Real Estate & Construction  August 4, 2006

Without old growth cap, Berthoud seeks balance

BERTHOUD – There was a time Berthoud voters decided they wanted to opt out of Northern Colorado’s rapid growth.

In November 2000, they went to the polls and passed an ordinance capping the town’s annual expansion rate. Under the cap, the number of residential building permits the town could issue each year was limited to no more than 5 percent of its existing residences.

It was a decision that didn’t last very long.

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The initiation of the cap came at a time when a nationwide “slow-growth” movement was gaining speed and some in Berthoud thought 4,839 residents sounded just about right. By 2003, however, signs of a backlash were cropping up throughout the country.

In May 2003, Berthoud voters joined the backlash and rescinded the controversial ordinance upon its third ballot appearance.

Once shed, however, the flood of building-permit and development applications feared by cap proponents failed to materialize, according to Berthoud Town Administrator Jim White.

From a high of 104 permits in 2000, before the cap, applications fell to 21 in 2001 and eight in 2002. Once the cap was lifted, White noted approved applications did increase, but only to 34 in 2004, 53 in 2005 and 20 by June 2006.

White said that while public perception is that Berthoud is experiencing tremendous growth, the reality is that the town has been on the verge for several years.

“It just hasn’t materialized,” White said. “There’s a myriad of factors: The housing costs, the downturn in the economy, plus the lasting impact of the growth cap giving the impression that the town was closed for business.”

White came to Berthoud in 2001, the year after the cap was enacted, and he quickly made no bones about his opposition to the ordinance.

“But my job is just to get us stable without being reactionary; to not just get by but make it a community where people enjoy living. You can’t do that without some help, without having more people live here, or the burden just gets harder and harder for the people who live here,” he added.

Search for balance

Despite his opposition, White professed his belief that the slow-growth process was healthy for the town. He believes the town recognizes the need to find a balance between growing at a financially feasible pace and managing the impact of growth.

As one method of accomplishing that end, the town board has adopted architectural guidelines, currently are in use by the town’s planning department.

Larimer County citizen Karen Stockley was a strong supporter of the cap. Although she lives outside the town’s borders, she is deeply involved in the process and is a strong voice for controlled growth.

“I think Berthoud is such a gem that we have to carefully weigh growth against quality of life issues,” Stockley said. “We need to be concerned about how we’re going to support growth. Rapid growth causes problems with traffic, the schools and we can’t keep up with what we have now.”

Stockley’s involvement led her to serve on a community advisory committee that is assisting in updating the town’s comprehensive plan and land use plan.

“We’re not just (looking at) housing,” Stockley said. “It’s also where we put parks, open space, business and employment centers. I’d approve of most development, really, if it’s well done with open space and we have public facilities for it. But you have to look at every development on its own issues.”

White said the committee is one means by which the town has sought to involve the public in community visioning. Certainly there’s no lack of public input on several controversial developments.

The $14 million Heron Lake project has garnered much attention, much of it focused on a proposed golf course. The 718-acre project, with a potential 500 to 600-housing units, will be located northwest of Berthoud, off the new parkway.

Developer Jon Turner, of Windsor’s Hillside Commercial Group Inc., defines the golf course as open space. Critics, however, say golf course use is limited to golfers, while clearly defined open spaces are available to everyone.

According to White, the lifting of the cap doesn’t mean houses are moving rapidly.

“Some developers build a house, sell it, then build another,” says White. “Others build a house and it just sits.”

Pocketbook issues

A major point of contention between the town and its citizens moves beyond the development issue and hits taxpayers directly in their pocketbooks.

Guidelines set by the state of Colorado required Berthoud to upgrade its wastewater plant when the present plant had reached capacity in 2003.

White said the town had put off the project as long as possible, lacking the resources necessary to build a new plant. But the day of reckoning had finally come.

Stockley doesn’t question the need for a new plant. According to Stockley and news reports, the concern was that the town overbuilt, increasing utility fees by 12.7 percent.

“They decided to go with a plant almost double the size we had previously,” Stockley said. “It’s far more than we’ll need for many years and far more than we can afford. When they decided to go with that, they also went with a company that was more a ‘limousine (quality)’ company and they knew it was going to cost a lot.”

White agreed the new $9 million plant, completed in 2004, has more capacity than Berthoud presently requires. However, he said the town held off on building the new facility until state mandates required replacement of an increasingly inadequate facility.

“It was more cost-effective to build the larger plant now than when costs escalated,´ said White. “Yes, it has put a lot of strain on the town as a result. But looking back, most people involved in making that decision would say it was a prudent decision, under those circumstances.”

White also noted the size of the plant was based on both commercial needs and residential rooftops. Factoring in anticipated commercial growth, he said the town expects to have sufficient capacity for approximately five to 10 years.

Commercial initiatives

To fulfill the promise of that commercial growth, White said the city is working on several initiatives.

“We adopted a Main Street Program in 2002, looking at ways to maintain downtown as the center of the community. We’ve been promoting the farmers’ market for four years. It’s the predominant program put on by the Main Street Program to bring people downtown.

“We also have a design concept that was done in tandem with the town, the (state) Department of Local Affairs and Cooperative Extension to look at different streetscapes. We’re looking at some Mountain Avenue reconstruction to replace water and sewer lines,” White explained.

Stockley, however, is concerned about what she considers too much focus on increases in retail tax revenues.

BERTHOUD – There was a time Berthoud voters decided they wanted to opt out of Northern Colorado’s rapid growth.

In November 2000, they went to the polls and passed an ordinance capping the town’s annual expansion rate. Under the cap, the number of residential building permits the town could issue each year was limited to no more than 5 percent of its existing residences.

It was a decision that didn’t last very long.

The initiation of the cap came at a time when a nationwide “slow-growth” movement was gaining speed and some in Berthoud thought 4,839 residents sounded just about right. By…

Christopher Wood
Christopher Wood is editor and publisher of BizWest, a regional business journal covering Boulder, Broomfield, Larimer and Weld counties. Wood co-founded the Northern Colorado Business Report in 1995 and served as publisher of the Boulder County Business Report until the two publications were merged to form BizWest in 2014. From 1990 to 1995, Wood served as reporter and managing editor of the Denver Business Journal. He is a Marine Corps veteran and a graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder. He has won numerous awards from the Colorado Press Association, Society of Professional Journalists and the Alliance of Area Business Publishers.
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