Battle in Colorado over former Zerger Elementary School building brewing in Westminster

Carl Zerger Elementary School has been closed since 2011, but is still a treasured part of the King Mill neighborhood and Westminster community in the Denver metro area. The building may be unused, but families and residents get plenty of use out of the playground, blacktop and green space on the former school campus.

"It means a lot to the residents to where they can come here and use the park and the open space," said longtime community member Jim Fenimore.

The land is in the process of being sold by the school district in Jefferson County to a developer, Cardel Homes, who plan on turning it into a new neighborhood of roughly 40 new single family homes. Fenimore, and other residents in the community, is against it.

"We need to have this building preserved to where it can be used as a later date," he said.

He's not alone.

"You lose community," said Karina Taugelwelder, who has lived in King Mill for 6 years. "You lose the playfulness of the kids who we see play on the playground."

"It's the loss of public spaces in favor of public development which is I think a big issue that we're facing in the state of Colorado," her husband, Eric Phillips, added.

 In their proposal, Cardel Homes outlined that there will be dedicated park land space towards the south of the subdivision, servicing the new homes as well as the greater neighborhood. They also provided a traffic analysis which suggested that the 40 homes would be less of a daily traffic hassle than the pick-up and drop-off times of a school day.

But Gary Bland, who sent out 500 surveys and received over 460 back regarding the issue of the development, has another concern. If more families move into the neighborhood, the likelihood is higher that they will be coming with young kids and where they go to school will be an open question. Zerger was closed in 2011 citing declining enrollments.

"We paid for with our tax dollars, this school," Bland said. "So don't sell it. I'm going to stop you. I think it's the wrong thing to do."

"It won't be long until younger people have little kids and they need a place to have schools," chimed in Dan Hoffman, a longtime resident whose children went to Zerger. "And where are they going to put them?"

There will be a meeting at Standley Lake Library from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. for residents to discuss the development with community leaders and the developer himself.