[
Castle Rock's cost of living is above average. Compared to a U.S. average of 100, the cost of living index for the town is 137.2.
As of mid-2019, the median home value in the town was $427,537.] The median gross monthly rent for an apartment was about $1,461.
The town's housing base continues to grow. About 1,400 permits to build new homes were issued in 2018.
Government and politics
Castle Rock is a home rule municipality with a council–manager form of government. The Town's governing body is the Town Council, made up of seven members including the mayor and mayor pro-tem. Each councilmember is elected to represent an election district, and the mayor is elected to represent the Town at large. One member, appointed by the council, serves as the mayor pro-tem. Castle Rock voters approved a change to the town charter that authorized an at-large mayor in 2017.
The mayor presides over council meetings and casts one vote, like other councilmembers. The council sets policy for the town, adopts ordinances, approves the town budget, makes major land-use decisions, and appoints key town government staff including the town manager, town attorney, municipal judge, and members of town boards and commissions.
The town manager supervises all departments, prepares and implements the town budget, and works with the council to develop policies and propose new plans.
Tax revenues are used to provide general government, fire, police, parks maintenance and programs, street maintenance and operations, support for recreation, and planning and code enforcement services. The town also provides development services, golf, water, and sewer services to residents through self-supporting enterprise funds. The average annual municipal property tax bill of a Castle Rock resident is $40.66. That is in addition to property taxes assessed by Douglas County and other entities.
As the county seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US ...
, Castle Rock is the administrative center of Douglas County. The county courthouse, the Douglas County Justice Center, is north of downtown, and most departments of the county government base their operations in the town.
As of 2013, Castle Rock lies within Colorado's 4th U.S. Congressional District. The town is in the 4th district of the Colorado Senate
The Colorado Senate is the upper house of the Colorado General Assembly, the state legislature of the US state of Colorado. It is composed of 35 members elected from single-member districts, with each district having a population of about 123, ...
and the 45th district of the Colorado House of Representatives
The Colorado House of Representatives is the lower house of the Colorado General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Colorado. The House is composed of 65 members from an equal number of constituent districts, with each distr ...
.
Castle Rock is the county seat of Douglas County, a Republican stronghold in Colorado.
Education
Primary and secondary education
Douglas County School District is based in Castle Rock and operates 18 public
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...
schools in the town. These include ten elementary schools, two middle schools, two charter schools, one magnet school, one alternative high school, and two high schools: Castle View High School
Castle View High School is a public high school in Castle Rock, Colorado
Castle Rock is a home rule town that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Douglas County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 73,158 at ...
and Douglas County High School. In addition, there are three private primary schools in Castle Rock.
School board elections in Douglas County are held in odd-numbered years. In recent years the community has experienced a spirited debate between supporters of significant change in the management of local schools and those who oppose such changes or believe they should advance at a slower pace.
Libraries
The Douglas County Libraries
Douglas County Libraries is a public library
A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who a ...
public library system is based in Castle Rock, co-located with the local branch library, the Philip S. Miller Library, south of downtown. The Miller Library includes the Douglas County History Research Center and offers several educational and recreational programs to the public. Also, it includes Little Free Librarys places scattered throughout, such as in festival park.
Infrastructure
Transportation
Interstate 25
Interstate 25 (I-25) is a major Interstate Highway in the western United States. It is primarily a north–south highway, serving as the main route through New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. I-25 stretches from I-10 at Las Cruces, New Mexi ...
and U.S. Route 87
U.S. Highway 87 (US 87) is a north–south United States highway (though it is signed east–west in New Mexico) that runs for 1,998 miles (3,215 km) from northern Montana to southern Texas, making it the longest north-south roa ...
run concurrently north-south through Castle Rock. U.S. Route 85
U.S. Route 85 (US 85) is a north–south United States Highway that travels in the Mountain and Northern Plains states of the United States. The southern terminus of the highway is at the Mexican border in El Paso, Texas, connecting wi ...
, also a north-south route, enters the town from the northwest, meeting I-25 at Exit 184; south of the exit, it runs concurrently with I-25 and U.S. 87. Colorado State Highway 86, an east-west route, enters Castle Rock from the east, then turns north and west as Founders Parkway, terminating at its junction with I-25 at Exit 184.
