Johnstown Feedback (Denver, Loveland, Berthoud: hoa, mcmansion, work)

[djgames]

Well if you want really smalllllll town living, come to Johnstown, where there isn't even a gas station or a place to get your oil change within a reasonable distance. Also, it smells a bit from the Greeley cattle farms, but other than that, well, it's quiet at night, and you can see the stars. The commute to anywhere is brutal on I-25 though. I'd look at Windsor, CO, a couple of miles up the road if I were you. Best of luck.

[jwiley]

Originally Posted by djgames

Well if you want really smalllllll town living, come to Johnstown, where there isn't even a gas station or a place to get your oil change within a reasonable distance. Also, it smells a bit from the Greeley cattle farms, but other than that, well, it's quiet at night, and you can see the stars. The commute to anywhere is brutal on I-25 though. I'd look at Windsor, CO, a couple of miles up the road if I were you. Best of luck.

I could have swore I was at a gas station in Johnstown today, in fact I think it even has a car wash attached to it.

Overall Johnstown is average for a small town in Colorado, although I did not like the school district when I had my daughter in it a few years ago.

[RaeAnn]

My family and I are moving to Johnstown in march 2008 from Austin, TX. I LOVE the fact that it is small and quiet. I'm coming from a pretty big city and I am NOT going to miss the sounds of sirens ever 10 minutes. Anyway, my question is, what's wrong with the schools? That kind of worries me considering I have 3 elementary age daughters. Can you please help ease my mind? Thanks in advance!!!

[jwiley]

Originally Posted by RaeAnn

My family and I are moving to Johnstown in march 2008 from Austin, TX. I LOVE the fact that it is small and quiet. I'm coming from a pretty big city and I am NOT going to miss the sounds of sirens ever 10 minutes. Anyway, my question is, what's wrong with the schools? That kind of worries me considering I have 3 elementary age daughters. Can you please help ease my mind? Thanks in advance!!!

My daughter is Autistic so that may be part of the problem, however many in the school district seemed to be burned out with bad attitudes at the time, and I am talking both the special needs classrooms, and the other teachers I ran across. A few people I know have also not had the greatest experience dealing with their schools these last few years, but that is partly due to the overcrowding and growth going on in the towns of Milliken and Johnstown.

I have heard that they have gotten slightly better recently however if you are not contracted on a house just yet and want a good little town in the same area, I would look real hard at Platteville, housing is a little cheaper for some reason, and my friend raves about the school district with his 10 year old little boy.

[Shuffler]

You're leaving Santa Cruz and considering a move to Johnstown...?! Wow. I suppose it's alright, depending on what you're after. It used to be a nice little farming community, but now it's just another car-centric bedroom community for commuters. I-25 traffic and gas prices might make that slog to Denvoid a bit daunting at times.

[SantaCruzer]

Thread, thank you for your detailed feedback. We are looking at Poineer Ridge infact! How do you like it the neighborhood? We have a 4 year old who will be attending the new Elementary School there in Poineer Ridge. Sounds great as far as we are concerned. Our town used to be small and quaint like Johnstown at one time before the Dot-Com boom and bust.

Do you find the Ryland homes of good quality? I have heard nothing but great things and from the looks of it, it is the best deal in Colorado right now. Are there good places to fish from a canoe, it seems there is a concern for wind in most lake and resevoir areas? Any feedback on the comunity that you may think be helpful to us, please do not hesitate. We are planning on a move to PR in August 2008. We are looking at the Champagne model. Cheers!

