Brighton’s small-town style thrives

But closer ties to Denver worry some

Terry Lucero thinks nothing of letting his 14-year-old daughter walk 15 blocks to Subway to get a sandwich. He lives, after all, not in Denver, Fort Collins or even Greeley, but in Brighton.

“We don’t have a large amount of crime,” Lucero said. “Public safety is way at the top of our priorities.”

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He ought to know: Lucero is Brighton’s mayor.

Brighton, for years settled in at a population of about 14,000, is experiencing the same type of growth happening up and down the Front Range.

“Six years ago it heated up,” Lucero said of growth. The small town quickly boomed to a population of 23,600. It’s estimated that Brighton will have a population of 26,000 in the year 2005.

The Adams County seat is now made up of natives living next door to newcomers. Most of the new residents are young families, drawn to Brighton’s good schools, small-town charm and proximity to Denver and other cities in Northern Colorado. The average age of a Brighton resident is 36.6, though the median is 35 years.

The median household income is $44,431, while the average is $52,315.

“Adams County is traditionally the lowest county in the area for income,´ said Donna Spradling, president and chief executive officer of the Brighton Economic Development Corp. “We’re catching up very quickly. Income is (going up) at an increasing rate.” Median household income has been increasing 6.3 percent annually since 1990, she said.

A shift to middle class/blue collar from agriculture/blue collar is also indicative of the change occurring in and around Brighton. Though agriculture remains an important component in Brighton’s economy, it does not have the dominance it once held. Instead, Spradling said government is a huge driver of Brighton’s economy. Adams County is Brighton’s largest employer, with 1,628 people holding a variety of jobs. Other large employers include the school district with 650 employees; Kmart Distribution Center with 458 employees and Platte Valley Medical Center with 392 employees. Others with 100 or more employees include Central Products, Petrocco Farms, Wal-Mart, Tagawa Greenhouse Inc., city of Brighton, American Pride Co-op, Seventeenth Judicial District, King Soopers, Safeway, Kmart, Albertsons, Brighton Care Center, United Power, Kitiyama Brothers and Little Valley Nurseries.

“A lot of our smaller employers are experiencing growth,” Spradling said. Accountants, stockbrokers and the like are “all growing and adding jobs. It’s well-balanced, all-around growth.”

Also, in the last five years, 1,000 jobs have been added to Brighton’s employment picture with the addition of King Soopers and the expansion of Albertsons and Wal-Mart and other new retail stores setting up shop.

Though Brighton’s proximity to Denver might leave some thinking it’s only a matter of time before Brighton gets gobbled up, Spradling said residents are doing what they can to ensure that doesn’t happen. “The community is very strongly aware that agriculture is a component of our community and that it adds character. Super Wal-Mart just opened and is buying all its corn from Sakata (a local grower).”

Residents also are adamant about not becoming physically connected to Denver. “We have a long-term goal in having our community be a free-standing community with open space and agricultural areas around us,´ said John Bramble, Brighton city manager. “It’s an ambitious goal. We’re finalizing the open-space master plan and we’re finding we don’t generate enough money to completely surround us with open space. We do have some natural borders, such as the Platte River, and we’re encouraging businesses along E-470 to have greater setbacks than E-470 (Highway Authority) requires.”

Yet Brighton is influenced by the metropolis to the south. E-470, the toll road that starts in south Denver by Park Meadows Mall, will be open to traffic via U.S. Highway 85 and 120th Ave. by 2003. And though Denver International Airport is just four miles to the east, its impact has been more in the number of new people — both business travelers and airport employees — moving to Brighton as a way to shorten the commute, said Bramble.

“Land prices are still lower here than they are in other parts of the metropolitan area, so we’re starting to see businesses and residential developers head our direction.”

But Bramble said Brighton will continue to have a number of agriculture-related businesses as part of its economy for decades to come. “We hope it will always be part of our community. Probably we will get further and further away from an ag feel as more people move here.”

Bramble added he is not proposing Brighton lose its agricultural heritage, but rather is taking a realistic stance “as new people move in with no agricultural background.”

Though the days of driving through corn fields to get from Denver to Brighton may be a thing of the past, Mayor Lucero said Brighton is taking a proactive stance in controlling growth. While many of communities have talked about growth control, Lucero said Brighton is one of the few communities along the Front Range that has implemented one. “That actually didn’t please everybody.”

Developers, for example, stymied by Brighton’s restrictions, simply take their projects a few miles outside of city limits. Such was the case with a 1,200-home development now in Commerce City’s city limits, though as the eagle flies, it is a mere two miles outside of Brighton, Lucero said. Todd Creek to the west, in unincorporated Adams County, has the potential of drawing in 50,000 new residents. Even Lochbuie to the east has approved a 2,000-unit subdivision.

“Where are these people going to spend their money? Buy their groceries? Recreate their time? In our community,” Lucero said. “We are not an island. Even though we can control what happens in our city limits, it doesn’t minimize annexations as far as the eye can see.

“Brighton is one of the gems. We have small-town atmosphere, a slower pace. We created it and we’re proud of it. We’d like to maintain it.”