The Denver sprawl (Boulder, Golden, Aspen: real estate, condos, house)

[OhioToCO]

Originally Posted by xeric

And frankly, I don't think Louisville or Gunbarrel are all that sprawled.

Gunbarrel is not really a town, just an area of Boulder county. It is surrounded by Boulder County open space on the East, South and West and Diagonal Highway on the North-East, so there is nowhere to sprawl
Louisville is likewise surrounded by either open space or other cities like Lafayette. I read somewhere that Louisville just had a last parcel of undeveloped land within the city limits sold to a housing developer.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by wong21fr

There's plenty of sprawl AROUND Boulder, the city just opted to pass on the costs of growth to the surrounding communities by pretending that growth doesn't occur. Go outside of Boulder's 1-mile open space buffer and you'll run into the spawling suburbs of Lousville, Superior, Gunbarrel, and Broomfield.

Boulder did enact all these screwy "growth controls" that pushed growth to other, close by communities. I don't think Broomfield or Superior are particularly sprawly if by sprawl you mean large lot construction. Superior was running out of water. It made a deal with Richmond homes to get a water supply to the old town. Most homes in Superior are on small lots. Obviously, people bought these houses. I recall during a time of very rapid growth in Superior that the mayor said most of the new residents came from. . . Boulder! Superior was an old coal mining town, not a farm town, BTW.

Broomfield was established as a bedroom community in the 1950s. It has continued to grow as such. I don't live there, but my kids did sports at Broomfield High and I found the town to have a good sense of community. Again, it's not a city of huge lots.

[xeric]

Originally Posted by Katiana

Boulder did enact all these screwy "growth controls" that pushed growth to other, close by communities. I don't think Broomfield or Superior are particularly sprawly if by sprawl you mean large lot construction. Superior was running out of water. It made a deal with Richmond homes to get a water supply to the old town. Most homes in Superior are on small lots. Obviously, people bought these houses. I recall during a time of very rapid growth in Superior that the mayor said most of the new residents came from. . . Boulder! Superior was an old coal mining town, not a farm town, BTW.

Broomfield was established as a bedroom community in the 1950s. It has continued to grow as such. I don't live there, but my kids did sports at Broomfield High and I found the town to have a good sense of community. Again, it's not a city of huge lots.

My point is that these outlying communities made their own choices about how they wanted to develop. You can't blame Boulder for the planning and zoning decisions of the neighboring cities.

[HonestOne1]

Sprawl is a unique concept that usually applies to the thought process "they should have stopped building homes after I got here".

[xeric]

Originally Posted by Katiana

Boulder did enact all these screwy "growth controls" that pushed growth to other, close by communities. I don't think Broomfield or Superior are particularly sprawly if by sprawl you mean large lot construction. Superior was running out of water. It made a deal with Richmond homes to get a water supply to the old town. Most homes in Superior are on small lots. Obviously, people bought these houses. I recall during a time of very rapid growth in Superior that the mayor said most of the new residents came from. . . Boulder! Superior was an old coal mining town, not a farm town, BTW.

Broomfield was established as a bedroom community in the 1950s. It has continued to grow as such. I don't live there, but my kids did sports at Broomfield High and I found the town to have a good sense of community. Again, it's not a city of huge lots.

Broomfield always struck me as a city of shopping centers (hence very auto-oriented), although it was largely built at a time when lots were not as large. The case of Superior is just plain weird. When the voters approved that deal (by about 10+ votes as I recall) it resulted in a population increase from 300 to 3000+. Imagine if you were one of 10 people who had the power to increase your town's ultimate size tenfold. Obviously it's the same town in name only.

[Antares45]

Originally Posted by HonestOne1

Sprawl is a unique concept that usually applies to the thought process "they should have stopped building homes after I got here".

Sadly, this is true.

Originally Posted by oulous

Around Golden there were a lot of single family homes, big malls, large streets, a lot of cars on the road. I was curious if Boulder had a similar set up.

A sprawl, meaning car oriented unchecked urban development?

I moved to Golden from the Southeast. Believe me, Golden is not sprawl. If you want Sprawl, go to Atlanta. I believe you're confusing the term "sprawl" with "any town that has more than 1000 residents."

[oulous]

I guess I mean a city that creates borders and then develops up rather than out to accommodate more people. I know its an extremely difficult thing to do but in the long run its really worth it.

We live in Amsterdam at the moment and thats how they have chosen to develop the city. Its very interesting to see it have success.

[Meowen]

Originally Posted by wong21fr

There's plenty of sprawl AROUND Boulder, the city just opted to pass on the costs of growth to the surrounding communities by pretending that growth doesn't occur. Go outside of Boulder's 1-mile open space buffer and you'll run into the spawling suburbs of Lousville, Superior, Gunbarrel, and Broomfield.

The only of the cities you mentioned that have any sprawl at all would be Broomfield.

[Meowen]

Originally Posted by oulous

I guess I mean a city that creates borders and then develops up rather than out to accommodate more people. I know its an extremely difficult thing to do but in the long run its really worth it.

We live in Amsterdam at the moment and thats how they have chosen to develop the city. Its very interesting to see it have success.

Creating defined borders and building up would be a preventative measure for and is the opposite of sprawl, building out IS sprawl

[oulous]

Yes, I was responding to another post that was allocating sprawl as a necessity for new arrivals by naming a city (amsterdam) thats an example of building up instead of out as a solution to sprawl.