Designed for the Land You Love
And Parker — and it’s one of our favorite places to build. Acreage lots, mountain views, room for the home you actually want, and a quiet pace that families move out here for. Northstar Custom Homes has been building luxury custom homes in Franktown and across Elbert and Douglas Counties for more than 35 years.
The nine communities in the gallery above show the range of what “Franktown” actually covers. Fox Hill, an acreage community with homesites generally running one-and-a-half to four acres and sweeping Front Range views, is one of the area’s most established addresses, with its own HOA and septic-served lots typical of the wider Franktown market. Bell Mountain Ranch, Russellville Estates, Pinery North, Pinon Soleil, Spring Valley Ranch, Highland Meadows, Sun Country Meadows, and Arrowpoint Estates round out the mix of acreage and platted communities NorthStar builds in across the wider Franktown area, each with its own lot sizes, HOA structure where one exists, and utility setup that we confirm before design begins. Whether your lot sits inside one of these established communities or on its own unplatted acreage, NorthStar starts every Franktown project the same way: confirming jurisdiction, evaluating wells, septic, and soils, and designing around the specific parcel rather than a standard subdivision plan.
Franktown lots are bigger, more private, and almost always rural-zoned, which changes how every part of the project works. Your custom home builder in Franktown needs to understand wells, septic systems, soils, easements, propane, and Douglas County Health Department permitting — and we do. The result is a home that fits the land it sits on, not a tract design forced onto rural property.
On-site wastewater treatment system permits are handled by the Douglas County Health Department. Permits require soil information, test pit logs, percolation data, and an engineered design stamped by a Colorado licensed professional engineer where soils, treatment level, or slopes over 20% require it. Final use permit inspections are performed by a third-party NAWT-certified inspector. This step is also what most affects how long it takes to build a custom home on Franktown acreage — wells and septic in Elbert County typically add several weeks to permitting.
Alongside the septic permit, a well permit through the Colorado Division of Water Resources is typically required before the county will issue a building permit — NorthStar sequences both early in the process, since results from each can affect where a house sits on the lot and how the site plan is drawn.
Franktown’s character comes from its acreage. Rather than platted subdivisions with quarter-acre lots, properties here commonly run from two or three acres up to thirty-five acres or more, and that scale changes the entire project — longer driveways, more extensive grading and erosion control, larger septic leach fields, and well placement that has to account for setbacks from the septic system, property lines, and any existing structures. The terrain itself tends toward rolling grassland dotted with mature ponderosa pine, particularly toward Castlewood Canyon State Park just south of the community, which means defensible-space planning and wildfire-conscious material choices are a real part of the design conversation, not an afterthought. Because most Franktown lots sit outside a municipal utility grid, NorthStar also evaluates power availability, propane versus other heating options, and internet access as part of early site planning — details that rarely come up on an in-town Castle Rock or Parker lot but matter enormously to how a Franktown home actually lives day to day.
Acreage custom homes in Franktown typically build in the $300–$600 per square foot range depending on finish level. Site work, well, septic, and propane add $80,000–$180,000 in most cases. Our fixed-price contract bundles every line item so you see total project cost before construction starts. See our full breakdown of land, site work, and the well-and-septic premium in the real cost to build a custom home in Castle Rock and Franktown.
Most of NorthStar’s Franktown work is not inside a platted neighborhood at all — it is custom homes built on individual rural parcels along the Highway 83 and Colorado 86 corridors, where buyers are drawn specifically to space, privacy, and views rather than a subdivision amenity package. For buyers moving from a city or suburban lot, NorthStar walks through what acreage living actually requires — water rights, septic capacity, fencing, and driveway or private road maintenance — well before the design phase begins.
Whether you’ve owned your Franktown acreage for years or you’re shopping right now, Northstar’s build-on-your-lot consultation walks the property with you, reviews soils, utilities, easements, and topography, and identifies the right home for the right corner of the lot before we ever put pencil to paper.
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Under one roof — design, engineering, construction, warranty.
Operated — we live and build in your community.
Custom homes in Douglas County and across Colorado’s Front Range.
Build-on-our-lot, and full remodels all handled in-house.
Franktown is unincorporated, so permits go through the Douglas County Building Division at 100 Third Street in Castle Rock, not a separate Franktown office. NorthStar manages the full submittal through the county’s eplans process.
Most Franktown properties sit outside municipal water and sewer service, so a permitted well through the Colorado Division of Water Resources and an on-site septic system permitted through Douglas County’s environmental health review are typically both required before a building permit can be issued.
Franktown is known for large-acreage rural properties rather than platted subdivisions — many lots run from two to thirty-five-plus acres, which changes site work, driveway length, and utility planning compared to an in-town lot.
Franktown sits near the Douglas-Elbert county line. NorthStar confirms which county holds jurisdiction over a specific parcel before submitting plans, since crossing into Elbert County changes the permitting authority entirely.
Franktown properties often feature rolling grassland, mature ponderosa pine, and proximity to Castlewood Canyon State Park, which can mean more grading, defensible-space planning, and well and septic siting work than a typical in-town lot.
Ready to talk about a custom home in Franktown? We’ll walk your lot, listen to your vision, and give you a clear, honest plan to get from here to keys.