Your weekly field guide to Littleton, Ken Caryl, and the SW Denver foothills

Happy Friday. Thursday's rain did its job and the weekend comes back sunny and warm, with fire restrictions lifted in unincorporated Jeffco. If your garden came from Jared's, the lead is about that land: a developer has filed plans for it, and the paperwork doesn't say what happens to the nursery. Tonight is the year's final Wine Walk. And this is the last weekend your sprinklers run on the right side of the law, because the October 1 shutoff is Thursday. After Wednesday the hose is for the tomatoes.

Two sponsor spots pay for this newsletter, and both are open this week. More than 2,000 households got last Friday's issue and nearly two in three of you opened it. If you run a business here, or you know the one your neighbors swear by, forward this with a note. I answer every reply.

A developer has filed plans for 140 rental homes on the Jared's Nursery land at Bowles and Oak. The site plan reached Jefferson County on September 18 from B2R Partners II, the Scottsdale company that builds as BB Living, for six parcels totaling about 23 acres at the southeast corner of West Bowles Avenue and South Oak Street. The developer's own narrative says what it builds is "luxury rental homes," and here that means 140 of them: single-family houses, duplexes, and six-home clusters around shared parking courts, with a clubhouse that holds the leasing office, a pool, and a gym, plus a dog park and a playground. Two entrances off Oak, and a public street dedicated east toward West Burgundy Drive for a connection someday. The single-family homes sit on the east and south edges.

The rezoning that makes it possible is already done. The county planning commission recommended it 6-0 in June, and the county commissioners approved it 3-0 on June 30, under a plan that caps the site at 152 homes. What the file doesn't say is what happens to the nursery. The paperwork describes the land as "currently occupied by Jared's Nursery," the parcels include the nursery's own 10500 West Bowles address, and the owner of record is a partnership whose address on file is the site itself. Jared's website posts its hours and nothing about a move, and the site plan is in the county's first round of review, so this isn't a bulldozer next month. I've asked the nursery. I'd rather hear it from them than from a PDF, and if you know something, tell me.

It's the second build-to-rent project on the east side of the zip, and the first one is further along. A reader wrote this week to say the townhomes planned on Ken Caryl Avenue near Chatfield are all rentals, and the developer's own page says so. North American Development Group calls it NUVO Residences at Ken Caryl Ranch, "a rare infill build-to-rent townhome community," 199 two- and three-bedroom townhomes with garages and fenced backyards. That's the parcel the Ranch's district page calls Parcel B, east of the Safeway center, where four building permits landed in August. Add the two projects up and the east side of the zip, between Bowles and Chatfield, has 339 rental homes in the pipeline.

The Old Crows building has a name attached, and it's a food wholesaler. Last week I told you a rezoning application had landed on the former antique mall at 10081 West Bowles and promised the use when the plans showed up. They showed up Tuesday. The owner's cover letter asks the county to rezone the 3.75-acre site to a mixed-use planned development so its tenant, which the letter calls ASA Food Trading, can run "an integrated wholesale/retail model" on the ground floor of the 41,764-square-foot building, the old Albertsons. State records list an ASA Foods Inc. at that address, doing business as Asia Foods since 2017, and a wall-sign permit for "Asa Foods" is ready to issue. The letter also asks for the right to build apartments above the store and on the land around it, what it calls a pop-the-top. The letter's reason for all of it: the building went up in 1981 under Denver zoning rules after a voided annexation, and those rules cost the tenant a building permit in 2024. Nothing is approved and no hearing is set. As for Old Crows itself, it's open again in Golden, on West Colfax.

Tonight's Wine Walk is the year's last. Wristbands go on outside Denver Beer Co on West Main from 4:30, the pours run to 7:30, and it's $30 ahead of time or $35 tonight. Bring a rain jacket.

Saturday is the farmers market's last day of the season, 8 to 1 on Nevada Street. Also Saturday: Hudson Gardens dissects owl pellets, 10 to noon, $15 to $20. The jack-o'-lanterns at Hudson Gardens run tonight through Sunday, then Thursday and next Friday, rain or shine. The corn maze at Chatfield Farms runs Fridays through Sundays, and its Pumpkin Festival is October 9 to 11, timed tickets only. Every trunk-or-treat and pumpkin night I could verify is on the new Halloween page.

Sunday is the deadline for the Deer Creek Library art call. Marker drawings of Colorado nature, any age, to the Saturday bookmobile on Bradford or the Columbine Library front desk on West Bowles. The library's pumpkin-carving contest moves to online voting Tuesday through October 4.

Wednesday the 30th: Historic Littleton says its first Sonya Ellingboe Lecture is 6 PM at Town Hall Arts Center on West Main. The grandson of J.J.B. Benedict, who designed the building, will talk about Benedict and the plan to renovate it into a modern cultural-arts space while keeping the historic facade. It's free, and space is limited.

