What would you rather have a bunch of suburban sprawl and culdesacs? this development is only five or six miles from downtown, depending on whether you are on the east or west side. Most of the commenters come off like a bunch of know-it-all elitists. Yes, I'm a mom and I enjoy the park and gee, I even understand the concepts of new urbanism and good planning. I think the developer did quite well considering they also have to make money and it's not even built out yet. Maybe you think 99% of us don't "get it" but I bet it's more because we don't like listening to a bunch of "holier than thou" preachy types.

The comments about income levels is also insulting. I live in an area where there is a 1 million dollar house, $300k - $700k houses, and affordable low income condos for 120k all within the same 5 block area of each other. 2 blocks from my house will be a low income building or low income townhomes in the next couple years. It is only 1 block from 900k houses.

Ridiculous comments. These people are similar to making comments on the design and functionality of a skyscraper BEFORE it's finished and before seeing the plans for it. The Forest City / Stapleton Denver site does not explain the uses of everything in Stapleton.

Founders Green is named after all the Denver community members and residents that founded the new Stapleton community and wrote the Stapleton GREEN master plan book - which Forest City has to adhere to and has to get city and community approval before making any changes.

More and more streets will be integrated with the surrounding neighborhood, and many streets already are.

I can't believe the ignorance.

The entire development plan still calls for nearby neighborhood shops and retail within walking distance of all homes. The power centers and large shopping centers you see now are just the beginning and at the EDGES of Stapleton. Once Stapleton grows and becomes more dense, the planned and required neighborhood shops will be integrated. This is why you see so many empty lots because Forest City is holding them for multi-use purposes (i.e. street level retail with affordable housing above). This is especially true near the old tower. The office buildings are planned to have retail on the bottom as well. Residents and developers are coming together to combine uses. A Storage company wanted to come to Stapleton, but residents and the developer said he had to have a few retail spaces at street level on his property if he wanted his storage center here....so he had to comply. The NEW storage center is now here. My neighbor walks 3 blocks to get their dry cleaning done at this storage center/dry cleaning spot WITHIN the neighborhood (there are also a couple more empty retail spaces in this same spot after recently opening)...and this is no where near the shopping centers and not at the Town Center. It is WITHIN Stapleton. There is also separate small retail/office/restaurant mixed-use area on the south side of Stapleton that many residents enjoy (again, not at a shopping center and within a short walking distance of hundreds of homes). Across the street from this is a live/work building where several folks have their business on the ground level and live in a beautiful multi-story unit above. My friend's insurance agent is one of those people that has his insurance agency on the street and he and his family live above. Most of my neighbors walk or bike to the Town Center to get food, walk to the park to enjoy the outside or the many activities (farmers market, outdoor movie, carnival, etc), or take advantage of the other retail and business establishmets. My mother just made a comment last weekend while visiting by saying, "Jeesh, there are so many people out and about walking to somewhere around here." People here are teased if they take the car to anything that's within 1 mile. I see Stapleton residents with grocery bags in red wagons walking home with their children in strollers. I have pretty much everything I need within 1 mile (grocery store, my barber, my insurance agent, my dentist, 1 doctor I have, my vet, other various retail stores and businesses I need, my cleaners (not the one at the storage center), and many restaurants that I ride my bike or walk to) and I am in the heart of Stapleton -- NOT at the edge like the shopping centers are. These large REGIONAL shopping centers are supposed to serve a REGIONAL area of Denver metro - not just Stapleton. 3 friends of mine that live in Stapleton ride their bikes to work downtown Downtown IS close. It's only a 10-15 minute drive and 25-30 minute bike ride. One of them called me to pick him up the other day due to a family emergency. It took me 11 minutes to get to his office downtown. I only use my car to go to the airport (which will change when the rail stop at Stapleton opens) and visit family in other parts of the metro area. The new Town Center on the east side of Stapleton is still scheduled and Forest City is about to have a new natural foods grocer sign a lease (they have a signed commmittment so far) after they get a few more other retail committments. This new town center will be surrounded by hundreds of homes. There are 2 more Town Centers planned on top of the the other 2 (not including the 2 regional shopping centers).

