McWhinney moving forward with Baseline residential component

BROOMFIELD — Loveland-based developer McWhinney Real Estate Services Inc. cleared an important hurdle last week when the Broomfield Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval of a development plan for a large, residential component of the firm’s Baseline community. 

The residential project, known as East Village, includes 232 new homes on about 84 acres just east of Sheridan Parkway. Of those units, 102 will be attached and 130 will be single-family homes. 

Baseline is a 1,100-acre property in northeastern Broomfield located generally south of Baseline Road, west of I-25 and east of Sheridan Parkway. McWhinney recently began breaking ground on portions of the  massive mixed-use development that could transform this vacant land into a modern mini-city home to tens of thousands of new residents and jobs.

““East Village is the next significant residential village within the overall Baseline community,” McWhinney’s vice president of community development and general manager of Baseline Kyle Harris told the Broomfield Planning and Zoning Commission. The project “represents our first foray onto the east side of Sheridan as we expand our infrastructure and move west to east across Baseline.”

The neighborhood includes more urban, denser, and more pedestrian design elements than normally found in suburban communities. 

East Village will also be home to a network of gardenways, landscaped pedestrian pathways that connect residential blocks to community pocket parks and open space. Plans for the neighborhood call for the inclusion of a feature called Park Lane, which is a woonerf. This Dutch concept describes a low-speed street where pedestrians and vehicles share the roadway with cafe patios and picnic tables.

McWhinney intends to include affordable housing within East Village, but that component would be built as part of a later phase, perhaps years down the line. The potential delay for the development of affordable housing didn’t sit well with some commissioners, who stressed that the community needs more affordable options immediately.

“There‘s an economic reality. This infrastructure costs a ton of money,” Harris said. “… We have to get some market rate sales initially to be able to afford these things. I wish it was different.”

East Village is adjacent to West Village, Baseline’s westernmost neighborhood. It’s home to the development’s first phase, Park 40, a 313-unit apartment complex that broke ground this year.

The nearby Center Street District, Baseline’s urban core, could include offices, hotels, apartments, senior living, entertainment options and restaurants.

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