UPDATE: Monument growth

THE ISSUE: Three east Monument housing developments that could double the town’s population haven’t exploded as landowners expected because of a slowing housing market.

BACKGROUND: Monument officials approved Promontory Pointe, Sanctuary Pointe and Home Place Ranch in 2006, despite strong opposition from many neighbors. The developments are between Higby and Baptist roads.

Promontory Pointe plans still call for about 270 homes on 120 acres, and Sanctuary Pointe still calls for about 600 homes on 650 acres, developers said this week.

Home Place Ranch planned about 900 homes on 440 acres, but owner Mitchell Yellen did not return calls to The Gazette this week to say whether plans have changed.

THE LATEST: Promontory Pointe is the only development that’s started construction.

Crews have finished prepping 40 lots and plan to start building the first model home in two or three months, said John Bisset, senior vice president of finance for developer John Laing Homes. The first home should be ready in early 2009, he said.

Sanctuary Pointe developer Classic Homes can’t move forward until it and the town sign the annexation documents, said John Maynard of the engineering firm NES.

The town annexed the development in November 2006.

“Nobody’s really in a hurry in this market,” Maynard said.

The papers should be signed in a month; about six months later crews can start moving dirt, Maynard said. He didn’t have an estimate on when the first house could be built.

As for Home Place Ranch, the view from Higby Road shows no construction work in progress on the site.

JENNIFER WILSON, THE GAZETTE