By Alan Katz for The Denver Post, November 14, 1995

The Gillachs admit their dense little street isn't perfect. They hear the neighbors cars at night, they hear the engines starting in the morning. But they prefer this to that Arvada subdivision where they lived for 20 years.

"We had to get in the car to go anywhere," recalled Pat Gillach, a lively mother of five grown children. "We never saw a black person or anyone different. It felt homogenized, like you had to be blended together. It wasn't a fertile ground in which to grow. It had good bike paths, and the Arvada Center was wonderful. But this place is vibrant."

Coburn concurrently has two high-density, mixed-use Boulder developments on the drawing board. One, Iris Hollow, is a proposed neighborhood of lofts, condominiums, row houses and low-income cottages inspired by the little vacation houses at Boulder's Chautauqua Park. The village would include a day care center, a guest house and a building with six small studios equipped with fax machines and copiers that residents could use for home offices.

"It isn't really visionary. It's just common sense," Coburn said. "If you'd rather have the green edges and the farmland surrounding the city. Infill is the natural way to do it. We ought to seal the edges around the cities instead of continuing in sprawl. And people want this stuff. If you build it, they will come."

An even more ambitious Coburn project, the Street Yards, us targeted for the corner of 10th and Bluff Streets on a parcel bordered on one side by railroad tracks. Big-box retailers have long coveted the spot, but city planners hope to try something new.

"It's full of all kinds of kinky stuff," Coburn quipped, showing off a model of the village with its red brick, tin roofed, loft-like buildings resembling Denver's lower downtown. He envisions a neighborhood with homeowners and artisans, light manufacturing and small retail, where there is plenty of room for children to "kick the can." About half of the 123 units would be designated permanently affordable" in which rents and resale prices are controlled by the city.

Naturally, the extra goodies associated with New Urbanism cost money. Sidewalks, street trees, street lights and alleys add nearly 15 percent to the price of lots. However, by downsizing the lots, the builder can sell more homes to make up the difference, said Michael Cody, vice president of the Great Seneca Development Corp., developer of Kentlands. What can be computed is the average increase in the price of homes, if any. That depends on numerous factors including workmanship and quality of materials.

When considering the metro area's future, it seems apparent that some key factors have changed since the suburban explosion started.

Just as the lifting of the court order on forced busing augurs hope for Denver Public Schools, growth related tensions are mounting in the burbs. Schools are becoming crowded, commuter drives are increasing, lines are lengthening at supermarket check out counters and suburban crime has been grabbing headlines, even within the isolated confines of Highlands Ranch. To wit:

When a drug probe last December focused on LSD use at Highlands Ranch High School and resulted in one teen suicide and 14 suspensions, the principal cited rampant growth as a factor.

Two Highlands Ranch teenagers have been convicted for their roles in the 1992 slaying of a Colorado State Patrol Trooper.

In June, a 77-year-old Highlands Ranch man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after he allegedly slashed at his favorite waitress with a hinting knife.

Last month, the atriums of two Douglas county schools were redesigned after Highlands Ranch High School students threw garbage and trash cans from a second-story landing. The school board was "concerned about kids throwing things down, including other kids."

With stories such as these, the myth that "it can't happen here" in suburbia is being dispelled, especially in the aftermath of six Littleton teenagers dying in a fiery alcohol-related car-train crash and two Parker teenagers sustaining wounds in a drive-by shooting.

As the suburbs experience growth pains, Denver is salivating over its first chance to grow since passage of the 1974 Poundstone Amendment, which landlocked the city. Since the opening of the Denver International Airport, abandonment of Stapleton Airport and closure of Lowry Air Force Base, three parcels of Denver land have become ripe for development. With brand-new homes, workplaces and shopping districts in the offing, Denver is primed to compete successfully with the suburbs for the first time in 20 years.

Evidence suggests the growth will occur during a New Urbanist era. Indeed, plans for all three parcels call for compact, mixed-use transit-oriented villages.

