Highlands Ranch

Highlands Ranch sits along C-470 in Douglas County, about 13 miles south of downtown Denver. It isn't a city. It's an unincorporated community, the most populous one in Colorado, with Littleton and Centennial to the north, Acres Green and Lone Tree to the east and Chatfield State Park on its west side.

A cattle ranch that became a suburb

Samuel Allen Long homesteaded the land and built a small stone house he called Rotherwood. John W. Springer bought the ranch in the 1890s and built the mansion. Waite Phillips owned it from 1920 to 1926, Frank Kistler remodeled the house in an English Tudor style around 1929, and Lawrence Phipps Jr. bought it in 1937, renamed it Highlands Ranch and ran cattle there until he died in 1976. The Mission Viejo Company bought the land in 1978 and planned a suburb like its California namesake, with recreation centers, a town center, a library, parks, bike paths and a green belt left open for recreation.

Subdivisions, built from 1981 on

The first houses went up near South Broadway in 1981, and the Northridge Recreation Center was finished the next year. Rather than build everything itself, the developer sold big parcels to builders such as Richmond Homes, so Highlands Ranch reads as a set of separate subdivisions linked by parks, trails and open space. Ask which subdivision a house is in, since that can mean a second set of rules and dues.

At the southern edge is BackCountry, a gated Shea Homes neighborhood built against the ridges of the wilderness area. If you want a house right up against open land, start there.

Who runs what: the metro district and HRCA

There's no city government. The Douglas County Sheriff's Office handles policing, and the Highlands Ranch Metro District handles arterial roads, parks, open space, water and storm drains, funded mostly by property taxes and state lottery money. The Highlands Ranch Community Association enforces the covenants, which cover things like house decoration and fencing, and it's funded by HOA fees and covenant fines.

In 2018 the HRCA board picked one stain, Highlands Ranch Fence Brown, for fences facing a street, a front yard, a park or school property. Owners switch to it the next time the fence needs redoing. Many subdivisions also have a sub-association with its own guidelines. Budget for HRCA fees plus possibly a second set of dues, and read both rule sets before you plan a fence, a paint job or any other exterior project.

The mansion, the Backcountry and the canal trail

The Highlands Ranch Mansion sat mostly empty for about 30 years before the metro district took it over in 2010. A $6 million renovation followed, and it reopened on June 15, 2012. It's open to the public year-round, and private rentals pay for the public events.

South of the neighborhoods, the Backcountry Wilderness Area covers about 8,200 acres. Shea Homes conveyed the land to HRCA in 2009. The metro district also maintains 7.1 miles of the High Line Canal Trail, down to County Line Road. It's dirt west of Santa Fe Drive and hard-packed gravel east of it.

A biergarten on Centennial Boulevard

Prost Brewing's biergarten at 53 Centennial Boulevard pours German-style beers. The patio has picnic tables, lawn games, a stage and heaters for cool weather, and it made 5280's 2022 list of Highlands Ranch restaurants.

Two more from that list sit side by side on Dorchester Street in Town Center. Highland's Indian Cuisine, which 5280 calls the first Indian restaurant in Highlands Ranch, does curries, biryani and tandoori, and Lansdowne Arms next door is an Irish pub known for shepherd's pie and fish and chips. Over on Wildcat Reserve Parkway, Zell's Panini & Crepes makes sweet and savory crêpes to order.

Getting to Denver

C-470 opened through the area in 1985 and got express lanes in 2020. Santa Fe Drive (US 85) runs along the west side. Light rail stops at Littleton-Mineral station, at Santa Fe and Mineral Avenue, where the 1,227-space parking lot is across US 85 from the platform and connects by a pedestrian bridge. RTD still lists a proposed 2.5-mile extension into Highlands Ranch with one new Park-n-Ride, but funding isn't secured, so don't buy counting on a train station nearby.