New homebuyer Tim Rawson was emotional as the Morrison Town Board approved a water taps request Oct. 8 that allows his family to close on their Red Rocks Ranch house.
“I’m overjoyed; I’m almost in tears honestly,” he said after the special meeting concluded. “This helps 39 families. It gives them a plan tonight so they can get on with their lives and into their houses.”
Homeowners who’d planned to close on new homes in the unincorporated development hit an unexpected snag late last month when the Morrison Town Board refused to approve the developer’s unique proposal for meeting its residential water needs. Those taps have grown scarce while the town’s new water treatment plant is being built. So the Mount Carbon Metropolitan District asked the town — which supplies water to the project — to convert two irrigation meters into 39 residential taps. The town board refused, saying the district needs to revise an outdated intergovernmental agreement and make infrastructure upgrades.
In the wake of that decision, at least one prospective homeowner walked away from their prospective home, according to a post they made on social media. Others, like Rawson and his family, found temporary living quarters.
While the town’s Oct. 8 vote means most of those 39 families will be moving in soon, board members warned they won’t be so quick to grant more water taps in the future.
Trustee Paul Sutton voted against the motion, which he said was designed to send a message to the developer and home builder.
“I’m voting ‘no’ to warn Mount Carbon and Lennar (Homes) that the ‘no’s’ are coming,” he said. “It’s my understanding our water system has the slack to address the 39 taps. We don’t have any more slack. I feel for the 39 people who bought a house and don’t have water. But you don’t make promises about water if you don’t have the infrastructure to deliver it.
“I will be pressing the other members of my board to vote ‘no’ for future water taps if we don’t have the infrastructure to deliver it,” he continued.
Town Trustee Katie Gill voted in favor of the conversion, citing concessions Mount Carbon made in the Oct. 8 agreement, but also emphasized the need for further action.
“I urge Lennar and the district to prioritize (this) before building new homes,” she said.
Home construction is moving at a furious pace at Red Rocks Ranch, a 345-acre mixed-use community at C470 and Morrison Road. The Mount Carbon Metropolitan District is charged with providing water and sewer to the unincorporated development, utilities pumped there from the nearby Town of Morrison’s facilities.
Mount Carbon has already paid to improve the town’s wastewater treatment plant and is financing construction of Morrison’s nearly complete new water treatment plant.
Under the Oct. 8 agreement, the district will install eight new chemical pumps at the plant, a shift from a previous plan to transfer used pumps from the old plant to the new facility. Mount Carbon also agreed to install a fiber internet line to the new plant, which Gill said is critical for monitoring operations and water levels.
But more work is needed to slake the thirst of Red Rocks Ranch’s future residents and businesses.
Morrison has now given the development’s special district 444 residential water taps but says it’s not obligated to provide more until a 16-year-old intergovernmental agreement between Morrison and the district is rewritten — an effort that’s been underway for years. It also wants Mount Carbon to make promised infrastructure improvements that will protect the town’s long-term water supply.
Deputy town attorney Kunal Parikh said the Oct. 8 decision has no bearing on future decisions between the district and town.
Those outstanding issues aside, Rawson said he’s grateful to everyone involved. He, his wife Carolyn and their two children have been living temporarily with his mother in Morrison while they wait to move into what they call their “forever home.”
“I appreciate the board’s expediency in putting together this special meeting,” he said. “I think they made the right move tonight.”
Lennar Homes said it, too, is appreciative.
“We’re thankful the town of Morrison was able to work with Mount Carbon Water District to get a resolution to the water meters, and we’re excited for our homeowners at Red Rocks Ranch to move into their new homes before the holidays,” company spokesperson Danielle Tocco wrote in an email.
Red Rocks Ranch is set to eventually have more than 1,300 single-family homes, townhomes and condos, plus 70 acres of trails, parks and open space, and 40 acres of commercial property. Home prices in Red Rocks Ranch range from $750,000 to $1.25 million.