Hundreds of homes will be coming to Castle Rock as part of a controversial development called Pine Canyon Ranch. Up until now, the proposed Pine Canyon development was in unincorporated Douglas County but was surrounded by the town of Castle Rock. For decades, it has been a cattle ranch belonging to the Scott and now Walker family.

The land is located on both the east and west sides of Interstate 25. To the east, it is north of Scott Boulevard, south of Black Feather Trail, west of Founders Parkway and east of Front Street. West of I-25, the property is east of Prairie Hawk Drive, south of Highway 85 and bisected by Liggett Road.

At a Tuesday night meeting, the Castle Rock Town Council voted to annex the land into the town of Castle Rock and approve its development plan and zoning.

This has been a controversial development, with neighbors saying they worry about its impact on traffic and town resources. But the public was notably absent from Tuesday night’s meeting, as originally there was no public comment scheduled.

After the vote, landowner Kurt Walker spoke to CBS Colorado on camera for the first time.

“What’s the next step for you guys now?” CBS Colorado’s Olivia Young asked Kurt Walker, Pine Canyon project manager and sixth-generation landowner.

“Take a breath!” Walker replied.

It’s the yes Walker and his family have been waiting 20 years for.

“It’s been a very, very long lead-up, multiple decades. We’re excited and relieved to have this chapter closed,” Walker said.

Most recently, Walker sought approval for the development through Douglas County, which drew outcry from neighbors and the town of Castle Rock itself, citing concerns that the development would develop solely off nonrenewable groundwater and would tax town resources without supporting them.

Ultimately, county commissioners directed the applicant to meet with the town of Castle Rock, and after months of moving through the town’s process, the land Walker’s family has ranched for the last 150 years will soon be officially a part of Castle Rock. It has also been greenlit for development.

“As of today, we get to be part of the fabric of the town itself and we are darn excited about integrating into the town,” Walker said.

The proposed Pine Canyon Ranch will include 800 single-family homes, 1,000 multifamily homes, open space and commercial space, which could include a hotel and spa. Many community members have said it’s too much.

“I’m worried about the traffic on Founders,” said Laura Cavey, Castle Rock mayor pro tem. “I would love to see a little less density and some real focus on the traffic.”

“Nobody wants a hotel there. Everybody I talk to thinks it’s a bad idea,” said Castle Rock Town Councilmember Mark Davis.

Echoing those concerns, three town councilors voted against the development plan.

“I cannot vote yes,” said Castle Rock Town Councilmember Tim Deitz. “We have one shot to do this right. Basically, I don’t like the fact that we would piece-meal it.”

But with four councilmembers voting yes, the development plan and zoning regulations passed. The annexation passed unanimously, and a final motion to approve annexation, a vested property rights agreement, and vesting site development plans passed 6-1. The only no vote was Councilmember Deitz, who said at times he felt the town was being “held hostage” in this process.

“They’re giving us all of our groundwater and we’ll be able to keep our sanitation process safe going forward,” said Kevin Bracken, Castle Rock town councilmember.

Bracken voted yes on the development plan, saying he was not willing to risk having the development move through the county. He and other councilmembers said it would be a “bait and switch” to reject the proposal now.

“We’ve worked really hard and done our due diligence to make sure it’s done in the town of Castle Rock,” said Jason Gray, Castle Rock mayor. “There are some things we don’t love about this. At the same time, we do love that it’s in the town of Castle Rock and not the county.”

Walker, pledging to listen to those concerns, as development begins: “We very much appreciate those comments and we look forward to working to do exactly what was said, which was work together to find the solution that works for the entire community,” Walker said.

While the project has been greenlit, the approval won’t be formally official for 30 days. A town spokesperson said:

“The annexation and zoning for Pine Canyon was approved by Town Council. There is a 30-day referendum period that starts now. Following that, the applicant will provide all of their signed mylars and agreements to the town for recording. Every project is different on when final documents are signed and submitted to the town. This typically ranges from one to six months from when the annexation and zoning was approved. The annexation and zoning are effective once all final documents are signed and recorded with the Douglas County Clerk and Recorder’s Office.”

This approval is just the first step of a long development process. Next, site development plans will be submitted for approval. The developers say they will look at doing an updated traffic study as part of this process.

Gov. Jared Polis on Monday signed a bill into law that will increase the number of young people Colorado can hold in pre-trial detention facilities.

Current law allows the state to detain up to 215 teens at any one time. House Bill 1146 increases that number to 254 in the next fiscal year.

In subsequent years, a formula will determine the maximum bed count, based on the average daily population. The bill also removes the most serious type of felony charges from counting toward the cap, and creates 39 emergency beds that wouldn’t count toward the total bed cap.

The Colorado District Attorneys’ Council spearheaded the bipartisan bill, sponsored by Reps. Shannon Bird, D-Westminster, and Dan Woog, R-Frederick, and Sens. Barbara Kirkmeyer, R-Brighton, and Judy Amabile, D-Boulder.

The DA group originally wanted to bump the number of detained youth up to 324, a hike that received forceful pushback from juvenile justice advocates.

Prosecutors argued the state doesn’t have enough beds to house violent youth offenders awaiting trial.

Since fiscal year 2021, detained youth admissions with violent charges have increased by 49%, and admissions for homicide or manslaughter have risen by 80%, state figures show. As a result, prosecutors say, authorities have been forced to release teens who might otherwise be deemed a danger to the public to free up spots for someone else.