Thursday, October 1: the League of Women Voters of Jeffco says its five-Thursday series on fake news and the media starts at 10 AM at St. Gregory's Episcopal on West Chatfield, free, no sign-up. The League's election forum schedule is on its site.

Next Friday, the 2nd: the last historic walking tour of 2026, 6 PM from the Depot Art Gallery on West Powers, free. Next Saturday, the 3rd: TrailMark's Chili Cook-Off, 4:30 at Hogback Hill Park. Full rundown next week.

Fire restrictions are off. The trail rules aren't. As of Wednesday the sheriff lists no fire restrictions in unincorporated Jeffco, down from Stage 1. That changes nothing on the trail: the county's open-space parks and Denver's mountain parks ban fire year-round, and Chatfield runs under Douglas County. Two closures to know. Prairie Falcon Trail at South Valley Park is closed for damage to the boardwalk, and Hildebrand Ranch closes Monday and Tuesday for weed work. Jeffco also moved the Deer Creek Canyon swap: Upper Plymouth Creek stays closed weekdays through this week, and starting Monday the weekday closure moves to Meadowlark, 8 to 4:30, Monday through Thursday, with Upper Plymouth reopened. Thursday's rain means soft tread Friday morning, and the county closes Deer Creek Canyon and Hildebrand outright when it's mud. Ride the weekend.

Wednesday is the last day your sprinklers run legally. Denver Water's lawn-watering ban starts Thursday, October 1, and it reaches every water district in this zip. Monday's update put Denver Water's reservoirs at 68 percent full against a 91 percent average for the date, a point lower than the week before. After Wednesday: no sprinklers on grass. Hand-watering trees, shrubs, perennials, and the vegetable bed is still allowed, and drip lines are fine. Southwest Metro and Platte Canyon both posted a what-this-means page this week, and Ken-Caryl Water's banner says the same thing in one line. If your HOA sends a letter about brown grass this fall, the state's HOA office has said publicly that an owner watering as much as the rules allow can't be fined for drought-brown turf. Keep the letter, and tell me which board sent it.

The Valley pulled 28 roof permits in ten days. The county logged 74 re-roof permits across south Jeffco between September 14 and 23, and 28 of them are on Ken Caryl Valley streets, including four on Manzanita, four on Willowleaf, three on Dawn Heath Drive, two each on Bellflower, Bridlegate, Mountain Laurel, and Purple Ash. That's the August 22 hail turning into paperwork a month later, the same signal I flagged at eight permits in early September. A permit says a roof is being replaced, not what fell on it. But if your street is on that list and you haven't had an adjuster out, your neighbors have.

Blue Heron Park's lake, on South Quail, went to the Foothills Park & Rec board Tuesday, in public comment. The Westridge Lake Committee asked for two lines in the next master plan: drought-resilient landscaping, and long-term water reliability for Beers Sisters Reservoir, "including the potential acquisition of additional water rights." The district's answer is the hard part, and it hasn't moved: its storage right only dates to 2017, and Colorado water law sends anything it has no right to store on downstream. In the committee's telling, about 20 neighbors turned out, a board member said the district appreciates the input, and the date they heard for the finished plan was March 2027. When the minutes post, I'll read them.

Bears are getting into Valley garages. Colorado Parks and Wildlife has confirmed more than 15 garage break-ins in the Ken Caryl Valley this year. Food or trash draws them. CPW says lock the garage, patch weak spots with plywood, and get the trash out on time.

The shelf hit 209, and the rate went the wrong way. There are 209 homes for sale in 80127 this week, up from 197 last week. Freddie Mac's 30-year rate crossed 7 percent Thursday, at 7.03 percent, up from 6.95 the week before. Of the seven most recent sales Redfin lists here, all closed since the 15th, five went for less than asking. One exception: a four-bedroom on West Parkhill Drive, $625,000 to $660,000 in 28 days. The other broke the pattern big: a 6,700-square-foot house on Ptarmigan, up in the Valley, listed at $2,400,000 and closed at $2,560,000 after 41 days, $160,000 over. At the other end, a three-bedroom on West Berry Drive needed 133 days to close at $570,000, $10,000 under.

Thursday was the cool, wet one. Today climbs back to 75 under clouds, with storms about a coin flip from noon into the evening. Then the good part: Saturday 81 and sunny, Sunday 82 and mostly sunny, nights in the 50s. Monday holds near 77 with storms likely overnight, and Tuesday drops to 66 with rain likely. No alerts. The last watering weekend of the year is a dry one.

That's the week from the foothills. Drink the last Wine Walk, buy the last tomatoes on Nevada Street, and tell me what you make of 339 rental homes between Bowles and Chatfield. The developers have had their say in the county's files. Your turn.

Joey

Subscribe | Forward to a neighbor | Advertise with us