Council approves Parkland Place planned development and conceptual site plan for 12 townhomes at 900 Milky Way

Thornton City Council voted unanimously on Feb. 11 to approve a planned-development (PD) zoning amendment and a conceptual site plan for a 12-unit townhome project called Parkland Place at 900 Milky Way.

The subject property is an infill site of roughly one acre located south of Milky Way and west of Huron Street. The applicant asked for PD zoning because the narrow, encumbered parcel has access and utility easements and cannot readily meet standard base zones for multifamily or single-family attached development.

Approved PD standards include allowances for reduced front and side setbacks (0 feet), a minimum lot area of 1,760 square feet, and reduced landscape and access-buffer standards necessary to accommodate building footprints and drive aisles. The conceptual site plan shows three clusters of four attached units (12 total). Each unit includes a two-car garage; the plan provides three shared guest parking stalls and widens the Milky Way sidewalk to six feet.

Traffic and public-safety review: Traffic engineering projected low vehicle trip generation for the development (about 81 vehicle trips per day total; roughly five AM and seven PM trips based on Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) rates). The city's police analysis noted the area has higher-than-average property-crime rates and cautioned that owner-occupied units with higher asking prices could become targets of property crime. The applicant and council discussed mitigation steps.

Developer commitments and neighborhood concerns: The applicant said the units are intended as for-sale, workforce housing with a target price in the mid-$600,000 range. The developer told council he will include HOA covenants that prohibit short-term rentals (for example, Airbnb) in the initial bylaws; he said he will market the units toward owner-occupants and that the price point makes buy-to-rent investment less attractive. The council asked the developer to continue neighborhood outreach and to consider other security or design measures as the project advances to final plan.

Planning commission recommendation and council vote: Planning commission recommended approval (6-0); council approved the zoning amendment and conceptual site plan by unanimous votes on the night of Feb. 11.

Ending

The project moves to the development-plan and permitting stage. Council urged the applicant to continue engagement with neighbors and encouraged inclusion of security and HOA provisions to address community concerns about crime and parking.