Greeley was the fastest growing metro area between 2000 and 2003, outpacing high-profile metro areas such as Las Vegas, according to a report released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The area referred to as Greeley actually includes all of Weld County, said Paul Mackun, who wrote the census report. A metro area includes at least one urbanized area of 50,000 people.
Weld County grew by about 30,000 people and charted a 16.8 percent increase, according to the report. It grew to roughly 211,000 from roughly 181,000, during the three-year stretch. The city of Greeley, meanwhile, grew by more than 6,500 and now exceeds 83,500.
“Weld has a lot of things going for it, as far as the transportation corridors on I-25 and I-76,” said Elizabeth Garner, state demographer. “You could go almost anywhere from there. You could go to Fort Collins, come to Denver, go to Boulder or stay in Weld County.”
Lower land prices than those in Denver have boosted growth in the area , and the highways have made it easier for commuters, she said. Garner estimates that most of the new residents are relocating from other parts of the Denver metro area and Colorado.
The report named St. George, Utah, the second fastest growing area, with an increase of 15.2 percent to 104,000 people. The third was Las Vegas.
The Census Bureau also ranked “micro” statistical areas, places where there is at least one urban cluster of 10,000 to 50,000 people. The Colorado towns of Edwards (No. 14) and Montrose (No. 18) ranked in the Top 20 fastest growing nationwide.
In Weld County, most growth took place in the southwest part of the county, the area within 25 to 30 miles of Denver, said Phil Klein, a geographer at the University of Northern Colorado.
“Accessibility is the key to these places,” Klein said. “I-25 is a magnet dragging the city borders toward the west; the towns are growing toward the highway.”
The growth along the highway concerns those who oversee transportation patterns in the metro area, said Jeff May, director of Metro Vision Resource Center for the Denver Regional Council of Governments.
Regional planners are taking the added commuters into consideration as transportation routes are plotted for future growth and construction.
While affordable homes contribute to added stress on highways, they also add to concerns of local officials trying to manage a historically agricultural area affected by a big city.
Still, the growth report isn’t a surprise, said Weld County Sheriff John Cooke, who took notice several years ago that Weld County was becoming more populated.
“Everywhere you look, they are building,” he said.
The growth prompted the creation of a traffic unit and has contributed to a wing being added to the county jail, Cooke said.
“Weld is very diverse in that the northern part of the county is agricultural and (population is) very sparse,” Cooke said. “In the south part of the county, where all the population is … they want the same municipal services they were getting from the city.”
Five years ago, the sheriffs’ department created a traffic unit with five deputies. Today, there are 11 officers on the team. The department also has named community resource officers who help set up neighborhood watch programs in new developments.
With all those newcomers, adjustments have to be made, Cooke said.
“They build a house next to a dairy farm and complain about the flies and the smells. We have to mitigate that,” Cooke said. “It’s growing pains. It’s about trying to get the country culture to work with the metro culture moving in.”
Staff writer Elizabeth Aguilera can be reached at 303-820-1372 or eaguilera@denverpost.com.
