60 years ago, Colorado State Highway 66 around St Vrain Creek was a favorite drag racing spot for rural teens. Now, urban development is creeping even out to the smaller towns of Colorado’s front range and eastern plains. Cities from Wheat Ridge to Wellington have turned into bedroom communities for the cities they orbit. Colorado’s landscape is changing.
Not everywhere is seeing the same rate of change, however. Weld County's numeric population has spiked in recent years. Adams, Larimer, and Boulder counties all peaked in 2015. Morgan County's numbers have held steady for the past 17 years. According to the Colorado Department of Local affairs, migration to and within Colorado has focused on the front range, from Pueblo County to Larimer county. In 2013, the majority of migration from within the US came from California and Texas. Newcomer populations have been radiating out from Denver along the interstates. But Colorado isn’t ready for them.
“Our road systems and our infrastructure especially are incredibly lacking,” argues David Janson, a student at the University of Northern Colorado and a longtime resident. In the past, Colorado has spent billions of dollars towards improving and expanding her roads. The T-REX project in Denver cost $1.7 billion, and expanded I-25 through downtown. This has only made congestion worse. Thanks to a phenomenon called induced demand, more people than ever are driving on Denver’s highways. If you build it, they will come, indeed.
The front range still has a very rural mentality. The cities and towns out here are still very focused on agriculture. Any large cities are sprawling and filled with greenspace, and new residents are having trouble adjusting. “In terms of industrial sorts of stuff, there was more where I lived before,” says Sarah Carlsen, a student at UNC and a new Colorado resident. Severance, whose population has exploded in recent years, still only has a population of less than 5,000.
While this seems manageable, it also means that many of the resources people need just aren’t there. There’s been a boom of housing and hospital development, but not a similar increase in road or school building. It’s gotten so bad that many politicians on both sides of the aisle are running on a platform specifically focused on repairing and expanding I-25 between Longmont and Fort Collins. In the District 51 Republican Primary, both candidates spent a large amount of time discussing the state of I-25.
However, there is one place where infrastructure has risen to meet demand: the oil and gas industry. Weld County road 49 between Kersey to Keenesburg has grown into a 5-lane behemoth to serve every well and rig along that 20-mile stretch. A lot of development, especially in Weld County, has been centered around fracking rigs and seasonal oilfield workers. This focus has driven up demand for affordable housing, but not many are stepping in to increase supply.
Work trucks with “Vote NO on 112” stickers and Oklahoma plates drive on the same roads as every Subaru from California. New housing is popping up without places for people to park. Downtowns are becoming deserts, even as Colorado is becoming more diverse. Whether or not this change will last in a positive or negative way can only be seen in time. But one thing’s for certain: this change is coming.
Originally published on 4/22/19.
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