Highlands Ranch, Colorado

A great thinker – Ralph Waldo Emerson -- once wrote: A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. In the case of Highlands Ranch, a cookie-cutter suburb twelve miles south of Denver, it is the order of the day and the will of big minds with deep pockets. The city has definitive regulations on almost every thing you can think of: adding a satellite for cable (must be installed in the least visible place), painting your garage (must be a low-luster base color), and so on. Though this leaves little room for personal preference, it does result in a homogenized aesthetic.

Situated in burgeoning Douglas County, the 87,000 residents of Highlands Ranch know how to pick a planned community. Besides off-leash dog runs, batting cages, skate parks and other public amenities, each of Highland’s Ranch’s four neighborhoods – Eastridge, Westridge, Northridge and Southridge – has their own recreation center. The city is ornamented with 14 neighborhood parks, 2,000 acres of open space, three community parks and 70 miles of trails.

According to the most recent stats, Highland’s Ranch is populated by 28,000 homes. Nine residential homebuilders, cater to the area, constructing houses that generally go for between $200,000 and $1,000,000. Children of Highland’s Ranch attend Douglas County School District schools; 17 elementary, 4 middle and high schools and two private schools.

Highland’s Ranch Town Center, a 160-acre commercial facility, on the corner of Highland’s Ranch Parkway and Broadway is the go-to district for shopping and munching in the city. Just down the street, at Broadway and C-470, you’ll find a hefty handful of restaurants and a 24-screen movie theater.