Centennial (Denver, Aurora, Highlands Ranch: how much, house, landscaping)

[Colocopswife]

I live in Centennial (the SE part though, not Littleton) and I really like it. We are in the Cherry Creek School Dist. (one of the best in the state!) and I would say the average resident is upper middle class.

But, Centennial is a new city - only a few years old - so there are some grwoing pains with utilities, services, etc. They have to contract all those things out right now, so street plowing, etc is not always the greatest. Still, its a great area, with lots of growing going on. We live by the new Southlands Shopping Center and its really nice there. Good luck on your move.

[kwk722]

A lot of Centennial was Littleton recently. Unincorporated Arapahoe county that was re-zoned

[Seattleborn]

Ok. That makes sense. Are there a lot of families with young children? Are there lots of parks? From what I've read it looks great. What about a commute to Denver? Hubby would work downtown on 17th street.

[2bindenver]

Originally Posted by kwk722

A lot of Centennial was Littleton recently. Unincorporated Arapahoe county that was re-zoned

Clarification - Centennial incorporated some unincorporated parts of Arapahoe County. The mailing address was Englewood, not Littleton.

Nothing was re-zoned. Zoning is a different animal.

[2bindenver]

If hubby like public transportation you could live near light rail or the Broadway bus...the bus would drop him off close to Bankersville & Lawyertown on 17th.

[kwk722]

Originally Posted by 2bindenver

Clarification - Centennial incorporated some unincorporated parts of Arapahoe County. The mailing address was Englewood, not Littleton.

Nothing was re-zoned. Zoning is a different animal.

Right, but... I lived in Littleton and my address was changed to Centennial.

[kwk722]

Originally Posted by Seattleborn

Ok. That makes sense. Are there a lot of families with young children? Are there lots of parks? From what I've read it looks great. What about a commute to Denver? Hubby would work downtown on 17th street.

There are some nice parks all over.
Traffic towards downtown is bad, bumper to bumper even 10 years ago when I used to do it, (going down University blvd or I25 from Belleview). Now its only gotten worse.

[tfox]

Centennial is just a few years old. It all used to be simply unincorporated Arapahoe County, and addresses would say "Littleton", "Englewood", "Aurora" depending on which post office was handling the particular subdivision.

A few years ago, a very aggressive neighboring suburb (Greenwood Village) was threatening to annex out only the sales-tax generating commercial areas from the county, essentially starving the unincorporated residential areas of any funds. GV did manage to grab some of the plum sales tax areas around I-25 and Arapahoe Road before the county citizens could get their act together and put a to stop Greenwood Village's further expansion. The only way to do it was to create a new city (Centennial), since one city cannot be forcibly annexed by another. It's a good thing that the citizens were successful, or Arapahoe County would have ended up in a real fiscal nightmare. The disadvantage is that now the citizens of Centennial have to work to fund city services with the remaining tax base, which is still weak due to GV's initial annexation.

That history aside, Centennial doesn't at the current time have much of a mentality of a city, since its creation was more defensive than anything. The subdivisions tend to exist on their own, and subdivisions close to, say Littleton tend to think of themselves as "Littleton", those close to Aurora tend to think of themselves as Aurora, etc

What Centennial does have, in parts, is a nice, central location in commuting to Tech Center jobs (and beyond). By avoiding the dreaded C-470, Centennial residents can shorten their commute to the major employment centers (DTC and downtown Denver) over other locations (i.e., Littleton, HR, Castle Rock, etc).

[2bindenver]

Centennial's new eco-devo chief focusing on retail, as reported by the Denver Business Journal, the City of Centennial has a new economic development manager who wants to focus on retail and economic growth. Corri Spiegel was previously the economic development manager for Goodyear, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix. According to Centennial Mayor, Randy Pye "she has a proven track record of attracting quality development to a city." Spiegel said she's going to focus on bringing attractive retail to Centennial, and will work closely with mall developers and city officials to keep the Southglenn Mall project moving.
Centennial's new eco-devo chief focusing on retail - The Denver Business Journal:

[formercalifornian]

Anyone here familiar with Willow Creek in Arapahoe County? My husband and I have been researching neighborhoods near his office in the DTC, and we thought this area had lovely character...even for a neighborhood built in the 70's.

Any information (good, bad, or neutral) is appreciated.