Sterling Ranch Homes for Sale & Real Estate

Sterling Ranch is one of Colorado's newest and most ambitious master-planned communities, set on 3,400 acres of rolling land in unincorporated Douglas County. It sits just south of Chatfield Reservoir and directly adjacent to Roxborough — nestled between Chatfield State Park to the north and Roxborough State Park to the south. It's a rare case of a brand-new community that's also its own Census Designated Place: the U.S. Census Bureau recognized it as the Sterling Ranch CDP in 2020. The story starts with the Smethills family, multi-generational Colorado natives who acquired the 3,400-acre ranch in 2004 — only the third owners since it was established. Douglas County approved mixed-use rezoning in 2011, construction began in early 2016, and the first homes closed in 2017. Today it's still in active build-out, projected to continue to around 2040, so new construction is happening right now. What makes Sterling Ranch distinctive is how deliberately it's planned. It's organized into nine villages radiating from a central town hub, with about 40% of the land kept as open space and two wildlife corridors. Every home gets an annual Colorado State Parks pass, the community was Colorado's first one-gig-plus fiber internet community, and it's a pilot site for rainwater harvesting. There are 30 miles of internal trails connecting directly to Chatfield and Roxborough State Parks — an outdoor lifestyle built into the master plan. The four established villages are Providence (the flagship, sold out), Prospect (sold out), Ascent (active), and Parkvale (just opened). Because it's new construction, buyers here work directly with builders — so the homes-for-sale experience is different from a resale market.