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Position on Responsible Growth
Position on Responsible Growth
The Laws
The Laws
Responsible growth is about protecting the small-town feel, open spaces, and safe neighborhoods that brought us all here in the first place.
We need to start with understanding what local government can and cannot legally do.
Under Colorado state statutes, expanding town boundaries through annexation is entirely discretionary. Town Council is never forced to annex new land.
Private property owners have constitutional rights to develop their land according to its established zoning. Town Council cannot simply vote "no" on a project that fully complies with existing statutes. Doing so would expose our taxpayers to costly lawsuits.
Real leadership isn't about making false promises to stop all development. Without violating property rights, Town Council still has full authority over zoning codes, design guidelines, and development standards. We can mandate strict water-dedication requirements, enforce smart density caps, and set clear architectural rules that preserve our western heritage. Most importantly, Council controls the approval process for rezoning requests, annexations, and development agreements. This gives us the leverage to ensure new projects fit the character of our community before a single shovel hits the dirt.
Funding
Funding
Understanding how our town is funded also helps put growth in perspective. When you open your property tax bills, it’s easy to assume Town Hall is taking a large cut. In reality, Castle Rock receives only a tiny fraction of those funds, roughly $5.50 to $6.00 per $100,000 of a home’s market value each year. The vast majority of your property tax bill goes directly to the Douglas County School District, Douglas County government, the library district, and local Metro Districts created to finance neighborhood infrastructure. Our property taxes account for less than 2% of total town revenue which means Castle Rock relies overwhelmingly on local sales tax (a 4.2% municipal rate) and developer impact fees to fund our police officers, firefighters, road repairs, and parks.
This financial structure requires a thoughtful balance. To keep our community financially secure, without raising tax rates on families, we need to foster a vibrant local economy. We need small businesses to thrive, and residents to shop and dine locally so those sales tax dollars stay right here in town.
Where Town Council has the greatest responsibility is ensuring that growth pays its own way. My approach to growth is practical and non-negotiable: infrastructure must come first, and developers must pay their fair share. Before new residential projects move forward, developers should be held strictly accountable for funding and constructing utility connections, necessary road widenings, and intersection upgrades before extra traffic ever spills onto our local streets.
We should be relying on hard facts rather than empty slogans, we can protect property rights, hold developers accountable, and fiercely preserve the safe, neighborly character that makes Castle Rock feel like home.
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