s development to date are anything but random. Coventry Development is building out the community methodically, but building only “at the speed of need,” as RidgeGate’s website explains.
“It’s like a doughnut,” said Steve Hebert, the city’s community development director. “The middle isn’t there yet. It will tie it all together.
“Coventry’s been pretty true to their commitment, which is a mixed-use, walkable, fairly dense community.”
Like Centennial’s Streets at Southglenn, the vision for Lone Tree’s gathering place originally included a new library in addition to its arts center. Voters in 2007 defeated a proposed property tax to build the library. Because the city owns its administration and police headquarters on Kimmer Drive, any future downtown also isn’t likely to include the city offices central to some community centers.
But Lone Tree, a young, contemporary city that grew up around a golf course development, isn’t striving for traditional.
“These communities that have that old, historic downtown – that’s a real treasure,” Hebert said. In Lone Tree, “It just didn’t exist.”
“The positive of that is you have the ability to be flexible,” First said.
East of I-25 and south of Lincoln, a dense urban center has long been planned. Buildings there will be taller. Plans call for the light rail to cross I-25 just north of Sky Ridge, and a station is envisioned in the urban center. All those factors will give it a still different flavor from what’s expected to spring up near the arts center.
With 40,000 people envisioned in the future RidgeGate, Gunning said a single common area may not be logical.
“There’s no requirement a city have one gathering place,” he said.
Until those master-planned areas are built, Lone Tree already has several points that seem to draw locals together, including Park Meadows shopping center and the Entertainment District. Where those other sites are located depends on who you ask.
“Starbucks,” First said.
“The Vistas (at Park Meadows),” Gunning put in.
“I think it’s event-driven,” Hebert said. “It could be a community park during a free concert. This weekend, Taste of Lone Tree will be that place.”