Two lots sit side by side on Cherry Hills Park Drive, and in 2026 each one made news for a different reason. At 3 Cherry Hills Park Drive, a 2.5-acre lot bought in 2019 for $1.5 million became a 22,500-square-foot estate. It was listed at $18 million in February and closed at $15.8 million in October, metro Denver's most expensive sale that month, according to BusinessDen.
Next door at 1 Cherry Hills Park Drive, nothing sold. In May, City Council voted to split the 4.9-acre lot in half at the owners' request. BusinessDen put it plainly: "One of Cherry Hills Village's most exclusive pockets now has room for one more home."
Read together, those two stories describe how this market works. The house on a Cherry Hills Village lot is expensive, personal and open to negotiation. The lot, and the city's permission to build on it, is the scarce part. On November 3, voters approved a Charter change that keeps that permission in local hands.
Three 2026 Sales, Read by Purchase Price
Headlines rank sales by their final price. For a buyer, the more useful comparison is where each property started, what was added to it, and how the market priced what was added.
| Property | Starting point | Asking price | Closed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Cherry Hills Park Drive | 2.5-acre lot bought for $1.5M in 2019, new build | $18M, February 2026 | $15.8M, October 2026 |
| 49 Sunset Drive | Bought for $3.8M in November 2024, renovated from the studs | Not reported | $10.3M, April 2026 |
| 1 block of Village Road | 2-acre lot bought in 2007, Tuscan-style estate built in 2011 | $10M at first, relisted at $8M in February | $7.1M, July 29, 2026 |
The Village Road estate came closest to a one-of-a-kind build. The Denver Post described hand-painted ceilings, exposed wooden beams, a wine cellar mural by artist Sheldon James, mantels made from salvaged materials, and clay roof tiles imported from Portugal. It closed $2.9 million below its first asking price. The newest estate on the list, the one with a 2,000-pound steel front door, closed $2.2 million under its February price.
49 Sunset Drive took a different path. CHV Home Inc., a Colorado family-run company that specializes in transforming high-end homes, bought it for $3.8 million. It added a chef's kitchen, natural stone finishes, an elevator, a full bar, a home theater and a golf simulator, then sold it for $10.3 million about 17 months later, per BusinessDen. Those features suit a wide range of buyers, and they sit on Cherry Hills Village ground.
The pattern in where buyers pushed back is consistent. The more a house reflected one owner's taste, the more of its asking price came off. The ground underneath held its value in every case. The cheapest starting point on the list, a $1.5 million lot, carried the highest final price.
Fewer Top-Tier Sales, Faster Ones
The wider luxury market this fall makes that pattern easier to see. DMAR's October 2026 report counted 4,878 metro Denver sales of $1 million or more year to date, almost the same as the 4,890 a year earlier. October alone fell 24.05% from October 2025. Median days on market in that price band dropped to 17, half of last October's 34.
So fewer properties closed at the top in October, and the ones that did moved quickly. The same metro report found that 65% of all October sales, across every price point, included seller concessions averaging $12,557. Buyers acted fast on the right property and bargained on the rest.
At the county level, the Colorado Association of REALTORS' October 2026 update for Arapahoe County showed 3.2 months of supply for single-family homes, down from 3.5 a year earlier, and active inventory down from 1,703 to 1,477. Those figures cover the whole county, not just the village. They point the same way, though. Supply is tightening even as top-end closings slow.
In Cherry Hills Village, New Lots Come From Council Votes
A typical suburb adds homes when a developer buys land and the market absorbs the new supply. Cherry Hills Village was set up to make that difficult. The city's own Resolution 29, adopted in September, traces this back to the 1940s and 1950s. Village leaders answered metro growth by updating zoning and adopting a town plan built around single-family homes with "an open, semi-rural character." Voters approved the Home Rule Charter on November 8, 1966. The resolution says the city later "participated and prevailed in litigation and other efforts" to protect its ability to restrict development it saw as incompatible with community values. The current Master Plan was adopted in December 2022 after a process the city says produced more than 4,600 contacts with the community.
Seen that way, the lot split at 1 Cherry Hills Park Drive was a rare event. One new homesite on one of the village's most sought-after drives took a council vote. That is a big part of why a bare lot here can hold value through a softer luxury quarter. Supply grows only as fast as the city allows.
What Question 2C Wrote Into the Charter
The November 3 ballot asked voters to protect that control in writing. Question 2C adds a new Section 1.6, titled "Home Rule Authority to Regulate the Use of Land," to the city's Charter. The published measure text reads in part:
"The authority to plan for, zone, and regulate density, the uses of land, the location and character of structures, and the development of real property within the City are matters of local and municipal concern... The City shall not be required to adopt or implement laws, standards, approval processes, assessments, plans, or reports on such matters other than as may be enacted by the City Council... or the voters of the City... irrespective of state mandates to do so."
The Colorado Municipal League's election roundup reports that voters approved it. CML labels its results unofficial and subject to change, and the city's own results notice does the same.
The amendment responds to specific state laws. The council's resolution supporting 2C names HB24-1152, the state's accessory dwelling unit law, and HB24-1313, on housing in transit-oriented communities. It says that legislation "purports to usurp" the city's home-rule authority over zoning. HB24-1152 requires jurisdictions it covers to allow one ADU alongside a detached single-unit home where that housing type is allowed, starting June 30, 2025. The Colorado Department of Local Affairs lists Cherry Hills Village among the jurisdictions subject to that law.
2C was not the city's first step. In October 2025, Council voted 5–0 for Resolution 28, backing a lawsuit by Arvada, Aurora, Greenwood Village, Glendale, Lafayette and Westminster that challenges state land-use measures. The new Charter language puts the same position into the city's founding document.
This is general information, not legal advice. Anyone weighing what a specific Cherry Hills Village lot allows should check with the city and their own attorney.
Pricing a Property When the Land Carries the Value
For a buyer comparing Cherry Hills Village with other south-metro options, all of this changes what a listing price means. The price combines two things that behave differently. One is a lot whose supply grows only by council vote, under a Charter that now states the city alone sets density and land use. The other is a house that reflects one owner's choices, priced in a luxury segment where October closings fell by almost a quarter year over year.
The 2026 sales show which part held. The cheapest starting point, a $1.5 million lot, carried the highest sale price. A studs-up renovation built for broad appeal sold for well over twice its purchase price. The most personalized estate on the list saw the largest drop from first asking price to close. When you tour here, value the acreage and the location first, and treat the custom finishes as the open question in any negotiation.
For sellers, it works the other way. The features an owner loves most may be the ones a buyer values least, and the land is usually the strongest part of the case. Our Cherry Hills Village neighborhood guide and our earlier piece on how the High Line Canal acts as the village's main street cover the setting those lots sit in.
Quick Answers
Did Question 2C pass? CML and the city both posted unofficial results showing voters approved it on November 3, 2026, pending certification.
What state laws does it respond to? The council's supporting resolution names HB24-1152 on accessory dwelling units and HB24-1313 on transit-oriented housing, along with "subsequent similar legislation."
Can a large lot in Cherry Hills Village be divided? It happened this year at 1 Cherry Hills Park Drive, where City Council voted in May to split a 4.9-acre lot in two at the owners' request.
What was the top Cherry Hills Village sale of 2026 so far? 3 Cherry Hills Park Drive, at $15.8 million in October, which also led metro Denver that month.
If you own an estate in Cherry Hills Village and want to know how a buyer would value your land separately from the house on it, or you are comparing lots before you build, Molly Weiss can walk you through the numbers behind this year's sales. Start with a home valuation, and then let's connect.
