Moving here
Moving to Elizabeth
What it is like to move to a sawmill town of 1,675 that has nearly doubled since the last census: housing on Main Street and on acreage, the C-1 schools, the Parker Road commute, who sends which bill, and what the water situation is.
What you are moving to
Elizabeth is a statutory town in Elbert County, on the Palmer Divide at 6,477 feet, where the ponderosa hills of the Black Forest run out into prairie. State Highway 86 bisects it east to west: Castle Rock and I-25 are fifteen miles west, the county seat at Kiowa seven miles east, and Denver about forty-five miles northwest. The 2020 census counted 1,675 residents, up 23 percent in ten years, and estimates for 2026 put the town nearer 3,100. That makes it one of the fastest-growing towns in the country by percentage, which is the single fact that explains most of what you will hear at a Board of Trustees meeting.
What has not changed is the shape of the place. Two blocks of brick and false-front storefronts on South Main Street, a rodeo ground and a 103-acre park east of town, subdivisions and five-acre horse properties spreading north and south of the highway, and a school district that is the largest employer. People who move here from the metro almost always say the same thing: they came for the acreage and the sky, and stayed for the fact that the person behind the counter knows them.
Housing
Three distinct markets. The oldest houses are the small frame and brick homes on the grid either side of Main Street, some of them from the 1890s and 1900s. Around them are the subdivisions built since the 1990s: Gold Creek Valley, Sun Country, Independence and the newer annexations north of the highway, mostly single-family homes on quarter- to half-acre lots, many with metropolitan districts. Outside the town limits, Elbert County is five-acre and thirty-five-acre parcels with horses, wells and septic, which is what most people picture when they say they are moving to Elizabeth.
The distinction matters for your bills. Inside town you get Town water and sewer; outside it you own a well and a septic system, and you should have both inspected and the well’s yield and depth documented before you buy. Median household income in the last American Community Survey figures was about $112,986, which reflects how many households here commute to Denver and Douglas County salaries. The listings links in the sidebar show what is on the market.
Schools
Elizabeth is served by Elizabeth School District C-1, about 2,666 students across five schools:
- Running Creek Elementary, 900 S Elbert St, in town.
- Singing Hills Elementary, in the district’s western end toward Parker.
- Elizabeth Middle School, 34427 County Road 13.
- Elizabeth High School, 34500 County Road 13, home of the Cardinals.
- Frontier High School, 589 S Banner St, the district’s alternative high school.
The middle and high schools share a campus east of town on County Road 13, which is also where Friday-night football happens. The Elizabeth Park & Recreation District is a separate entity from the school district and the town, and runs the youth sports, day camps on school inservice days and fall break, and the programs at Casey Jones Park.
Getting around
By car, and you should assume two cars. Highway 86 west to Franktown then north on Parker Road (State Highway 83) is the standard Denver commute: about 45 minutes to the Denver Tech Center in normal traffic, longer in snow, and the Palmer Divide gets snow when Denver gets rain. West on 86 to Castle Rock and I-25 is about twenty minutes and is how most people reach Colorado Springs, Denver International Airport is about an hour and ten minutes. There is no fixed-route transit. Elbert County runs a dial-a-ride service for seniors and people with disabilities.
Inside town everything on Main Street is walkable, and the sidewalks and crossings on Main were rebuilt as part of the Main Street program. The rest of the road network is county roads: gravel in places, and worth driving in winter before you commit to a property at the end of one.
Utilities, trash, fire, police
- Water and sewer inside the town limits are the Town of Elizabeth, 303-646-4166. Outside the limits, you are on a private well and septic system.
- Electricity is CORE Electric Cooperative, a member-owned co-op, not Xcel. You get a vote and occasional capital credits.
- Natural gas is Black Hills Energy where a gas main reaches. Many rural properties run on propane instead, on a tank you own or lease.
- Trash and recycling are private; you choose and pay a hauler yourself. Ask neighbors which one already comes down your road.
- Police is the Elizabeth Police Department, at Town Hall, 151 S Banner St.
- Fire and emergency medical response is the Elizabeth Fire Protection District, Station 271 at 155 W Kiowa Ave, a district that covers far more prairie than town.
- Library. The Elizabeth branch of Pines & Plains Libraries is at 651 W Beverly St, open Monday to Thursday until 8, Friday to 5 and Saturday 10 to 5.
Water, wind and fire
Three practical things that surprise people from the Front Range corridor. Water on the Palmer Divide comes from deep Denver Basin aquifer wells, and both the Town and the county think hard about supply; ask any developer or seller where the water comes from and for how long it is decreed. Wind is constant and the winter storms come up the divide from the southeast, so a snow that misses Denver entirely can close Highway 86. And this is wildland-urban interface: defensible space around the house, a metal or Class A roof, and knowing your evacuation route are not paranoia here, they are ordinary maintenance.
Government
Elizabeth is a statutory town run by a mayor and six trustees. The Board of Trustees meets at Town Hall, 151 S Banner St, on the second and fourth Tuesdays at 7 pm, and the Planning Commission on the first and third Tuesdays at 6:30 pm when there is an application to hear. Given the growth rate, annexation and land use dominate both agendas, and the meetings are the place to hear what is actually being approved. The Town has run a historic preservation ordinance and a Historic Advisory Board since 1998, became a Certified Local Government in 2015, and its Main Street Program is a designated Colorado Main Street community.
Living here
June is the Elizabeth Stampede, a PRCA rodeo over three days with a parade down Main Street and a concert the night before, and it is the weekend the whole county turns out. Saturdays from April to December there is the Elbert County Marketplace at Casey Jones Park on alternating weekends. October brings Boo Bash on Main, a harvest festival and trick-or-treat down the storefronts. The Mayor’s Tree Lighting closes the year on Main Street in early December; the Town posts the date each November. The rest of the time it is the brewery in the 1890 Huber-Carlson Building, the disc golf course, the splash pad and skate park at Evans Park, and a library with something on most days.