Moving to Evergreen

Who lives here

Evergreen is not a town in the legal sense. It has no mayor, council or town hall: it is an unincorporated part of Jefferson County, and the three-member Board of County Commissioners is the government, the body that “adopt[s] ordinances or local laws that affect citizens living in unincorporated Jefferson County” (Jefferson County). The county’s Planning & Zoning division treats the Evergreen Area as one of eight parts of the county with its own Area Plan of land-use recommendations, alongside Indian Hills and the Conifer/285 corridor (Area Plans). What a town hall does elsewhere is split here between the county and two special districts with their own boards and property taxes: the Evergreen Fire Protection District, which operates as Evergreen Fire/Rescue (district), and the Evergreen Park & Recreation District (EPRD).

Those districts are also the best official measure of how many people “Evergreen” means, because each draws its own line. The fire district says it serves “nearly 26,000 residents across more than 120 square miles” (Evergreen Fire/Rescue); the park district “serves a population of approximately 23,000 people residing within the EPRD boundaries” (EPRD), which take in parts of Evergreen, Indian Hills, Kittredge and the Morrison and Golden sectors (EPRD). The census-designated place is smaller than either district; its 2020 count is not cited here because the Census Bureau’s pages could not be read for this guide.

The place began as a summer colony. In 1893 Dr. Mary Josepha Williams Douglas and her mother bought land for a summer retreat they called Camp Neosho (Hiwan Heritage Park), and the City of Denver bought the Dedisse Ranch in 1919 “after the town of Evergreen, Colorado was already established as a popular summer retreat” (Denver Mountain Parks). The year-round community dates from the 1950s, when the Hiwan Development Company built Evergreen’s first major residential developments, the Hiwan Hills neighborhood and Hiwan Golf Club, and brought water and sewer service to what had been a mostly summer-use town (Hiwan Heritage Park).

Housing

This guide gives no prices: the Jefferson County Assessor’s pages read for it give dates and a lookup tool, not an Evergreen figure. For the 2025–2026 cycle every property was revalued as of 30 June 2024, using sales from 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2024, and the Assessor’s Neighborhood Dashboard lets you look up sales for a specific neighborhood (Assessor). The listings in the sidebar show what is for sale.

Two things about a mountain house are worth more attention than the price. First, water and sewer. Jefferson County is not a water provider; its Planning & Zoning page says that “if you live in the mountains, water is generally supplied via wells,” and that every new well needs a permit from the Colorado Division of Water Resources (Water Supply). To find out which, if any, water or sanitation district serves an address, the county points you to the “Special Districts” layer of its interactive Planning & Zoning map. Houses off the sewer use an onsite wastewater treatment system, a septic system, which the county regulates: a permit is needed to install, repair, replace or alter one (Septic Systems). Second, the wildfire code: since 1 July 2026 new houses and exterior work in the county’s Wildland Urban Interface must meet structure-hardening and defensible-space rules (see “Before you decide”).

If you plan to rent a house out by the night, the county now requires a license. The Board of County Commissioners adopted Section 46, Short-Term Rentals, on 16 December 2025, applications go through the county’s Citizen Portal, and there is a 24/7 complaint line, 720-619-3690 (Short-Term Rentals).

Schools

Evergreen is in Jeffco Public Schools, the county-wide district, which assigns schools by “articulation area” (district). The Evergreen articulation area has three elementary schools, one middle school and one high school: Bergen Elementary, Parmalee Elementary, Wilmot Elementary, Evergreen Middle School and Evergreen High School (Evergreen High School).

Where they are, from each school’s own site: Evergreen High School at 29300 Buffalo Park Road; Evergreen Middle School at 2059 Hiwan Drive; Bergen Elementary at 1422 Sugarbush Drive; Wilmot Elementary at 5124 South Hatch Drive; and Parmalee Elementary at 4460 Parmalee Gulch Road in Indian Hills. Which elementary an address feeds depends on the boundary, so check it with the district before you buy.

Getting around

By car. Colorado 74 is Bear Creek Road through downtown Evergreen; CDOT is resurfacing it between Evergreen Lake and Lair O’ the Bear Park (mile points 6.9 to 12.5) from May to October 2026, a $6.5 million job with overnight paving through downtown and up to 15 minutes of extra travel time (CDOT project page, CDOT news). CDOT’s live conditions are on COtrip. The fire district’s Station 7 sits at County Road 65 and I-70 (ISO ratings).

Transit is RTD, and thin. The Evergreen FlexRide is a reservation-only service covering “the town of Evergreen,” running Monday to Friday 5:30 am to 7 pm and Saturday 9 am to 7 pm, with no Sunday or holiday service; book through customer care on 303-299-6000 or online (RTD). RTD also runs Route EV, Evergreen/Denver; in its August 2022 service change it decommissioned the El Rancho Park-n-Ride stop for low ridership and sent riders to the Bergen Park and Genesee Park Park-n-Rides (RTD), so check the current schedule before counting on it.

On foot, the Pioneer Trail connects Bergen Park to Evergreen Lake through Elk Meadow Park (Jeffco Open Space), and the Dedisse Trail links Denver’s Dedisse Park to Jefferson County’s Alderfer/Three Sisters Park (Denver Mountain Parks).

