Thompson River Ranch

Thompson River Ranch is a master-planned residential community consisting of 1,162 single-family lots spanning 700 acres. Although primarily residential, the development also includes a dedicated school site. Amenities feature a clubhouse with a swimming pool, a trail system, and parks. Galloway team members have been involved in Thompson River Ranch since its inception in 2004, providing design services for filings 5-10, 12, 13, and 15; the Thompson River Ranch pool and clubhouse, North Ridge at Thompson River Ranch, and County Road 3.

Design services include grading, drainage, sanitary sewer, storm sewer, street plans and profiles, and street intersection details. Numerous challenges have been successfully addressed. These include the realignment of a major irrigation ditch, raising a significant portion of the site to comply with FEMA regulations, aligning the I-25 frontage road, combining detention with non-potable irrigation ponds, and routing the flow of an offsite drainage basin of over 3,000 acres through the development. The project also required crossing a high-pressure liquid petroleum main running from Wyoming to Denver. 13.5 acres of enhancements along Larimer County Road 3 improve accessibility to Thompson River Ranch and the nearby travel corridors of Interstate 25 and Highway 34.

Galloway worked with Oakwood Homes to accommodate their various single-family lot designs. Filings 12 and 15 offer 330 single-family homes with a mix of Oakwood’s Park House and Carriage House collections, situated next to the recently constructed Riverview PK-8 school, the current neighborhood park and ball fields, pool, and clubhouse, offering beautiful views of the Rocky Mountains and Big Thompson River.

The development also includes a 23.4-acre site called Northridge that was not part of the original Thompson River Ranch master plan but was later acquired and integrated into the broader development. The neighborhood includes 196 homes from Oakwood’s “American Dream” product line, designed to support first-time homebuyers. Lots are compact with shared driveways and front yards, resulting in a dense neighborhood that required highly detailed grading and careful layout coordination.

The site presented unique grading and coordination challenges due to its dramatic topography, which included nearly 70 feet of vertical change. Working with developer Oakwood Homes, our team transformed the steep hillside into a buildable neighborhood by removing more than 300,000 cubic yards of earth. Much of the excavated material was reused in Oakwood’s nearby developments to help raise sites out of floodplains. The grading strategy also lowered the site to connect with surrounding public roads, which range from 4–6% grades.
To achieve the necessary vertical transitions, the design incorporated a large retaining wall along the east side of the site, reaching up to seven feet in height, and required coordination with the adjacent development to the west. An underdrain system was also installed to address high groundwater conditions.

Because of the tight lot sizes, variable grading, and unique product constraints, the team worked through multiple design iterations with the client and building team to refine layouts and ensure the neighborhood could be constructed efficiently while meeting the project’s technical challenges.