A plan to develop hundreds of housing units in Hayden is moving ahead amid concerns from community members over the project’s density and potential impact on the community.

The project, known as Moonlit Meadows, is planned over three phases and could see the construction of roughly 900 units in a 165-acre area roughly one mile south of downtown Hayden within the town’s limits.

Paul Wember, chief executive officer of the Denver-based Wember Property Group, presented Wednesday at a public information session to explain plans for the initial phases of construction for the project, which would include more than 100 “cottages” built at a size of 950 square feet, in addition to roughly 100 larger homes ranging from 1,500 to 3,000 square feet.

---

---

Wember said that his property group is working to secure a planned unit development permit from the town of Hayden as a way to sell individual lots to interested builders for roughly $85,000 per lot.

The permit application that Wember’s group is pursuing would secure the development across all three phases but he said the focus is to first construct the initial phases of the project.  

---

---

Under the development plan, builders who purchase the lots would then construct homes on the properties that would be built within established design standards laid out in the development permit. The builders would be free to sell or rent the units they might build as they see fit.

The lots, and the units that could be constructed on them, would be sold at market rate, according to Wember, who estimated a roughly $500,000 price point for the 950-square-foot “cottage” units planned in the first phase of the project.

Hayden Town Manager Mathew Mendisco said Monday that Town Council members have been advised by the town’s attorney to refrain from commenting on the proposed housing development or from attending local meetings related to the project, to avoid raising any quasi-judicial issues.

“They are to evaluate the information that is put in from of them when it comes through the planning process, and so if you show up at the Wember meeting, if you come to the sketch-plan meeting, if you do any of those things … what can happen is you can have a biased opinion,” said Mendisco.

To date, the town of Hayden has approved sketch design proposals for the project. To proceed, Wember said the town and his company’s engineers will work through a preliminary application process before submitting a final plan that will ultimately go before Town Council for a final decision.

Wember said the proposed project in Hayden has been in the works for more than a year but the timeline for the development’s completion remains unknown.

“The fastest we could go, and pre-sales are strong right now, would be July of 2025,” said Wember. “That would be shovel-in-the-ground, that would be the fastest we can go.”

A petition organized by Hayden community members on Change.Org asks residents to support an effort to “Help us preserve Hayden’s Small-Town Charm.”

Beyond the zoning change, those opposed to the housing development have expressed concern about water-supply issues related to the added homes.

According to Mendisco, the town’s water and sewer capacity is currently at roughly 40% capacity, which leaves enough capacity to serve at least the initial phase of the development.

Additional contributions from the developers and builders involved in the project may require added investment into water infrastructure should the growth of the project proceed as planned, according to Wember.

“As we get to phase 3, and that is 10 years down the road, we may have to rebuild the water treatment plant or contribute to that at a much higher level — that is a risk that we have to take on,” said Wember.

“To the question of the timeline, obviously the more interest we have from the builder community and in the for-sale market, the lenders get more interested and that actually drives the pace of development,” he added.