For local transportation within Castle Rock, the town government sponsors a voucher
A voucher is a bond of the redeemable transaction type which is worth a certain monetary value and which may be spent only for specific reasons or on specific goods. Examples include housing, travel, and food vouchers. The term voucher is als ...
program for reduced-fare taxi service. This service is available to town residents who are disabled or who do not have access to a vehicle. In addition, the Castle Rock Senior Center offers a shuttle service for resident senior citizens.
Castle Rock does not participate in the Denver metropolitan area's Regional Transportation District
The Regional Transportation District, more commonly referred to as RTD, is the regional agency operating public transit services in eight out of the twelve counties in the Denver-Aurora-Boulder Combined Statistical Area in the U.S. state of Col ...
. Municipal voters decided in November 2005 to opt the town out of RTD. As a result, neither bus nor light rail service to Denver or any of its other suburbs is available from Castle Rock.
BNSF Railway
BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...
and Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...
each have a freight rail line that runs through Castle Rock. Both lines run parallel to U.S. 85.[
]
Utilities and water
The Intermountain Rural Electric Association, based in nearby Sedalia, provides electric power. Black Hills Energy
Black Hills Corporation is a Rapid City, South Dakota diversified energy company that is an electric and gas utility in South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa. The company sells power throughout the America ...
provides natural gas service. Waste Management
Waste management or waste disposal includes the processes and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal.
This includes the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste, together with monitorin ...
and other businesses provide trash removal.
The town government's Utilities Department oversees water provision, distribution, and infrastructure maintenance. Historically, nearly all of the water needed by Castle Rock residents was pumped from aquifers below the ground, including th
Denver Basin aquifer
Beginning in 2013, when the town developed its first strategic plan for the management of water, Castle Rock has moved toward more use of surface water. Between 2006 and 2018 per capita water use in Castle Rock declined from 137 gallons to 115 gallons.
Starting in 2020, Castle Rock expects to begin treating sink, tap, and toilet water to drinkable water quality standards so that it can be reused. The town aims to achieve a goal of reliance upon renewable water resources for 75% of municipal needs by 2050 and, by 2020, about one-third of all water used in Castle Rock is expected to be from a reusable source.
As of July 2019 Castle Rock, Denver, and Pitkin County are the first three Colorado municipal or county governments to adopt a stat
regulation
governing greywater
Greywater (or grey water, sullage, also spelled gray water in the United States) refers to domestic wastewater generated in households or office buildings from streams without fecal contamination, i.e., all streams except for the wastewater fro ...
reuse.
Health care
Castle Rock has several medical offices, an urgent care, and an emergency room
An emergency department (ED), also known as an accident and emergency department (A&E), emergency room (ER), emergency ward (EW) or casualty department, is a medical treatment facility specializing in emergency medicine, the acute care of pati ...
. Castle Rock Adventist Hospital, a full-service hospital, opened on August 1, 2013. The 50-bed hospital offers comprehensive health care to the Douglas County area, with labor and delivery suites, NICU, orthopedic surgery, ICU, and medical imaging.
Media
Castle Rock has a weekly newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, spor ...
, ''The Douglas County News-Press''.
Castle Rock is part of the Denver radio and television market. Radio station
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...
KJMN
KJMN (92.1 FM, "La Suavecita 92.1") is a radio station broadcasting a Spanish adult hits format licensed to Castle Rock, Colorado, United States, serving the Denver-Boulder area. The station is currently owned by Entravision Holdings, LLC. It ...
is licensed to Castle Rock, but broadcasts from Denver playing a Spanish Adult Hits format on 92.1 FM. Denver radio station 850 KOA, which broadcasts a news/talk and sports format, operates its 50,000 watt transmitter from a site 10 miles northeast of downtown Castle Rock, in the town of Parker. Another Denver station, KAMP (1430 AM), a CBS Sports Radio
CBS Sports Radio is a sports radio network that debuted with hourly sports news updates on September 4, 2012, and with 24/7 programming on January 2, 2013.
