Driving by South Table Mountain and the mesa behind it in Golden, I almost always wonder why they don't put any buildings up there. Considering that Denver is already tightly packed and expanding, and that Golden too is short on space and expensive to live in, I didn't see why they couldn't put houses up there. I looked at a map and saw the much of golden was completely empty space, and was accessible by dirt road, in order to get build and maintain the power lines up there.
I talked to one of my civil major classmates about it, and she explained that they tried in the past, or at least tested it out, and the soil is just not stable enough. After doing the hike many times after a rain or snowmelt, I understand just how hard it would be to build on this. Even on the elevated, flat mesa, there would surely be plenty of foundation issues to combat. With most of the area currently being open space reserved for wildlife (though I do have to say there is not much there, coming from the greatly-vegetated Vermont and east coast), it is not worth the effort to try and make building legally possible, because it would hardly be physically possible due to the Colorado swelling soils and loose rock foundation up there.
I really think that the lack of construction in that location is more related to local values and priorities - the residents of Golden enjoy having these natural, open spaces as a community resource rather than private property. There used to be a restaurant on South Table Mountain, and if you hike up there you can still see the remnants of its foundation.
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