Meridian Ranch: Off Base Neighborhood/Subdivision

Beautiful neighborhood with plenty to do. Big walking trails that loop around the development for jogging, or biking. Nice view of the Pikes Peak and the landscape. They have rec center, golf course and restaurants there. Several parks in the community too. The location is strategic if you work at Air Force Academy, Schriever or Peterson. I love the place! Easy access to shops on Woodmen and Powers. Easy trips to go up to Denver via back roads; avoids C Springs traffic. My husband was assigned to Peterson then Schriever when we lived there.

We had to rent sight unseen from VA. We arrived to find a tiny, below contractor grade rental. The "HOA" is not only hideously pricey, but over reaching. The "Gestapo " goes around looking for violations and sends the tenant and owner nasty letters for the most minor offenses.

If owning a home in this environment makes someone think they are protecting their investment, they need to think again.

We had to rent there for 18 months, and could not escape fast enough.

It's not a pleasant place to live...think Stepford Wives.

No thanks...we bought a home elsewhere and have never looked back to "that place".

Nobody follows rules. Teenagers run the place. Constant noise, atvs, dirt bikes, screaming kids, and crime. It's a mess and my nerves are shot. No place to retire. Like living in hell. Hate it.

On the surface this looks like an ideal community. But live here for a little bit and
you’ll quickly think otherwise. In addition to the hail storms that plague Colorado,
we get damaging wind storms regularly out here, the type that take down trees and rip
shingles off your roof. Also, being out on the prairie the dust brings alot of
allergens with it, so if you have allergies you will suffer terribly out here.

Like opening your windows to enjoy the great Colorado weather? Not here, you entire
house will be covered in dust within an hour.

The community is at 7200 ft, 1200 higher than C-springs, so take that into account.
It’s drier and the air is thinner.

The water in the community is very hard, tastes strange, irritates the skin and leave
mineral residue in everything - coffeemakers, sinks, etc. I can only imagine what
it’s doing to the pipes and water heater.

Speaking of water, good luck keeping a lawn alive here. Water is very expensive here
and it’s even drier than down in town. Oh, and now they’ve instituted “voluntary”
water restrictions as well. I wonder how long until they become mandatory?

Of course once your lawn or plants start to die the “DRC” - an HOA-like organization
solely controlled by the builders will be sending you weekly nasty-grams. Covenant
says you have to have 15 bushes? Well, the day after one turns brown they will harass
you and tell you to replace it because you only have 14. Even in October. Or risk
further harassment and weekly fines. These people literally have nothing better to do
than drive around counting bushes or measuring how much set back your fence has from the front edge of your house - They literally told my neighbor to move his fence
because it was 4’-11” instead of 5’. Never mind the cemented in posts. (Yes, that
means they actually got out of their car and measured it.) They’re so bad I’m
surprised they don’t get issued jackboots and arm bands when they take the job.

Also, make no mistake that the DRC’s sole purpose in life is to ensure that every
house in the community looks like a model home all the time, so that the builders can
sell more houses. Naturally all the time, effort and materials required to do so are
at the homeowners’ expense.

Finally, the houses here may look nice, but they are very poor quality, and after a
year your builder’s warranty will expire and it will be all your problem. In the
first year we had the builder out atleast six times to fix over a dozen issues caused
by poor quality materials and sloppy workmanship. This was particularly shocking to
us since we picked one of the “higher quality” builders and paid a premium for our
house.

All in all, don’t buy a house here unless you enjoy the unending frustration caused
by a low quality build, a hostile climate and constant harassment by the DRC. We
can’t wait to sell and move elsewhere.

Meridian Ranch is a family friendly golf course (with clubhouse bar/resteraunt) neighborhood with great amenities. In door-out door pools, gym with workout classes, and programs for kids ran by YMCA, all which are exclusive to meridian ranch residents. Base, shopping, and entertainment are all conveniently located to this neighborhood, and the schools are on par with D20 ( which is over rated in my opinion). Additionally, convenience to the schools from the Meridian Ranch neighborhood is excellent.

Falcon is an ok area and I strongly feel that District 20 is by far the best school system and Falcon is in District 49. It's not my choice of where to live, but prices are definitely cheaper since taxes are cheaper. Further from the good shopping, too. Distance to Peterson isn't bad, but distance to most everything else is too far for me. There's a back way into the base you can take from that area.