Meeting Objectives:

1. Inform steering committee of updates

2. Next steps, responsible parties and due dates

Property Status
A parcel of land owned by a private owner listed for sale which encompasses 35.5 acres of Red Rocks and the surrounding area which runs down the spine of the Arrowhead Golf Course. The committee is aware of two pre-submittal for development with Douglas County:

1. Project Number PS2021-188 – This proposal includes 14 single family homes with nearly 20 acres of infrastructure built up against the Red Rock formations.  Based on committee research, the developer is no longer taking an active role to move forward with the county and that our Save Our Rox effort could have played a part in their decision! However, this pre-submittal project is open for 1 year from the date of their payment to the county.  Therefore, the developer could change their mind and come back to engage again.  Their project is considered open with Douglas County until July 2022. 

2. Project Number PS2021-281 – This proposal includes a day spa owned by a hotel chain including a 100+ car parking lot to run alongside hole number 1 on the East side of the Rocks.  This project would require the land to be rezoned for commercial use.  This project was just submitted to the county; therefore, it will remain open until November of 2022.

These projects are pre-submittals meaning their next steps are to begin the process with the Douglas County planning commission to review their pre-submittal proposals after their application fees have been paid.  After such review, the process continues with a public review hearing.  Should these action items not occur with the above timeframe indicated for each project, they are to be considered dormant until their application timeline runs out or until the owner acts on an option below or other action not defined.

The steering committee noted that because the property remains for sale, more developers and other interested parties will continue to come forward and file additional applications with the county.  Therefore, this committee and its actions will remain open and active until such time the property is no longer available. 

Owner Option Overview
Outside of selling the property to another interested party, the existing landowner has two additional options for their property which are as follows: 

1. Land Trust – place the property into a conversancy land trust

2. Open Space – request Douglas County to consider purchasing the land for open space

Land Trust
Main benefits of a land trust are that the owner would receive tax credits and such credits would depend upon the land assessment.  The steering committee consulted with a Land Trust attorney to provide education on how such a trust would work.  There have been recent updated tax laws for land trusts that may make it even more advantageous than previously thought.  There may be federal credits available as well.  Committee questions included:

1. How long would the process take? – that would depend upon the land assessment, review of trust, attorney availability, etc.

2. Who would pay for such a trust? – Could be the owner, a fundraising effort, anyone can pay as costs would include the cost to assess the property, legal fees, etc.

3. Does the conservancy need to make revenue?  - not a clear answer.

4. Is Schmidt Park in a conservancy (this is the nature park located off North Roxborough Drive?  - Research after the meeting indicates it is a 501(c)(3) non-profit specifically for conservation and environmental education which has a non-binding agreement with the Roxborough Park Foundation.

Open Space
This is a program within Douglas County that can designate land as open space.  An Open Space Committee makes recommendations to the Board of Douglas County Commissioners on the disbursement of funds for land acquisitions from the Open Space, Trails and Parks Fund (as stated from Douglas County website).  Douglas County can consider a purchase of land if it meets criteria such as its benefit to the environment, wildlife, archaeologic and historic preservation, etc.  It is believed that this parcel of land would fit into all if not most of these criteria for open space consideration. 

Arrowhead Golf Course Update

The owners of the golf course, Arcis, are aware of this situation and continue to gather updates on a regular basis from various sources, including this committee.  The committee was informed that Arcis’s legal team has been briefed should they need to engage as Arcis also has no interest in allowing such a development in the middle of the golf course considering Arrowhead is one of the 10 most photographed golf courses in the world!

Marketing & Communications

A committee member has offered up their marketing team and created our Save Our Rox website.  The committee has incurred expenses totaling $1,264 to date for such activities.  This marketing team can continue to support us as we move forward which would mean additional costs to SOR.

The website has generated 564 people who have signed the petition!  It was noted we cannot solicit these people by pushing out emails to them, our strategy will be to push out committee notices through social media with a request for interested parties to access our website for updates.

A Facebook page was developed specifically for Save our Rox, check it out!

We have raised $650 on our GoFundMe page and it was agreed that committee members would increase their donations to $200 per couple to cover our initial website costs. 

The committee discussed the need for talking points so that we do not confuse or mislead anyone as to our intentions and actions.  See below for draft points for review.