The views from the Pillar of Fire’s farmland are too good not to share, according to developer Chad Ellington, partner in Oread Capital.

“We really want to open that up to the community and give access to the public,” Ellington told members of the Westminster Rotary Club at their monthly meeting Sept. 5. “We want to do that with parks and trails, open spaces, view corridors. Our goal is to bring the community in to what has been a private spot since the very beginning.”

Development group Oread Capital is advancing a plan to develop the farmland between 84th and 88th avenues and Federal and Lowell Boulevards, land owned by the Pillar of Fire Church, as well as parcels east of Federal and on both sides of Bradburn Drive west of Lowell.

Ellington said he and other partners have been making the rounds, presenting their plans to Westminster groups. They are calling the project The Uplands Colorado.

“We’ve had neighborhood meetings, we’ve gone door-to-door and we’ve done informal events like this,” Ellington said. “We are just getting started, but we are an open book.”

The company has created a website for the project, www.uplandscolorado.com.

Oread’s plan calls for converting the large open space surrounding the church into a massive mixed-use development, with housing options ranging from single-family homes to apartments and townhomes as well as parks and commercial areas.

It would combine parcels on either side of Federal Boulevard, including the crop land between 88th and 84th immediately north of the church.

The development would surround the church on three sides and would included the apple orchards immediately to the west of Lowell Boulevard and south of 84th.

About three acres of that land is in unincorporated Adams County while the rest is in Westminster, so the development group would need the city to annex those areas.

Next, the group would need the city to change the zoning designation in the Comprehensive plan and ultimately rezone the property to allow the development and adopt a development plan.

It would ultimately have to be approved by the City Council.

Ellington said developers are planning to have room for 2,350 units in the development in a mix of housing types.

“It would have a variety of housing types,” Ellington said. “We won’t have huge lots with turf and high water usage. It’s more of an urban-suburban setting and more will come out on that.”