Loveland's Centerra oil, gas lease on hold

Anadarko's drilling plans still under discussion, homeowners react

By Tom Hacker
Denver Post

Plans to seal a lease deal between Centerra developer McWhinney and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. to extract oil and gas from deep under the High Plains Environmental Center have been temporarily shelved.

Centerra general manager Jay Hardy said Monday that talks were ongoing between the developer of the 3,000-acre Centerra development in east Loveland and the energy producer that wants to tap reserves in the heart of Centerra.

Friday's scheduled closing of the lease agreement "has been postponed," Hardy said. "Our discussions are continuing."

Meanwhile, homeowners at Centerra expressed anger that they had not been informed of Anadarko's plan to drill vertically on a site near the eastern edge of Centerra, about a mile east of Interstate 25, and then horizontally to a zone about 7,000 feet under the interstate.

Longer-term plans, described in an email exchange among members of the environmental center board last week, call for drill sites on the west side of I-25, and more horizontal bores traversing Centerra to oil and gas deposits under the 275-acre nature preserve.

'Guiding Principles'

The conservation set-aside that McWhinney has made a hallmark of its development includes habitat for waterfowl, wildlife and native plants on land wrapped around Equalizer Lake and Houts Reservoir.

"I just remember why I bought here in the first place," said Carol Hall, a 10-year resident of the High Plains Village neighborhood on Centerra's western edge. "It was their environmental vision, and their concern for sustainability."

Hall, who serves on the board of the High Plains homeowners association, on Monday shared documents from McStain Neighborhoods, McWhinney's Boulder-based construction partner in the High Plains Village project.

She said they illustrated why she made her choice in 2002 to become among Centerra's first residents.

The nine "Guiding Principles of Centerra" include one that Hall highlighted in an email earlier Monday:

........................................

Here's a guiding principal: get the hell out of our neighborhoods!