Castle Pines' Planning Commission approved a 24-hour emergency department and medical office for the Canyons neighborhood on Oct. 22, 2026. Portercare Adventist Health System, AdventHealth's Colorado nonprofit affiliate, filed the Site Improvement Plan (SIP) application, Case No. SIP-2026-001, for a 24,561-square-foot, two-story medical office building on a 5.78-acre vacant lot at the southeast corner of Castle Pines Parkway and Canyon Forge Drive. The Commission approved it at its Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026 meeting, per the City's own meeting wrap-up.
What's proposed
Per the project narrative filed by Boulder Associates on AdventHealth's behalf, the building would open in a single construction phase:
- First floor: a 24-hour emergency department, open every day, with roughly 16 patient visits a day (two to three hours on site per visit) and eight staff per 12-hour shift
- Second floor: clinical space open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, with an expected 80 to 100 visits a day, each about an hour, and 16 staff on site
- An ambulance canopy on the east side of the building, shielded from view by a hill to the south and east; the applicant says ambulance transfers would run about three to four times a month and would not use sirens in residential neighborhoods
- 91 parking spaces, including two EV stations and five ADA-accessible spots
- Sidewalk improvements along Castle Pines Parkway, completing the pedestrian connection to Canyon Forge Drive
The building would stand 32 feet to the top of its parapet (39 feet including the mechanical screenwall), with a mix of stone, brick, stucco, metal panels and glass curtainwall. The site is roughly 71% landscaped, exceeding the city's 15% minimum, and the applicant is proposing setbacks well beyond the minimum: about 185 feet from Castle Pines Parkway and 108 feet from Canyon Forge Drive.
Where it sits
The property is Lot 3 of the Canyonside Filing No. 2, inside the Canyons Planned Development's Planning Area 3, zoned Mixed Use. According to the city's staff report, it's bordered by a drainage pond to the north, a new single-family neighborhood under construction (followed by the Rueter-Hess Reservoir) to the northeast and east, the Everleigh Castle Pines active-adult community to the south, and vacant land expected for future commercial development to the west, across Castle Pines Parkway. It sits in the same stretch of the Canyons as the 69-home Canyonside subdivision City Council approved earlier this month.
Medical offices are a permitted use in the Canyons PD's Mixed Use areas, and the staff report finds the project within the PD's allowed commercial square footage and in conformance with its setback, height, parking and landscaping standards. A traffic conformance letter estimates about 940 daily vehicle trips, including 69 in the morning peak hour and 92 in the evening peak — fewer than half the trips projected for a 50,000-square-foot medical building evaluated on the same site in 2025, since the current proposal is about half that size. The city's consultant engineers concurred with both the traffic letter and a separate drainage report.
What residents said
The city mailed a courtesy notice to landowners within 300 feet of the site; it received no responses. Separately, 14 public comments came in during the review process. Per the staff report, most expressed concern that a medical facility doesn't fit the "predominantly residential, low-density character" of the Canyons, citing potential traffic, ambulance noise, parking demand, lighting and the building's "institutional character." Several commenters said they'd prefer to see restaurants, boutique retail or community gathering space on the site instead, and some said the scale of commercial development planned for Canyonside wasn't clear to them when they bought their homes. A smaller number of commenters supported the project, citing the need for more local healthcare access so residents don't have to travel outside Castle Pines.
AdventHealth's written response says the project addresses "an identified physician shortage in the area," that the proposed use and lighting comply with zoning rules, and that medical waste would be handled by certified disposal companies.
Commission Approves the SIP
The Planning Commission approved the SIP at its Oct. 22, 2026 meeting, per the City's own meeting wrap-up, which does not list a vote tally or any conditions beyond what staff's report recommended (paying city review costs and resolving minor technical issues before the final filing). A Planning Commission vote is a final decision on a Site Improvement Plan in Castle Pines; it does not require separate City Council approval.
This would be AdventHealth's second new emergency facility in Douglas County this year, after the ER and urgent care it's building in Castle Rock's Crystal Valley, targeted to open this fall.
Sources: City of Castle Pines, Oct. 22, 2026 Planning Commission meeting agenda; Staff Report, Advent Health Site Improvement Plan, Case No. SIP-2026-001, dated Oct. 22, 2026; Project Narrative, "AdventHealth Canyonside MOB SIP Submittal," Boulder Associates, Oct. 15, 2026, checked Oct. 17, 2026; City of Castle Pines, "October 22 Planning Commission Meeting Wrap-Up" (confirms approval), fetched Oct. 30, 2026.