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Castle Pines reviews DRCOG housing-needs assessment, council seeks data clarifications
Summary
City staff presented the Denver Regional Council of Governments housing needs assessment showing a 10‑year need of 397 housing units in Castle Pines (2023–2032); council members pressed staff for methodological detail and asked that comments to DRCOG stress assumptions about job and population projections.
City staff reviewed the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) regional housing needs assessment and its local allocations for Castle Pines at the Aug. 19 study session.
Donna Ferguson, the city’s community development director, told the council that DRCOG’s consultant aggregated 2020 Census and American Community Survey (ACS) data and distributed regional need down to member municipalities. "This chart shows that Castle Pines has a need for 397 housing units for all income levels over the 10‑year period from 2023 to 2032," Ferguson said, noting that the greatest shortfall is for households earning 0–50% of area median income. She added DRCOG’s analysis uses multiple criteria — current and future jobs, current and future population — and that detailed methodology is in the study appendix and the DRCOG dashboard.
Council members asked for more technical detail on the models and data sources. "I'm curious how and where is the data coming from in the future projections — what statistical methods are they using to come up with those projections?" asked Council member Corey. Maria Chano, executive director of the Douglas County Housing Partnership, said the consultant (ECHO Northwest) combines survey data, commuting patterns and job projections and updates the dataset periodically; staff offered to extract relevant appendix sections and circulate them to council.
Several council members voiced concern about the implications of a state mandate and whether the assessment’s assumptions reflect local realities. Council member Roger said the state requirement feels like a loss of local control but acknowledged the city must comply. Council member Deborah Mulvey and others asked staff to include caveats in the city’s formal comments to DRCOG addressing assumptions about job‑growth attribution and differentiating city‑level versus regional forecasts.
Ferguson said the DRCOG assessment uses data through 2022 and does not capture permits or developments submitted after that year. She recommended that the council forward formal comments to DRCOG during the public review window and noted the city may still prepare a local assessment in the future if desired.
Next steps: staff will compile the council’s technical and contextual comments, circulate them to council for review, and forward them to DRCOG as part of the formal comment record.