Stapleton's long-range plan organizes the former airport into eight precincts of 300 to 600 acres a piece, with each divided into compact neighborhoods averaging 12 units per acre for a total projected population of 30,000.

Streets are an extension of Denver's grid, with system of curving median parkways and trails taking the neighborhoods to parks and open space. Plans also include a championship gold course, a nine-hole learning course, an equestrian center and a park the size of Washington Park. In contrast to city-owned Stapleton, the Denver Gateway to DIA, which lies between Montbello and Green Valley Ranch along Pena Boulevard, has a dozen private owners. Motivated by profit, the owners fought zoning that restricted carte blanche development.

Nevertheless, the city was able to impose a New Urbanist framework on the land, said Dick Farley, deputy director of the Denver Planning Office.

"Since this is a very long-term project-probably 50 years-the owners won't be building homes there for a long time. That may be a good thing, for it gives New Urbanism more time to gain general acceptance," Farley said.

"The project tries to extend the good parts of our city. We looked at neighborhoods like Alamo Placita, Park Hill and Washington Park, where you have mixed-use that is very carefully done. And neighborhoods like Bonnie Brae, which isn't a grid, but still has a connecting system. Those have worked over time, and they provide automobile access without rolling over for the automobile. That's why I like 'em."

The Gateway's commercial buildings will be clustered; urban-style fronting the street-not strung out along arterioles with parking lots in front. Sidewalks and trails will connect businesses to parks, a gold course, ball fields and tennis courts.

Residential neighborhoods will be built around town squares with retail shops offering goods and services such as hardware, dry cleaning, shoe repair, baked goods and groceries.

Farley is keen on tree lawns, these strips of grass between the sidewalk and street found in pre-World War II neighborhoods. But he has had a continuing battle with developers who prefer "Hollywood curbs"-sidewalks adjacent to the street-because they leave more of the front lawn in tact and they are cheaper to make.

"With any new development, we keep arguing that you need to separate the pedestrian from the street, that little kids ride tricycles and bikes, that it's a playground for them. And the trees provide shade over the street in the summer," Farley said.

Of the three major Denver land parcels, Lowry will be developed first, with groundbreaking slated for the spring.

Using the slogan, "Live, work, learn and play," the mixed-use project emphasizes schools. Three private schools have agreed to locate at Lowry, and 156-acre Lowry Education Center "campus" will offer continuing education classes for adults.

"I'm a major proponent of the New Urbanist theory, and within practical limits, Lowry may be one of the better examples in the country," said Jim Meadows, director for the Lowry Redevelopment Authority.

A former developer of suburban master-planned communities in California, Meadows now believes most subdivisions are ill-conceived.

"One of the flaws is they don't form communities," he said. "After 22 years of experience, I feel they don't work very well. The major reason I am here was to work on an urban, mixed-use community.

"Here we are doing a major infill project without having to create major new sewer, water treatment and transportation systems. And meanwhile, we are trying to create 10,000 new jobs, 3,000 homes and 800 acres of park. I'd say that is a major contribution to the urban quality of life."

Lowry will blend with the surrounding neighborhoods using a warped grid street layout similar to Bonnie Brae's, said Meadows, whose role as a master planner includes setting architectural guidelines for developers. But as one developer pointed out, plans are just that, Plans.

"We haven't had a major depression in 60 years," he said. "If we do have one, all of this stuff goes out the window."

Barring economic collapse, however, what started 15 years ago in Seaside, Fla. as an experiment in re-creating a tradition appears to be the coming trend. Already, metro area builders are incorporating New Urbanism design elements, such as front porches, and picket fences. Whether they embrace the deeper principles of New Urbanism remain to be seen.

"It's obvious that continued growth has to play itself around density," said John Parr, executive director of the Denver-based National Civic League. "I think in some ways the most valuable thing these New Urbanists have to offer right now is a visual alternative to what people normally think of as high density."

"We need two or three projects that are the real thing, like what Peter Calthorpe is doing in Broomfield or Andres Duany is doing in Longmont-then we finally have micro-examples something we can show to developers and others, and say, "Here is an alternative."