Affordable living, jobs, I-76 fuel growth in Lochbuie

LOCHBUIE – It may have a strange name, but this small town on the southeast edge of Weld County along Interstate 76 has been one of the region’s fastest growing for construction.

Despite the recession, Lochbuie (pronounced lock-boo-ee, the Scottish term for “blue lake”) issued 99 single-family home building permits in 2009. That’s a high number for this community of 5,550 when you consider that Fort Collins – a city with more than 27 times the population – issued only 158 single-family home building permits in the same year.

The growth is also quite an accomplishment for a town that started in 1961 as a mobile home development called Spacious City. Residents quickly dubbed the community “Space City” during the era of man’s first space travel.

The Town of Lochbuie was incorporated in 1974 and saw its population slowly climb from about 900 residents in 1980 to 2,000 in 2000. In the last decade, the population has nearly tripled.

Fueling the recent growth is affordable, rural and safe living, town officials say. Living costs and taxes are lower here than in bigger brother Brighton just to the southwest, but Lochbuie still has the advantages of being 10 minutes away from Denver International Airport, and a 30-minute commute to Denver via I-76.

“I-76 is an interstate without the traffic problems of I-25,´ said Tim Katers, a contract planner for Lochbuie. He said Lochbuie’s growth in recent years could be attributed to the real-estate industry adage of “drive till you qualify.”

“If you can’t live in Cherry Creek in Denver, get in the car and keep driving,” Katers said. Lochbuie is the stopping point where people reach that affordability mark – the median home price was about $150,000 in 2009.

Not just for commuters

Lochbuie isn’t just a commuter neighborhood for the Denver metro area. The Weld and Adams counties region surrounding it is quickly growing as an attractive place for industries to set up shop.

The biggest announcement came when the Danish wind-turbine manufacturer Vestas decided to build a new nacelle assembly plant and blade factory in Brighton. The nacelle assembly plant currently employs 280 people, with 500 jobs expected at full capacity. The blade plant is scheduled to open in 2011 and Vestas has begun hiring some 750 employees expected to work there.

Lochbuie officials are working with the nearby small towns of Hudson and Keensburg, along with Upstate Colorado Economic Development, to attract more primary jobs to the area.

While willing to help attract those new job creators to the region, Lochbuie Town Administrator Mike Hutto said he prefers that the heavy industry stay on the outskirts of town. His preference is to grow Lochbuie, but keep it a friendly, affordable and mostly rural place to live.

A little more commercial development, however, wouldn’t hurt, Hutto said. In contrast to Lochbuie’s impressive growth in the residential sector, commercial development has been lacking.

“You can count the commercial establishments on one hand,” Katers said. “A gas station, convenience store, restaurant and bar.”

Most residents drive to Brighton for groceries and other services.

Commercial development on horizon

Town officials are looking to change that as the town reaches a critical mass to support commercial development. The Bromley Cos. is looking to attract a big-box retailer to anchor its proposed Lochbuie Commercial Center on 82 acres it owns at I-76 and Baseline Road.

The Greenwood Village-based company is familiar with the area after seeing the growth in its residential development of Silver Peaks, where it has built and sold about 300 of a planned 2,000 units on 600 acres, said Bromley principal John Spillane.

Bromley also has 250 acres of vacant, partially platted land on the north side of town called Altamira, where it’s planning to build about 900 homes. And it’s assembling and looking to annex another 700 acres east of I-76 for a higher-end residential development called the Highlands.

All of those future building plans depend on the economy, Spillane said. But he’s confident once the economy and credit markets rebound, Lochbuie will be an area of fast growth. He points to the town’s commitment and ability to grow with its recent doubling of capacity at the water and sewage treatment plants.

It’s not all good news in Lochbuie, though. The slow economy has forced the town to cut back its staff in places, and the developers of the Bella Vista neighborhood in town are going through bankruptcy, proving the town isn’t immune to the national recession.

Still, Lochbuie remains a relative bright spot in a tough economy. The town is already on track to beat last year’s 99 building permits, officials said, with 77 permits filed so far in 2010.

David Clucas is a freelance writer based in Boulder. Contact him at [email protected].

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