Why are you here? That’s right, I am talking to you. Let me be a bit more specific. Why are you living here in Elbert County right now? Were you born here? Did you want to live in a county that was a little more rural? Did you want to raise chickens? Did you always want to have your very own horse to ride? Did you get a belly full of having neighbors whose house was within ten feet of your property line? Did you want your children to grow up in a place that was free of some of the pressures that inner cities often place in the way of their development? Did you want to revel in the pristine quiet and the incredible night skies? Perhaps it was just a chance to catch a glimpse of honest to goodness wildlife. Every one of those choices are legitimate and you probably know someone who could identify with one or more of those reasons.
If you are being honest with yourself, you probably did not move out here so that you could snap your fingers and your surroundings would turn into Aurora or Colorado Springs. If you actually made the conscious decision to move here, then you probably did not expect to see an AMC 24 screen movie theater in a brand spanking new mall any time soon. You probably understood that your drinking water was going to be from a domestic well. You probably understood you would be driving your car on gravel roads a good portion of the time and your windshield would need replacing from gravel projectiles pelting it on a regular basis. This is what living in the rural areas along the Front Range in Colorado is like. You can wish it was different, but that is not going to bring about significant change unless investors from areas outside the county decide they need what you have; undeveloped property, underdeveloped natural resources and/or unexploited tourism potential.
Elbert County is on the cusp of consequential change and I predict that in a few years, unless we do a better job of planning for it, few of us are going to recognize the old place when and if current population projections hold true. As I stated in my last blog post, there will be an additional 2.4 million Coloradans living here by the year 2040. They will mainly live along the Front Range in the area from Ft. Collins to Colorado Springs.
It is not impossible to foresee a doubling of the Elbert County population in the next few years. With no intention of casting shade on the Independence development project or the other plans for development along County Road 58, that area alone, if built out to completion will likely represent a 10% increase in population in our county. If it happens, (and I have little reason to believe it won’t), we have to hope that our elected officials have their thinking caps screwed on tightly for a wide variety of reasons.
When population grows, there is a mixed bag of ancillary side effects that must be taken into consideration. Some of them are wonderful. Some of them are not. Some of them include hard lessons that change the persona of a community or county in unexpected ways.
As of January 1, 2016, Douglas County population was projected to be 327,230. http://www.douglas.co.us/documents/douglas-county-demographics-summary.pdf. In 1970, Douglas County’s population was 8,608. When I moved to Elbert County in 1997, Douglas County was slightly above 130,000. That represents a 251% increase in 19 years and an overall increase in population of 380% since I graduated from high school. If you were born on a farm in Douglas County in the 1960’s and are still living there today, your perspective on rampant growth might be something Elbert County might wish to discuss with you.
Sometimes you have to be careful when making wishes. Most of you reading this would agree that we need more commercial development in the county so that there are more local jobs. That said, you have to be prepared for the increased traffic, the sprawl of housing developments that eradicate the once beautiful views that surround you today. You have to be prepared for increased needs for new schools, changing political dynamics, increased costs of services and a diminishing rural lifestyle.
Let’s also be cognizant of the fact that if housing brings in more blue collar workers than upper management types that you might find in Douglas County, our Elbert County may start voting a more blue agenda. Are you ready for marijuana dispensaries, for instance, because this is Colorado after all ?
I grew up in Aurora when it was rural and conservative. Today it is a very different place and I do not go back there often. I am not saying it is a bad thing to grow and that you should be fearful, but I am asking you if you are prepared for it. Growth changes communities, that no one can deny.
If it means anything to you at all, do something about it today, while you still can. Attend meetings about developing a new master plan. Go to a few planning commission meetings to see how this body produces recommendations to the BOCC. Call and ask our planners specific questions about future growth and demand answers. They are there to serve the community, not produce a future that does not include your input. "Mundus cult decipi, ergo decipiatur” suggests that if you wish to abdicate the decision of Elbert County’s future to those whose vision might not reflect your values, then let it be so. It may be that my vision is different than yours, but if neither of us stand up and make our voices heard, then the future of Elbert County belongs to those whose only vision is to prosper by our inaction.
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