From working Colorado ranch to growing suburb: Inside Sterling Ranch's transformation

From Colorado ranchland to suburbia in a short time, the fast-growing master-planned community of Sterling Ranch is only at a fifth of its full build-out, but its rapid development is shaping Douglas County's future.

The land that is today Sterling Ranch was a working ranch on the prairie not long ago.

"It was a Civil War land grant that the Sterling family got, and they held on to it from the late 1860s to about 1979," said Sterling Ranch co-founder Diane Smethills.

Today, Sterling Ranch is one of Douglas County's fastest-growing communities, and it's a family affair.

"We're only the third family since the Civil War to own the 2,200 acres that constituted Sterling Ranch," said Smethills.

Diane and Harold Smethills closed on the land in 2008. Their son, Brock, now serves as the development company president and has ushered in more than 3,000 homes.

"We are approved by the county to build 16,050 homes, and so we're, we're probably not even quite 20%, but we're getting there," said Smethills.

But the area's Western heritage is still alive in an annual cattle drive and other events.

"I like to call it modern Western, because I've never even been on a horse, but I sure do like being around them," said early Sterling Ranch resident Lynn Moffett.

Moffett loves the activities, lifestyle and sense of community in Sterling Ranch. She's involved in the metro district and community authority board.

"Sterling Ranch is really good about bringing us together for events. We have a fantastic lifestyle component to Sterling Ranch," said Moffett. "We have this giant and ever-growing community."

But rapid development comes with growing pains.

"There's a lot of dust, there's noise, there's a lot of construction equipment," said Moffett. "For the first year, while they were building on my street, I changed my air filter every month, and it needed it... At night, it felt like you were on the back 40 of a ranch because there was no one up there. It was very quiet. As a matter of fact, my neighbors were coyotes. I heard them very well. I don't hear them anymore."

Early residents also faced a lack of amenities, with funding for a public school taking longer than expected to be approved by voters. But now, two schools are under construction, a library is set to break ground this summer, and a mega sports complex called Zebulon is expected to bring restaurants, shops and a hotel to the area.

"We're in a constant state of building. We have a lot of earth movers going around places," said Smethills.

"With Zebulon, the amenities that are going to come with it are going to be terrific," Moffett said, "it will change children's trajectory. We will have somebody that comes out of Zebulon that will be in Washington, high up in politics. We will have CEOs that come out of Zebulon."

But the growth is not without controversy. Zebulon has attracted public outcry due to its funding structure and environmental worries stemming from the land's history as a dynamite manufacturing site. Others have expressed concern over Sterling Ranch's impact on infrastructure and resources.

"We're protesting rapid development before safe infrastructure. We don't have the roads for the capacity at which they're building. We don't have water studies to show we can even support the people living here already," said Roxborough neighbor Tiffany Milburn at a protest of Zebulon earlier this year.

"What I'm hearing from our residents is they're really happy about this, and couldn't be more thrilled," said Smethills.

The Smethills say more housing is what the metro area needs.

"Any business person knows that it's what the market demands right now. We have a shortage of homes in Colorado, a shortage of product, and we need more product, and that's what we're here to do," said Smethills.

Eventually, more than 16,000 homes will stand where prairie once stretched, and an estimated 30,000 Coloradans will call the unincorporated community home.

"We have wonderful, wonderful people living here, and we wanted a quality of life for them, and I think we're working to achieve that. So we've been blessed with many, many good people, and I think there's many more to come," said Smethills.