Services

• Fire and ambulance is the Evergreen Fire Protection District, which operates as Evergreen Fire/Rescue, at 1802 Bergen Parkway, 303-674-3145 (about). Founded as a volunteer department in 1948, it calls itself “one of the largest volunteer fire departments in Colorado,” with volunteers and paid staff. It has eight stations across 121 square miles, but only Stations 2 (Bergen Parkway) and 4 (5411 Highway 73, an ambulance crew only) are staffed around the clock (Fire Operations, Station 4). The district has a question, Ballot Issue 7B, on the 3 November ballot (home page).
• Law enforcement is the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, which patrols unincorporated Jefferson County from three precincts. The Mountain Precinct is at 4990 Highway 73 in Evergreen and offers walk-in services; the non-emergency number is 303-980-7300 (Patrol Division, contact).
• Water and sewer depend on the address: a district, or a well and a septic system (see “Housing”). Jefferson County itself provides neither (Water Supply). This page does not yet name the electricity or trash providers; we have not read them on an official page.
• Library is the Jefferson County Public Library’s Evergreen Library, 5000 County Road 73, 303-235-5275, built in 1989 and renovated and reopened in 2024. Hours are 9 am to 8 pm Monday to Thursday, 9 to 5 Friday and Saturday, and noon to 5 Sunday; roof work that began on 11 May is expected to run into October 2026 with the library open throughout (JCPL).
• Recreation is the Evergreen Park & Recreation District, a special district authorized by a vote of residents in January 1969, with offices at 1521 Bergen Parkway, 720-880-1100 (district information). It runs the Buchanan Park Recreation Center at 32003 Ellingwood Trail, the Wulf Recreation Center at 5300 S Olive Road, the Evergreen Lake House at 29612 Upper Bear Creek Road and more than 75 acres of parkland on 15 parcels (hours and locations), and the boating and skating on Evergreen Lake, with a hotline on 720-880-1391 (Evergreen Lake).
• Parks come from two other governments. Evergreen Lake and the Evergreen Golf Course are in Dedisse Park, a Denver Mountain Park (Denver Mountain Parks). Jeffco Open Space has Alderfer/Three Sisters Park, with “the most trails per acre of any foothills park” and trailheads at 30357 and 31537 Buffalo Park Road (Jeffco); Elk Meadow Park, “the most likely place in the Open Space system to view herds of elk,” with a 4.7-mile climb to 9,708-foot Bergen Peak (Jeffco); and Hiwan Heritage Park & Museum at 28473 Meadow Drive, the museum open Thursday to Sunday, noon to 4:30 (Jeffco).

Before you decide

Wildfire. Every official body says the same thing. The fire district: “If you reside in Evergreen, Colorado, you are living in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI),” with “an inherently higher risk of wildfire” (Evergreen Fire/Rescue). The county: more than two-thirds of Jefferson County is in a Wildfire Hazard Overlay District, and the county “ranks number one in Colorado in terms of the number of homes in high and extreme wildfire risk areas,” according to a Verisk/ISO report, “with Evergreen and Conifer ranking among the highest risk areas” (Wildfire Commission). The Sheriff’s Wildland Fire Management Program puts 91 percent of the county in the WUI and ranks the county second in the state for wildfire risk and impacts (JCSO).

What that means for a buyer or builder: on 10 March 2026 the Board of County Commissioners adopted a Wildfire Resiliency Code, in force since 1 July 2026 for unincorporated properties inside the new WUI Overlay District map (Class 1 in blue, Class 2 in orange). It is not retroactive, but it applies to new buildings and to exterior work such as additions, deck replacements, re-siding and re-roofing. A new house needs structure hardening and defensible space, with the defensible space inspected by a county-approved Wildfire Mitigation Specialist whom the owner hires; a kitchen remodel needs nothing. The county’s online map shows whether a parcel is in Class 1 or Class 2 (Defensible Space & Structure Hardening). The fire district offers free home assessments and a slash-chipping program, and its Community Wildfire Protection Plan, begun in 2007 and updated in 2020 and 2025, divides the district into 26 Plan Units, each with volunteer Wildfire Ambassadors (CWPP). Insurers will ask about the ISO class: Class 3 within five miles of a fire station and 1,000 feet of a hydrant or 30,000-gallon cistern, Class 4 within five miles but farther from water, and Class 10W more than five miles from any station (ISO ratings). Sign up for LookoutAlert, the emergency notification system for Jefferson and Clear Creek counties, at lookoutalert.co; alerts come by text, email or voice, and the helpline is 720-230-2270 (Evergreen Fire/Rescue).

Wells and septic. If the house is on a well, you are responsible for the water: “Colorado does not regulate the quality of private well water,” and Jefferson County Public Health recommends testing every year and now offers free bacteria and nitrate test kits to private well owners (Well Water Systems). The county’s well page lists the things that turn up in local groundwater, including nitrate and naturally occurring radiation from uranium deposits. For septic, the county’s page explains the care a system needs and the pumping schedule, and says a failing leach field “may cost many thousands of dollars” to repair; a backup or leak should be reported to Public Health on 303-271-5700 (Septic Systems).

Snow. Jefferson County Road & Bridge plows 2,945 lane miles of paved road and 647 of gravel in the unincorporated county, not state highways or private roads. Roads are ranked Priority 1 to 4, from arterials to cul-de-sacs, and in the mountain areas plowing stops between 9 pm and 3 am; Priority 3 and 4 streets, which is to say most residential roads, are plowed only “when snow depths are seriously impeding vehicle mobility and melting is NOT forecasted to occur within 72 hours.” The county does not remove packed snow and ice from residential streets that a passenger car can pass, driveway approaches are the owner’s to clear, and for 2026–27 the county has revised its procedure because of a statewide shortage of truck drivers (Snow & Ice Control). Private roads are not plowed by the county.

District lines. An Evergreen address does not tell you which districts tax and serve a house. The park district says so itself: “Not everyone that has an Evergreen address lives within EPRD boundaries,” and non-residents pay 25 percent more for programs and facilities unless they buy a $375 annual opt-in (EPRD). Check the fire district, the park district and any water or sanitation district for the specific parcel before you make an offer.