Critics countered that the lack of safety in these facilities — highlighted by The Denver Post in March — proves the state should not be dramatically increasing the bed count.

The legislation also includes a body-worn camera pilot program for juvenile detention and commitment staff. The test program in one youth detention facility and one commitment facility requires every staff member who is responsible for the direct supervision of youth to wear a body camera while interacting with them.

The program will be implemented from January 2026 through December 2028. The Colorado Department of Human Services will then recommend whether to continue and expand the program, or eliminate it.

The body-camera addition comes after a Post investigation found widespread allegations of excessive force by staff in the state’s 14 juvenile detention facilities. A year’s worth of internal incident reports reviewed by The Post showed teens suffered broken bones, sustained concussions and overdosed on drugs in these secure centers.

Colorado’s child protection ombudsman, tasked with investigating child safety concerns, has been calling since last year for the state to add body-worn cameras for staff in juvenile detention. Currently, facilities are equipped with video but no audio, making it impossible for investigators to determine whether verbal altercations contributed to excessive force or restraint incidents.

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The first 911 calls reporting the Colorado flamethrower attack were as horrific as they were unbelievable.

“There is a male with a blow torch setting people on fire,” a dispatcher advised the city’s police department, passing on the account of an eyewitness. Another official reported: “Multiple burns, potential terror attack.”

What had been a peaceful rally at the Boulder’s Pearl Street Mall on Sunday in solidarity with hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza quickly turned into a scene of horror, with medical crews arriving to find victims lying or sitting on the ground with their legs and bodies burned – and police holding a suspect face down with a gun at his back.

Members of the public raced from local restaurants with buckets and jugs of water to pour over those who were injured.

The attack by a man hurling molotov cocktails and shouting “Free Palestine” struck at the heart of one of Colorado’s largest Jewish communities, just 10 days after two Israeli embassy staffers were shot dead in Washington DC by a man yelling the same statement. It also came weeks after an arson attack on the home of Josh Shapiro, the Jewish governor of Pennsylvania, by a pro-Palestinian activist.

“Make no mistake: if and when Jews are targeted to protest Israel’s actions, it should clearly and unequivocally be understood and condemned as antisemitism,” Amy Spitalnick, chief executive of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, said in a statement.

“These attacks come alongside a broader rise in antisemitism, from hate crimes targeting Jews walking down the street, to efforts to marginalize, isolate, and discriminate against Jews, to antisemitic and white supremacist mass violence targeting synagogues and other spaces.”

Boulder county, where Sunday’s attack took place, had long been considered a safe, “dream community” for Jewish families drawn there over the last decade. Numbers have doubled to represent more than 10% of the county’s 330,000 population.

The eight victims – four men and four women, including an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor, and a mother and daughter – represented a cross-section of a vibrant diaspora in a city with numerous Jewish community centers, schools and businesses.

“What happened here in our local community in Boulder is shameful, and I think people really need to have a sense of accountability,” Fred Greene, rabbi of Boulder’s Har HaShem congregation, told CNN on Monday.

“If we want peace, if we want dignity for people, there have to be other ways than this kind of violence.”

Another expert, University of Boulder Hillel executive director Elyana Funk, told the network that the assault was especially shocking because it targeted a “quiet and respectful” assembly of residents who were taking part in a solidarity walk, which has become popular in numerous Jewish communities around the world since the Hamas terror attack on Israel and taking of hostages on 7 October 2023.

“This wasn’t a pro-Israel rally or some sort of political statement on the war,” she said. “These are peaceful people who’ve been walking for nearly 20 months weekly to bring awareness for the hostages.”

The attack came on the same day as the start of Shavuot, a two-day Jewish festival to celebrate the 50th day after the Passover holiday. Several events were postponed or canceled after the attack, but Funk said resilience would shine through.

“The antidote for antisemitism can be Jewish joy, and Jewish community and Jewish connection,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Boulder police chief, Stephen Redfearn, recalled the community reaction to the 2021 mass shooting at a supermarket in the city that left 10 people dead.

“Boulder is not immune to tragedy sadly and I know a lot of people are scared right now and questioning how this happened and why,” he said at a press conference on Sunday night.

“Boulder has recovered from acts of violence before and we will again recover. I urge this community to come together. Now is not the time to be divisive.”

The attack took place on Pearl Street Mall, a popular pedestrian area of downtown Boulder laced with stores and restaurants, overlooked by the University of Colorado, and a regular venue for the event supporting Run for Their Lives, an organization calling for the immediate release of the Gaza hostages.

Eyewitnesses said the suspect, 45-year-old Mohamed Sabry Soliman, appeared out of nowhere and seemingly singled out individuals taking part in the rally.

“It was easily the most horrific thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Brian Horowitz, 37, told CNN.

The Denver resident said he was in a cafe with his family when he heard screams and raced to confront the suspect, who was shouting profanities at his victims.

“‘Fuck you Zionists,” Horowitz said the man yelled. “‘You’re killing my people so I kill you.’”

Horowitz added: “There’s someone who is outraged enough to go and attack these elderly people who are doing absolutely nothing to provoke it other than walk in silence and meet in a courtyard peacefully. It’s unbelievable.”