CBS Sports Radio is owned by Paramount Global and distributed by Westwood One. Programm ...
affiliate with a Sports Radio
Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often- boisterous on ...
format, operates its transmitter from Highlands Ranch, 13 miles north of downtown Castle Rock.
NPR programming can be heard on Colorado Public Radio's KCFR-FM. Castle Rock is also served by the AM signal of KGNU
KGNU (1390 AM) & KGNU-FM (88.5 FM) are a pair of community radio stations licensed to Denver and Boulder, Colorado respectively. KGNU is owned by Boulder Community Broadcast Association, Inc.
History KFML
1390 AM was first licensed on April 4, ...
, a non-commercial affiliate of PRI, Pacifica, and the BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is an international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the British Government through the Foreign Secretary's office. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception a ...
, and which also provides diverse music programming.
Television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the ea ...
KETD
KETD (channel 53) is a television station licensed to Castle Rock, Colorado, United States, broadcasting the Spanish-language Estrella TV network to the Denver area. Owned and operated by Estrella Media, the station maintains offices on East Jami ...
, an affiliate of the Estrella TV
Estrella TV () is an American Spanish-language broadcast television network owned by the Estrella Media subsidiary of HPS Investment Partners, LLC. The network primarily features programs, the vast majority of which are produced by the network ...
network, broadcasts on digital channel 46. Licensed to Castle Rock, the station is located near Centennial, Colorado.
Parks and recreation
Castle Rock's open space and parks comprise 27% the town's total land area ( of parks and open space / total land area). Additionally, there are nearly of soft-surface and paved trails.
Culture
Points of interest
Philip S. Miller Park is the largest park project in Castle Rock. "Phase One" of the park was opened to the public on October 25, 2014. It remains under construction. The park is named after a local banker and philanthropist who, with his wife, Jerry, left trust monies to Castle Rock in the mid-1990s. The Phillip S. Miller Activity Center is included in the park's 300 acres.
The Castle Rock Historical Museum is in the former Denver and Rio Grande Railway depot building on Elbert Street. This building is purported to have been built in 1875. It is made of rhyolite taken from local quarries. The museum depicts how Castle Rock has changed over the years.
Sports
From 1986 through 2006, a professional golf tournament was held in Castle Pines Village. The International, a PGA Tour
The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also ...
event, was held in August at the Castle Pines Golf Club.
Events
Castle Rock star lighting
Since 1936, every Saturday before Thanksgiving, the Town of Castle Rock lights the electric star upon Castle Rock. A lighting event is held downtown that night and is usually accompanied by a fireworks display. The star remains lit from the week before Thanksgiving to the end of the National Western Stock Show in January. This has changed multiple times, following World War II it was changed to a V, also, the same year as the Denver Broncos
The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquar ...
being in the Super Bowl, it was changed to orange and blue. Throughout part of the lockdown in early 2020 due to COVID-19, the star was relit as a symbol of unity.
Notable people
Notable individuals who were born in or have lived in Castle Rock include:
* Amy Adams (born 1974), actress
* Kirsten Bomblies (born 1973), biologist
* Kat Cammack - United States Representative for Florida's 3rd Congressional District
* Jim Cottrell (born 1983), NFL linebacker
Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, ...
*Gary Hallberg
Gary George Hallberg (born May 31, 1958) is an American professional golfer who has played on the PGA Tour, Nationwide Tour, and Champions Tour.
Amateur career
Hallberg was born in Berwyn, Illinois. He attended Wake Forest University in Winston ...
(born 1958), professional golfer
* Beth Malone (born 1969), actress
* Christian McCaffrey (born 1996), professional football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...
player (running back)
* Max McCaffrey (born 1994), professional football player (wide receiver)
* Nelson Rangell (born 1960), jazz musician
* Edward Seidensticker (1921–2007), Japanologist
*Ann Strother
Ann Elise Strother (born December 11, 1983) is an American basketball coach, and former professional player, most recently for the Indiana Fever. Strother played at the collegiate level for the Connecticut Huskies, helping the team to two natio ...