Originally Posted by aronshaw

I know that it was a couple of months since your posting, but I did not know if you were still looking for info. I live in the Pioneer Ridge subdivision in a Ryland home. We have been in this neighborhood for 3 years. I will tell you that NOW is the time to buy a home here. They just dropped the prices by 70K dollars---yes, seventy thousand!!! There is a brand new elementary school in the middle of the neighborhood. Our son attends school there and we really love it. Class sizes are currently in the mid 20's which is high for this area, but they are re-establishing boundries and some children are going to be enrolled in the other 2 elementary schools so the class sizes should go down next year. I love the teachers and you can be really involved in the schools. We have a good size high school in town and the middle school is in Milliken which is an even smaller town about 3 miles east of Johnstown. We have a great family-owned market in town (Hays Market), a few restaurants, a Mc Donalds (it's about 5 years old), Subway, Dominos (just came). We have a great shopping mall just 8 miles North of us off of I-25. Denver is about a 40 minute drive. Loveland is close. We do our major grocery shopping in Frederick (about 12 miles south of us). We have a great variety of churches. We have lived in Johnstown for 7 years-we moved from the metro Denver area and we LOVE Johnstown. Best of luck to you and welcome if you choose to make Johnstown your home : )

[Ryan1716]

Johnstown is great. Yes there are some things which you will miss from Santa Cruz (like chain restaurants). I moved to Pioneer Ridge 3 years ago from Orange County, CA and would not ever go back. JT is close enough to get to a lot of areas but you probably won't go towards Denver if you can help it. Denver feels like Los Angeles. It is crowded and full of traffic. If you can avoid driving for work South of 120th on I25 it would be advised. You can get anywhere North of that pretty quickly.

Pioneer Ridge is a really nice sub-division. If you can avoid buying one of the new ones you could probably save a lot of $$$. There are soooo many foreclosures. They are all over the place but not all of them are for sale yet. If you can time your move right you can probably get your model. If you have the $$$ try for a ridge location. The views are great! I don't live on the ridge but I back to a green belt and I can see the range from my yard. I would try to avoid backing to CR 17 as the road noise can be annoying. They are also trying to work a deal with the farms on the other side (east side of CR 17) and if they do that there will be a lot more road noise and the views to the east will change.

Colorado turns brown for a large part of the year. The farms get plowed and remains as dirt until the growing season. The trees lose all of their leafs and are kind of ugly until spring. Living in CA you used to year round green and it was hard (still is) to get used to the brown until spring.

Churches are a plenty and we have found a really good one that is growing and changing as it grows. I have kids in elementary. You might want to check out KQA in Milliken which goes from K-8. They have a waiting list but it does not cost money. It is a Charter School. I am not exactly sure of all the things which make it better but we have been happy.

Yes it snows. Not a big deal except when it is a big deal. Sounds funny but most of the snow is easy to deal with but when there is a blizzard it really doesn't matter where you are along the Front Range, it is still a blizzard. Only had the really bad one in 2006 since I have been here. Most of the state shuts down and you deal with it. The neighborhood pulled together and dug everyone out as a team. I would have never seen something like that in CA.

Everyone is right...Loveland is close and so is Greeley. Firestone and Frederick are basically the same city (they won't admit it) but they also have some nice shopping.

The nice thing about JT is that Loveland annexed a large chunk of land where they have started developing. They are building a 3 million dollar home in JT! We will host the Parade of Homes (not sure on the timing.) So with all of this the tax base should get better which means a better public service budget.

Good luck with the move and let me know if you have any other questions or need anything.

Ryan

[Sockeye]

Johnstown was originally an agriculturally centered town, and still largely is. It's become one of those places where you thought you'd "never see this happen"- a bedroom community.
Just east of the main drag you'll soon have a retail strip mall anchored by a Safeway.
I've had some excellent waterfowl hunting experiences on land now covered with subdivisions. Ditto Windsor, Timnath, and Severance. When Bruce's Bar closed, I knew it was all over.

[Shuffler]

Johnstown is just another 'drive to qualify' community. They figured they had to do something to grow the tax base, so the town sold out to developers. There is nothing special or unique about Johnstown when you take off your rose-colored glasses, it's just another one of the 'me too' homogenized I-25 corridor communities propped up by a swath of McHouses and retail dreck to feed the 'needs' of consumers.

It will be interesting to see how places like Johnstown fare in the wake of $130/bbl oil and a teetering U.S. economy....

[SuzieQ68]

Hello, my husband and I are moving to Johnstown all the way from New York State. I have done alot of research. We own a RV. I am having a bit of trouble finding out which sub divisions allow them. Any advice would be appreciated, as we will be there in about four weeks.