Aurora is talking about developing a lot more of the plains

The city of Aurora has something that Denver does not: an absolute ton of open space. And it may just use it.

The city is considering a plan to expand eastward, as the Aurora Sentinel reports. If approved, Aurora would expand its borders to include nearly 20,000 new acres.

That’s an increase of 20 percent over the city’s current acreage, the equivalent of adding the island of Manhattan and then some, by my calculations. Moreover, it would allow nearly 128,000 people to move into new suburbs, or exurbs.

The area in question is south of I-70 and east of E-470, according to a map provided by the Sentinel.

The city’s pretty serious about this: It already has spent about $500,000 to study the annexation, and there’s already a major development on deck for the land. “Prosper” would bring about 9,000 new homes to the area between I-70 and Mississippi Avenue, inside the annexation area.

City leaders will continue to talk about it through the summer. The Sentinel has a lot more on the potential impact of all this expansion, but the short takeaway is that their decision is sure to affect neighboring cities. All those people, after all, have to get to work.