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An RV park in Sheridan that has accommodated low-cost housing for decades will close to make way for a new apartment complex, leaving dozens of residents looking for new places as Colorado remains short on affordable housing and such alternatives as mobile home communities.
The Sheridan City Council in November approved rezoning the 16-acre Flying Saucer RV Park at the intersection of West Hampden Avenue and South Bryant Street. Indiana-based Garrett Companies will submit plans to the city for a seven-building, 362-unit complex, replacing the 162 spots for recreational vehicles and tiny homes.
Garrett and the family that has owned the property for 75 years are expected to close the deal by the end of June. Residents will have to move out by then.
The developer and the family haven’t disclosed the financial terms.
Anne Whipple, part of the fourth generation of the family to run the business, told Sheridan council members that the decision to sell the property wasn’t made lightly. She read a statement saying the family struggled with ending its legacy of “providing a safe, quiet community for tenants that the City of Sheridan has come to know.”
But Whipple said the time, cost and energy to keep the park going are unsustainable. The park’s owner, 94-year-old Lucille Tourney, wants “to release her family from this burden,” she added.
After learning last summer that the site was for sale and being eyed for new development, Steve Ohlfest started a website to rally support for saving Flying Saucer. Ohlfest, a 21-year park resident, urged people to turn out for public meetings on the project. He even contacted area mobile home park owners to gauge their interest in the property.
Now, Ohlfest and his wife, Tina, aren’t sure where their next home will be. Just a handful of RV parks in metro Denver allow year-round living and their rates are generally higher. The Ohlfests are 16th on a waiting list for a spot in Loveland where they could move their tiny home. A Woodland Park site that caters to tiny homes hasn’t had anyone leave in five years.
A community in Montrose that accepts tiny homes is a possibility for them. They expect to pay thousands of dollars to haul their 26,000-pound home and other belongings to the Western Slope if they move there.
“What are our other options? We can’t afford a house in Denver,” Ohlfest said.
Garrett Companies said it will hire a consultant to work with individual Flying Saucer residents who need help moving their recreational vehicles, finding a place to live or applying for housing and social services. The company said in December that residents should hear from the consultant after the first of the year.
“The intent is to do right by people, particularly people of lesser means and people who are older,” said Cary Brazeman, a spokesman for Garrett.
Meredith Long has rented a spot at Flying Saucer for three years, living in a travel trailer part of the year and moving it to Steamboat Springs where she runs a business during the winter. Long said park residents include people who travel back and forth from other homes, retirees and disabled veterans who’ve lived there for several years.
Several have turned the park that runs along Bear Creek and has tree-lined roads into long-term homes with fenced yards and outdoor decks.
“They kept trying to say it is temporary housing and never meant to be permanent, but that’s not how they operated it,” Long said of the park’s owners.
The room was packed for an October Sheridan planning commission meeting on the project, Long said. After the planning commission recommended that the city council approve the rezoning, she said turnout for the meetings dropped because people felt defeated.
“For me it’s just been the process that’s been the most frustrating, with the lack of communication and transparency from the city of Sheridan,” Long said.
The park owners haven’t kept residents informed either, she added. People are uneasy after a couple of tenants were served eviction notices in the last few months, Long said.
Whipple, the onsite manager at Flying Saucer, declined to talk to The Denver Post about Long’s concerns. She told the city council in the November meeting that 40 of the park’s spots were vacant.
“There have been several people who have left without paying rent, leaving us with significant expenses,” Whipple said.
City officials said they’ve kept in touch with Flying Saucer residents while considering the development plans. The city held a neighborhood meeting in June on the proposed rezoning. Notices of the planning commission and city council meetings were sent to property owners and residents within 300 feet of the RV park, including the individual RV spots.
Notice was published in the Littleton Independent newspaper and signs in English and Spanish were posted on the property, according to the city.
Home sweet home?
Sheridan Community Development Director Andrew Rogge said the Garrett Companies’ rezoning application met city criteria and was consistent with the goals of the city’s comprehensive plan. He said rezoning the property from business/light industrial to planned unit development will make the site more compatible with surrounding properties, which include the River Point at Sheridan shopping center.
And Rogge noted that a 2025 housing needs assessment showed Sheridan is short of 309 units and will need 409 more units over the next 10 years.
Rents for the apartments that will replace the RV park will be market-rate. Rogge said in an email that Sheridan doesn’t have an ordinance requiring the developer to build a certain number of affordable housing units.
However, city officials said two affordable housing projects were recently approved. One development will add 149 apartment units. A Habitat for Humanity project will add 63 single-family homes.
The U.S. Census Bureau reported in 2024 that Sheridan’s median household income was $58,571 and the poverty rate was 13.5%. The statewide median household income was $97,113 and the poverty rate was 9.6%.
A Garrett representative said during the June neighborhood meeting that rents for its apartments would likely range from $1,600 to $2,600.
“I couldn’t afford your apartment and I make good money,” Councilman Ernie Camacho.told Garrett representatives during the council meeting.
Camacho, the lone vote against rezoning the RV park, voiced support for more single-family homes rather than apartments.
The council members who favored rezoning said they cared about the fate of the RV park’s residents, but respected the owner’s right to sell the property. They also said the limited terms of the leases underscored that the park wasn’t intended to be a permanent home.
Whipple said when the family decided in 2024 to put the property on the market, they let new tenants know the leases would be capped at six months. Before then, leases were month to month but didn’t have a maximum term.
Dawn Shepherd of Littleton urged the city council to reject the rezoning application. The former director of the Englewood Housing Authority said Sheridan has typically tried to provide housing for lower-income residents.
“I feel like they didn’t have a very good choice in this case,” Shepherd said.
She’s skeptical about how much Garrett’s consultant can do for residents. “It sounds good, that they’re going to get a house specialist to help them.”
But similar options don’t exist, she said.
Shepherd believes Ohlfest, a fellow Englewood Rotary Club member, and his wife will land on their feet. She’s not as optimistic about others at the Flying Saucer park. She worries they’ll have to resort to parking their RVs on city streets or in Walmart parking lots.
“That’s not home,” Shepherd said. “That’s not having a place to go.”
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Judith Kohler
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