Earlier this year, a fourteen-acre equestrian estate went up for sale at 6109 US Highway 287 in Laporte. The listing reads like most rural Colorado properties in this price range: a three-bedroom house built in 1975, a 104-by-72 indoor arena, thirteen stalls, a private pond, dual gated entry. Then, tucked into the property details, something unusual for a land listing: a specific traffic count for the highway out front, followed by a note that Colorado's Department of Transportation is relocating that stretch of road starting this year.
Most land listings don't bother disclosing traffic data. This one did, and it did so for a reason worth understanding before anyone writes an offer on acreage in Laporte. The road in front of that property, and the road in front of a lot of Laporte parcels, is not staying where it is.
What the traffic count is actually protecting against
The highway relocation is part of the Northern Integrated Supply Project, a water storage plan that's been in motion since 2003 and is now, after more than two decades of permitting fights and lawsuits, close to breaking ground. The centerpiece is Glade Reservoir, a 170,000-acre-foot reservoir planned for a valley northwest of Fort Collins, roughly where US Highway 287 currently runs near the intersection with State Highway 14 and the Ted's Place area.
To build it, Northern Water has to move the highway. About seven miles of US 287 will shift east, replacing roughly four and a half miles of the existing route with about two miles of entirely new roadway. The section of highway that gets left behind won't just close. It will eventually sit under more than 200 feet of water, with the reservoir reaching depths of up to 280 feet in places once it fills.
As Northern Water spokesperson Jeff Stahla put it, describing what happens to the current alignment once the project is complete: "the old highway will be basically at the bottom of the reservoir."
That's not a hypothetical for a Laporte landowner. It's a description of what's currently a working road with cars, horse trailers, and semi trucks running between Fort Collins and Laramie.
The timeline is still moving, and that matters more than the map
Here's where a buyer doing surface-level research gets the wrong read. It would be easy to see "construction starts 2026" in older coverage and assume the project is locked in and imminent. The actual picture, as of late August 2026, is more contested and more useful to understand.
In August 2025, the Fort Collins-Loveland Water District, the single largest funding partner and the utility that supplies roughly 60,000 people across Loveland, Fort Collins, Timnath, and Windsor, announced it would no longer participate in the project. The district's general manager said the cost of the water the project would produce had become 50 percent larger than what the district's ratepayers could absorb. That district alone accounted for about 20 percent of the project's planned funding and water supply.
The fallout from that decision was still unresolved as of February 2026. Follow-up reporting that month noted that other participating communities were signaling they might need to reevaluate their own level of commitment, with Northern Water expecting to have updated numbers on where the remaining partners stood by the first quarter of 2026.
Despite that turbulence, the most recent reporting, from late August 2026, confirms the project is still moving forward on its physical side. Northern Water has already contracted with a heavy civil contractor to design the relocated highway, a power line is being moved to clear the new route, and visible highway construction is now expected to begin in late 2027, with the new road finished before the existing one closes.
Here's a quick reference for where things stand:
| Project element | Status as of August 2026 |
|---|---|
| Highway relocation length | About 7 miles, replacing roughly 4.5 miles of current US 287 |
| Reservoir capacity | 170,000 acre-feet, up to 280 feet deep in places |
| Original funding partner (FCLWD) | Announced withdrawal August 2025, was ~20% of project funding |
| Remaining participants | Reevaluating commitment levels, per February 2026 reporting |
| Visible highway construction | Expected to begin late 2027 |
| Dam and reservoir construction | Timeline still dependent on funding resolution |
The gap between "the highway is definitely moving" and "we don't yet know exactly when the dam gets built" is precisely the gap a land buyer needs to sit inside for a minute before deciding what a given parcel is worth.
What this means for a specific Laporte parcel
The most useful way to think about this isn't whether the reservoir happens. The highway realignment and power line relocation are already underway regardless of how the funding shakeup resolves. The useful question is where a specific parcel sits relative to the current route versus the new one.
Land that sits along the current alignment of US 287, closer to town and away from the new eastward path, stands to get quieter once through-traffic shifts to the relocated road. For a horse property or an acreage buyer who wants distance from highway noise without losing highway access entirely, that's a meaningful long-term upside that isn't reflected in today's per-acre pricing.
Land closer to the new alignment or the eventual reservoir edge is a different calculation. Some of that value could rise once the water is in and recreational access gets sorted out. Industry conversation already points to Horsetooth Reservoir, the recreational lake west of Fort Collins, as a rough preview of what boating, fishing, or lakefront-adjacent life near Glade could eventually look like, since Northern Water and Larimer County are still working out what recreation at Glade will include. But "eventually" is doing real work in that sentence. Parcels near the construction corridor are also going to absorb years of visible construction activity, heavy equipment traffic, and possibly reduced privacy before any of that recreational upside shows up.
As of early July 2026, there were 158 land parcels for sale in and around Laporte, averaging about $702,000 per listing and roughly $21,888 per acre. That average doesn't distinguish between a parcel that will be quieter in five years and one that will be a construction staging ground. A buyer comparing two similarly priced Laporte parcels needs to ask where each one sits relative to that seven-mile corridor before comparing price per acre at all.
The other variable: water and wells
Land value in Laporte doesn't rest on highway proximity alone. Most parcels here run on private wells and septic systems rather than municipal water, and Colorado's rural water rules add another layer a buyer should factor in before making an offer.
In Colorado, a parcel generally needs to be 35 acres or larger to qualify for a domestic well permit that covers household use, fire protection, and watering livestock. Anything smaller typically gets a more limited permit that restricts outdoor water use, which matters directly for anyone buying acreage in Laporte with horses or an arena in mind, much like the equestrian estate that started this conversation. New septic systems built in Colorado this year also carry a minimum two-bedroom design requirement under updated state standards, and statewide wastewater permit fees rose 17.5 percent as of July 1, 2026.
None of that is unique to Laporte. But combined with a highway that's actively being redrawn through the area, it's part of why a rural Laporte parcel needs more due diligence than a subdivision lot in Windsor or Timnath. The question isn't just what the land costs per acre. It's what the well permit actually allows, what septic capacity the soil supports, and where the parcel sits relative to a seven-mile stretch of road that won't stay put.
Before you write an offer
If you're looking at acreage in Laporte, a few questions are worth asking before the price per acre becomes the only number you're weighing:
Where does this specific parcel sit relative to the current versus relocated alignment of US 287? Larimer County maintains a recreation concept master plan for Glade Reservoir that can help place a parcel on the map relative to the corridor.
What type of well permit does the parcel carry, and does it support the use you have in mind, whether that's a family home, a hobby farm, or a full equestrian setup?
Is the septic system permitted for the size of home you plan to build, and has it been inspected recently given tightening state standards?
How many years of construction disruption is realistic for this specific location, versus how many years until any reservoir-adjacent upside might materialize?
None of these questions have a single right answer that applies to every Laporte parcel. That's exactly the point. The land here isn't priced as one market. It's priced as dozens of individual bets on where a highway ends up and how long it takes to get there.
If you're comparing acreage in Laporte against other Northern Colorado options, whether that's Bellevue, Wellington, or a country property closer to Fort Collins, reach out to The Dennis Schick Team. We can walk a specific parcel against the relocation corridor, talk through what the well and septic setup actually supports, and help you weigh what you're buying today against what the area is likely to look like in five to ten years.
