Highlands Ranch

A city within itself...

The 22,000 acres that comprise the planned community of Highlands Ranch has roots that go back to the 1870’s. The growing city of Denver, with its new status as a railhead and an expanding population, needed everything. In what is now the Eastridge area of today’s Highlands Ranch, an Austrian immigrant named Johanne Welte established a successful dairy farm known as the Big Dry Creek Cheese Ranch. The dairy remained in business for nearly 60 years, contributing butter and cheese products to the growing region.

Welte’s Cheese Farm became the neighbor of John Springer in 1898. The wealthy and influential Springer became the largest landowner in the region and established the Springer Cross Country Horse and Cattle Ranch. A succession of wealthy owners, including Waite Phillips and Frank Kistler further established the ranch and its main house until 1937, when the property was sold to Lawrence Phipps Jr. The Cheese Ranch was added to the then Highlands Ranch on 1943, and until 1976 the ranch was the home of Phipps and the Arapahoe Hunt Club.

By the end of 1979, the ranch was owned by Mission Viejo Company and planning was well under way for one of the Nation’s largest planned communities. Since Mission Viejo’s first home sale in the fall of 1981, the community has become home to nearly 75,000 people, living in homes built by many different builders.

 Highlands Ranch has become an ideal community in its short 20 year history. Served by the Douglas County School District, the area now boasts 4 high schools, with a fifth in the planning stage, 3 fire stations, 3 community recreation centers, and the best of open space facilities. 2 golf courses, off road and on road cycling routes, soccer fields, skate board parks, and dog parks are available to the residents. Shopping is abundant and convenient, and the regional Park Meadows Shopping Center is 5 minutes east of Highlands Ranch, easy to access by C-470 or convenient surface streets.

Excellent law enforcement service is provided by the Douglas County Sheriff’s office, and all of the services normally provided by a city government are met by the Highlands Ranch Metropolitan Districts. In spite of its apparent sea of rooftops, Highlands Ranch has only 30 % of its 22,000 acres devoted to housing, with over 60 % devoted to parks, open space, and public facilities.  

With easy access to Downtown via light-rail or I-25, covenants that improve property values, one of Colorado’s best school systems and recreation for everyone, Highlands Ranch is one of Colorado and the Metro Area’s best places to live.

The Golf Club at Highlands Ranch