Colorado Cringes as Sprawl Threatens to Rein In the Range

DENVER —  Colorado, as longtime residents would have it, is no more. The state’s population is expected to grow to more than 5.2 million by 2020, leaving few regions untouched.

Front Range communities are expanding from Fort Collins to Pueblo, and Coloradans are feeling the pressure. It’s clear something must be done, say doomsayers, renewing old warnings that the state’s 160-mile urban corridor could become one sweltering megalopolis if urban development goes unchecked.

On the Western Slope and in northern Colorado, retirement communities are fueling population growth. South, east and west of Denver, subdivisions such as Highlands Ranch--the fastest-growing housing development in the country--continue to sprout homes.

Across the state, elected officials, planners and homeowners grapple with the changes, looking for ways to control what seems uncontrollable.

Growth--coveted in the 1980s when the oil-industry crash devastated the economy--is a dirty word these days in booming Colorado. The state must prepare for the future, caution those who believe the latest boom won’t go bust because it is more broadly based.

“One of the great crusades of this generation will be to recognize you can’t have infinite population growth in a finite environment,” former Gov. Richard Lamm said in a recent interview.

Between 1991 and 1995, Colorado’s population--currently about 3.9 million--increased by more than 90,000 people per year, or about 240 people per day, state demographer Jim Westkott said in a November report.

He said it is expected to continue to grow, though at a slower pace. Through the year 2000, the state’s population is expected to increase by 73,000 a year, or an average rate of 1.9%, reaching 4.1 million. After that, it will increase at average annual rates of 1.4%, declining to 1% through 2020, he predicts.

“I hate what’s happening to Colorado,” said Tama J. Kieves, a native New Yorker who moved to Denver in the early 1980s hoping to find a slower pace of life.

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Moreover, Colorado is not alone in the West; since the 1990 census, the fastest-growing states have been Colorado, Nevada, Idaho, Arizona and Utah, due to new residents and new births.

Although the entire state’s projected growth into the early part of the 21st century is far below that of some larger cities, it is far above the comfort level of lifelong Westerners.

“The West is losing its heritage as more people move here,” said Colorado Senate President Tom Norton, who is considering a Republican gubernatorial run in 1998. “We need to have growth in the economy. But that does not necessarily mean we need more people. Yet, if the economy is good, people are going to want to move here.”

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Westerners covet their open spaces, but they also cherish the right to own and do what they want with their property.

They don’t want a lot of governmental interference. For many, growth limits and planned development smack of interference.

Lamm, who as a legislator helped to keep the 1976 Olympics out of Colorado, calls the attitude the “cowboy ethic” of rugged individualism. His attempts to encourage statewide planning failed.

Gov. Roy Romer has approached planning from the ground up through his “Smart Growth” program, an attempt to get cities and counties to guide the process. He and others have warned about the costs, both in concrete financial terms and in intangible quality-of-life concerns.

“This state is very attractive, has a very good economy,” Romer said in a recent interview, “and we are growing at a very rapid rate.”

The challenge will be to stem the urban sprawl spreading along parts of the Front Range, he said.

“We should be very ashamed if we allow the Front Range of Colorado to turn into a Los Angeles,” the governor said.

There have been attempts to quantify the costs of growth. The Carrying Capacity Network of Washington, D.C., a nonprofit group that favors zero population growth and immigration reductions, said population growth in and around cities does not pay for itself.

The group estimates that metropolitan Denver incurs a gross cost of $8,500 for each new resident. Costs are higher in Boulder-Longmont, at $10,200, and Fort Collins-Loveland, at $9,200.

In the Denver area alone, the cost of adding more sewers, schools, parks and fire and police stations could reach $5.4 billion in the next 20 years if all current trends continue, said John Parr, senior fellow at the University of Denver’s Center for Public Policy and Contemporary Issues.

Infrastructure costs would be considerably lower, about $1.6 billion, if the metropolitan area would plan in a more “compact” way.

That means redeveloping old neighborhoods, “first-tier” suburbs--such as Littleton, Arvada and old Aurora--blighted shopping centers and other sites, such as the old Elitch Gardens amusement park and Stapleton Airport, rather than building outward toward newer suburbs.

“Part of [the solution] is letting people know there are alternatives,” said Parr, who will head the newly formed nonprofit Center for Regional and Neighborhood Action, which will focus on growth issues.

“Government and business leaders at the local level need to work with environmentalists and neighborhood groups to create new forms of development that are less dependent on the automobile,” he said.

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Colorado’s healthy economy is a big draw for newcomers. Growth along the Front Range stems from increases in industries such as telecommunications, engineering and business services, as well as trucking and warehousing.

Also drawing newcomers are the state’s natural assets, mild climate, traditionally friendly population and central location.

Satellite relay to Asia and Europe, more convenient from mid-North America, is one reason Tele-Communications Inc., the world’s largest cable operator, is based in Colorado.

But stresses on basic services such as transportation, water and telephones are great.

Dan Hopkins, spokesman for the Colorado Department of Transportation, said traffic on Interstate 70 is growing 5% a year and traffic on Interstate 25, 3% to 5% a year.

“I-25 traffic between Denver and Castle Rock carries about 55,000 vehicles per day,” Hopkins said. “So we’re bursting at the seams here.”

Hopkins said a comprehensive study on I-70’s future is expected to be completed in December. Some ideas include widening I-70 at an estimated cost of $1.5 billion, or building a light-rail system that would transport tourists into the mountains.

A major 20-year investment study in draft form recommends light rail as the solution to increasing traffic south of Denver, Hopkins said.

Then there’s the Regional Transportation District’s “Guide the Ride” project, a multimillion-dollar prospectus for the improvement of public transit in the six-county Denver metropolitan area through 2015.

Metro officials envision the historic Union Station in lower downtown Denver as the nerve center for buses and trains bearing inbound and outbound commuters and tourists.

Growth, however, is being felt all around Colorado, not just in Denver.

A war is brewing between the increasingly thirsty Front Range and parts of the state that have water, such as the San Luis Valley.

In the mountains, resorts are expanding because of construction of second homes and expanded ski areas, in turn creating demand for more service employees. The Western Slope is the state’s fastest-growing region, demographers say, as new industries and retirees move in.

In southern Colorado, Pueblo is trying to attract business investors and revamp its downtown to draw more tourists. Colorado Springs is grappling with a large transient community made up of military personnel, evangelical followers and newcomers attracted by computer companies.

On the eastern plains, growth over the next few decades is expected to be slower than in the rest of the state. But state trade officials say international demand for agricultural produce and the construction of prisons will boost rural economies.

Meanwhile, Front Range residents fleeing the rat race have moved to other parts of the state, including Grand Junction, Durango, Cortez and Salida. Retirees are moving to the college towns of Boulder and Fort Collins as well as Longmont and Loveland.

Lamm, a Democrat who was governor from 1975 to 1987, said growth has been a leading issue on Colorado opinion polls for the last 30 years.

“Quality of life, the environment--these are issues that very seldom show up in Detroit or Newark or New York. But they really show up in Colorado,” he said. “Most people moved here to get away from mindless growth and endless sprawl.”

‘One of the great crusades of this generation will be to recognize you can’t have infinite population growth in a finite environment.’

Former Gov. Richard Lamm