Castle Rock proposes 15 new police, fire and Sports Center jobs
Town Manager David Corliss says slower homebuilding is reducing development-fee revenue and could constrain future capital work, especially transportation projects.
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Castle Rock’s proposed 2027 budget would add 15 full-time jobs across the Police Department, Fire and Rescue, and the new Sports Center. Town Manager David Corliss warned that slower residential development is reducing development-fee revenue and could constrain future capital work, particularly transportation projects, during the Oct. 6 budget presentation.
The proposal includes five Police positions, five Fire and Rescue positions to staff Fire Station 156, and five Sports Center jobs. Four Police positions and two Fire positions would be funded through transfers from the Public Safety Fund to the General Fund. That fund receives a voter-approved sales-and-use tax dedicated to public safety. Corliss said the Sports Center would rely primarily on user fees, with some town sales-tax support. The budget materials do not break out the cost of the proposed positions; the budget packet describes the proposed funding.
Through June 30, 2026, the town had issued 106 single-family permits and no multifamily permits. The 2026 budget assumed 300 single-family and 110 multifamily units, and impact- and system-development-fee revenue was below its year-to-date budget, the town’s second-quarter financial review reports.
The proposed five-year transportation plan includes $15.3 million for Phase 2 of Fifth Street widening and $20.6 million for Wolfensberger Road widening, along with congestion-relief, traffic-signal and roundabout projects. Corliss cited work underway on the first stage of Fifth Street and a planned roundabout at Crystal Valley Parkway and West Loop Road, and said later-year work would depend heavily on future revenue. He did not quantify how much slower development could limit capital spending or identify a project for a cut or delay; the proposed capital plan lists the transportation projects.
The proposed townwide budget totals $411.8 million, including $348.5 million in projected revenue and $63.3 million from capital reserves. It forecasts $99.3 million in sales-tax revenue, assuming 4.5% annual growth and accounting for Costco’s anticipated opening, the budget message says. Separately, sales-tax collections in the first half of 2026 were 7.2% higher than in the same period a year earlier.
The budget was presented on first reading Oct. 6 and remains a proposal.