I can't see how someone believe this is suburban. The garages are in the alley. The lots are small. Every possibly type of residential architecture is here. My one block street alone is comprised of 3 builders with completely different architectural styles, and not one house on the street is duplicated. At the end of my street are duplexes and on the other side are townhomes. One block down are condos. These homes and the streets they sit on look nothing like new suburban communities throughout the country. There are several condos, duplexes, and apartments that are intermixed within the single family homes (but non-Stapletonites don't seem to distinguish the condos very well due to the good architecture).

Like I've said, we need to give Stapleton time to develop the mixed-used developments throughout the community that have always been planned (hence the deliberate empty lots that are scattered throughout). The housing crisis and economy has slowed things down. I challenge folks to actually RESEARCH the Stapleton plan that Forest City must adhere to and Denverites have actually written.... before making judgements of a development that IS STILL IN PROGRESS. In this day and age, you think that many of America's old and nice urban communities could start off with all that density immediately? We are talking about 4.5 square miles here! The largest urban redevelopment in the nation. Only slight changes have been made to the original plan. Stapleton continues to win numerous national and international awards for its urban design, sustainability, and community efforts. A walkable, dense, and park abundant community has occurred already for most of Stapleton....and it will only get better as time goes on.

Now that it's all collapsing, they don't have a solution.

I meant mass produced and likely made of cheap materials

Fair enough--and a good point. Most new neighborhoods aren't built to last, are they. I remember my brother bought a new house in the outermost exurbs of our hometown and he was complaining about the crappy construction. The best-built houses are of course in the city, but the city is largely a slum now, so... there you go.

I don’t think that the average person needs to understand the Transect any more than they need to understand Post-Functionalism. But they ought to understand some basic elements, what’s worth fighting for, and what the global impact of good urbanism is. Why not want these people to say “I’m glad I can see my neighbors from my porch,” “I don’t need more highway lanes,” and “It’s a good thing my kids can walk to school.” As long as New Urbanism fixates on its milquetoast commercial appeal, developments will seem rather fake and its message will be lost as just “traditionalish.”

Good suggestion. I'd like to hear what Forest City says, though I suspect it would largely the verbal equivalent of the mom, kid, dog, and park image.

Moreover, if Forest City were to say that the lower density was responding to local pols, I wouldn't believe it without other evidence. These things are complicated and contradictory, but Forest City seems to do pretty much as it likes. Sometimes it seems to make concessions, but rarely actually conceded on anything important.

Also, if you walk around the place and check out how Stapleton has isolated itself from pre-existing transit service and roads, it's hard to not to conclude that Stapleton had little positive interest in transit or other alt modes. (Tthere's a transit terminal that pre-dates the Stapleton build out that should be an easy walk from lots of houses, but the designers essentially cut it out and walled it off from everything else.)

For what it's worth, probably not much, a planner for one of the home builders told me that Forest City actually wanted less density not more, because less density is easier to sell to most of the buyers who Stapleton targeted.

I think the mistake that many of these communities make is their selective focus on what it is they happen to like about New Urbanism. Applying New Urbanist principles (or in Stapleton's case, the gist of New Urbanist principles) to a small town or random New Jersey suburb doesn't make all that much sense. Suburbs and small towns are completely different animals when compared with great cities, and should be treated as such. Of course, improvements can and should be made, both in existing areas and new towns. But dropping a park in front of a line of residences, and watching a young mother play with her kid, isn't New Urbanism.

It's not an incremental step towards anything. The model for new urban developments are the cities and towns people have been building for thousands of years.

Well said!

Everyone noticed that Stapleton has been brought to us by the same Forest City Enterprises that's responsible for Atlantic Yards, right?

Stapleton folks objected to having bus stops on their street. Presto, bus line moved to uninhabited street.

That tells me everything I need to know about Stapleton. If it were a successful New Urbanist development the residents would be asking for more bus service, not less.