(born 1983), WNBA player, coach
Gallery
File:Pikes Peak as seen from Castle Rock CO.JPG, View of Pikes Peak
Pikes Peak is the highest summit of the southern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, in North America. The ultra-prominent fourteener is located in Pike National Forest, west of downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado. The town of Manitou S ...
from Rock Park in Castle Rock
File:Devils Head taken from Ridgeline Open Space.JPG, View of Devil's Head Lookout
Devil's Head Lookout is a U.S. Forest Service fire lookout tower at the summit of Devils Head (summit), Devils Head in Douglas County, Colorado. Located on a large pinnacle of Pikes Peak granite, the fire lookout point lies within the Pike Nation ...
from Ridgeline Open Space
Ridgeline Open Space is a public park located within The Meadows neighborhood in Castle Rock, Colorado along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. It sits at an elevation of and consists of of public land that has been designated for conserv ...
in Castle Rock
File:Mount Evans as seen from Castle Rock CO.JPG, View of Mount Evans from Rock Park in Castle Rock
File:Rock Park in Castle Rock CO.JPG, View from Rock Park Lookout Area in Castle Rock
File:Pikes Peak taken from I-25 in Castle Rock CO.jpg, View of Pikes Peak
Pikes Peak is the highest summit of the southern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, in North America. The ultra-prominent fourteener is located in Pike National Forest, west of downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado. The town of Manitou S ...
from I-25 in Castle Rock
File:The Meadows in Castle Rock Colorado taken from Daniels Park.jpg, View of The Meadows neighborhood taken from Daniels Park
File:Castlerockco.JPG, Castle Rock as seen from I-25
File:Trail at Rock Park, Castle Rock, CO IMG 5207.JPG, Hiking trail at Rock Park in Castle Rock
See also
*Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...
**Bibliography of Colorado
The location of the State of Colorado in the United States of America
This is a bibliography of the U.S. State of Colorado.
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General history
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*Sibley, George. ''Water Wranglers - The 75- ...
**Index of Colorado-related articles
This is an alphabetical list of articles related to the U.S. State of Colorado.
0–9
* .co.us – Internet second-level domain for the State of Colorado
* 4 Corners
** 4 Corners Monument
* 6th Principal Meridian
* 10-mile Range
* 10th ...
**Outline of Colorado
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the U.S. state of Colorado:
Colorado – 22nd most populous, the eighth most extensive, and the highest in average elevation of the 50 United States. Colorado ...
*List of counties in Colorado
The U.S. State of Colorado is divided into 64 counties. Two of these counties, the City and County of Broomfield and the City and County of Denver, have consolidated city and county governments. Denver serves as the state capital. Counties a ...
*List of municipalities in Colorado
The U.S. State of Colorado has 272 active incorporated municipalities, comprising 197 towns, 73 cities, and two consolidated city and county governments. At the 2020 United States Census, 4,299,942 of the 5,773,714 Colorado residents (74.47%) ...
*List of places in Colorado
A
B
C
D
E
F
G-O
* List of places in Colorado G through O
P-Z
* List of places in Colorado P through Z
References
{{Reflist ...
*List of statistical areas in Colorado
The U.S. state of Colorado has twenty-one statistical areas that have been delineated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Statistical areas are important geographic delineations of population clusters used by the OMB, the United States ...
** Front Range Urban Corridor
**North Central Colorado Urban Area
240px, An enlargeable map of the 13-county North Central Colorado Urban Area
The North Central Colorado Urban Area comprises the four contiguous metropolitan statistical areas in the north central region of the State of Colorado: the Denver–Au ...
** Denver-Aurora, CO Combined Statistical Area
** Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area
*''Castle Rock v. Gonzales
''Castle Rock v. Gonzales'', 545 U.S. 748 (2005), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled, 7–2, that a town and its police department could not be sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for failing to enforce a restraining order, ...
'' (2005), a U.S. Supreme Court case
References
External links
Town of Castle Rock website
CDOT map of the Town of Castle Rock
Visit Castle Rock
{{authority control
Towns in Douglas County, Colorado
Towns in Colorado
County seats in Colorado
Denver metropolitan area
1874 establishments in Colorado Territory
Populated places established in 1874