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Winchester advisory board approves GTL Properties residential project with waivers
Summary
The Winchester Town Advisory Board approved a series of planning and zoning items from GTL Properties LLP to convert a commercial parcel near Valley High School into a 56-lot single‑family development, granting several waivers and approving staff conditions despite neighbors' traffic and design concerns.
The Winchester Town Advisory Board on May 27 approved a cluster of planning and zoning items for a GTL Properties LLP residential subdivision on about 6.38 acres south of Sahara Avenue and east of Burnham, across the street from Valley High School.
The approvals change the master plan designation from quarter mixed use to Compact Neighborhood and rezone the site from General Commercial to RS-2 to allow 56 single‑family detached lots, with house plans from about 1,572 to 2,076 square feet and up to four bedrooms. The board approved the items with staff conditions.
The developer’s representative, Krista Bilbrey, identified herself as the project applicant and described the site as an underutilized parking lot adjacent to Auto Savvy. Bilbrey said the proposal would demolish an existing, unused building, install detached sidewalks to meet new codes, and provide two travel lanes to a gated entry area. She outlined requested waivers including a front retaining‑wall allowance (a 4‑foot waiver) and areas with retaining walls up to 10 feet, a rear‑yard reduction to 6 feet where 15 feet is normally required, and a reduced distance of 75 feet to the call box where 100 feet is required.
Neighbors raised concerns during the public comment period. Deborah Bennett, who said she lives at 2080 Karen, told the board that the development’s single primary access would create traffic bottlenecks for residents of the existing condominium complex across the street and asked that two lots be removed to create a second entrance on Karen. Bennett said, “It's just too much traffic for one driveway.” The developer responded that similar GTL communities around the valley have one entrance — citing projects at the Sunset corridor and Boulder Highway — and that the design includes two lanes approaching the call box to reduce queuing.
Other residents, citing the Paradise Palms neighborhood nearby, urged architectural compatibility with the older, mid‑century character of the area. One commenter who identified themselves as a Paradise Palms resident said the community has a “mid century modern” aesthetic and asked that new designs better match that local character. Bilbrey said the product is intended to be “attainable housing” aimed at first‑time buyers and that the company offers multiple elevation styles and color schemes; she said the product is similar to developments they have built elsewhere.
Bilbrey described interior neighborhood elements as modest: a trail system and a small “game table” area to encourage neighbor interaction, sidewalks on one side of internal streets, two‑car garages and a parking space in front of each house. She estimated production timing as about four months per home and about six months from contract to closing for a buyer, while cautioning that sales prices are variable.
Board members moved and approved the items with staff‑recommended conditions. The record shows unanimous “aye” votes on the motions as presented at the meeting; detailed roll‑call vote tallies were not recorded in the transcript excerpt.
The approvals include multiple related agenda entries for GTL Properties (PA25‑700023, CC1‑25‑0319‑GTL, BS25‑0320‑GTL, WS25‑0321‑GTL and TM25‑500081‑GTL) that were considered together. The staff conditions attached to the approvals were not read in full on the record during the excerpted discussion; the developer and board indicated those conditions would apply to final permitting.
The board scheduled its next meeting for June 10.
