Full of busy streets, neatly laid out neighborhoods, heavily used open space and vibrant business parks, it’s hard to envision a farming community once operating in Broomfield’s place.
The grain elevators nestled along 120th Avenue are some of the few artifacts that transport the imagination to the smaller, simpler community Broomfield once was. The juxtaposition from Broomfield then vs. Broomfield now is stark, and tells a tale of growth, expansion and new opportunities.
For some, the growth was inevitable. For others, it was exciting. For city leaders, it was strategic.
Economy
A drive down U.S. 36 paints a picture of a vibrant economic landscape — from Boulder, FlatIron Crossing, Interlocken and the 1STBANK Center are clear indicators of a few of Broomfield’s economic drivers. A sight that 60 years ago, some may have never thought possible.
Roughly equidistant between Denver and Boulder along U.S. 36, it makes sense that Broomfield became the hub that it is.
“Clearly economic growth and growth in Broomfield is somewhat tied to growth in the region, so as the region has grown and the region has developed specific industrious that the area can all its own, Broomfield has benefited from some of that growth,” Director of Economic Vitality and Development John Hall said.
Those industries helped create the infrastructure that made it feasible for new industries, and the new industries led to employees moving in, Hall explained, which all served as important economic drivers.
“You think about the very, very agricultural history transitioning right into tech, and that’s an interesting thing,” Broomfield Museum Coordinator David Allison said. “There wasn’t a lot of big, heavy industry, which you usually think is the transition point. It was agriculture straight to tech.”
Broomfield was soon identified as a place for individuals and businesses to make investments.
“And, absolutely, part of that process that is individuals, people, households, voting with their feet, choosing specific communities for the attributes that that specific community has,” Hall said.
Director of Development Finance and Economist Jeff Romine added the growth is a byproduct of intentional decisions throughout the years. Some decisions seem obvious for economic growth, such as the Denver Boulder turnpike, while others, like Broomfield’s commitment to open space, may not have felt like an economic decision at the time.
“That investment into trails and parks was an investment in the community and the quality of life, and trying to preserve the uniqueness and sustainability of the community,” Romine said.
He said 30 years ago, that wasn’t considered a driving factor. But now, he said one of the most significant things companies talk about is Broomfield’s open space. It attracts employers and employees alike.
Mayor Pat Quinn has been involved in Broomfield’s open space since the beginning.
“My basic attitude from the beginning was … you cannot stop growth but you can manage it. And one of those ways is through the acquisition of open space,” Quinn said.
Broomfield’s Comprehensive Plan calls for preserving 40% of the community’s planning area in open lands. Currently, 34.9% of the city and county’s planning area is in public and private open space and parks, according to Broomfield’s open space and trails webpage.
While the COVID-19 pandemic forced many employees to adapt to working from home, Romine said that will not be the new norm.
“We heard from our larger companies that house in Interlocken that they’re looking forward to bringing employees back on site, not at 100% (capacity) at the same time,” he said. “There will be a hub of activity and a robustness of activity as there was before and it will continue to grow. … We’re social people. Economics are also that way.”
Dining and retail, both hit hard by the pandemic, are beginning to bounce back in Broomfield, Romine said.
Looking ahead, Bromfield’s Economic Development department is already thinking about how the community will evolve.
“Some of the greatest challenges the community is facing is thinking about housing, education and sustainability issues,” Romine said. “It’s how do we make sure the talented workforce that companies are looking to access, how can that talent pool access jobs with transportation or nearby housing.”
“It really is, to some extent, standing on the shoulders of giants,” Hall said. “Those people made these really thoughtful decisions decades ago about what was uniquely Broomfield and what continues to be uniquely Broomfield.”
Transportation
Perhaps the clearest and earliest driver of growth in Broomfield is its transportation system.
Since the late 1800s, transportation put, and has kept, Broomfield on the map. The Colorado Central Railroad brought a line from Golden in 1873, and other railroad lines followed suit. Construction began on the Boulder Turnpike in 1950, which had its only interchange and tollbooth in Broomfield. It’s said that the new Broomfield began in 1955.
The Denver Boulder turnpike, now known as U.S. 36, was a big step for growth in Broomfield.
“That was a very thoughtful decision to connect Boulder and CU to Denver a number of years ago,” Romine said. “And the fact that an interchange, because of U.S. 287, allowed Broomfield to begin to be one of those first places in between Boulder and Denver. That highway construction, and the consideration for transportation was an early indicator of what may cause Broomfield to grow.”
More than 70 years after the turnpike’s construction, Broomfield still relies heavily on its roadways as employees sift in and out of town every day.
Transportation Manager Sarah Grant said Broomfield is a commuter community — and regional transportation is vital.
About 86% of Broomfield residents work outside of Broomfield, and about 88% of Broomfield employees live outside Broomfield, Grant said, citing data in the transportation portion of the 2016 comprehensive plan.
“Being part of our historical fabric with the U.S. 36 turnpike, we’re working on a lot of regional transportation projects with our community neighbors — (Colorado Department of Transportation,) (Regional Transportation District) — to be sure we have multimodal transportation options for residents,” Grant said.
Multimodal transportation has been more than a 20-year long journey in Broomfield.
Broomfield’s shift in mobility preferences includes more multimodal mobility hubs and shared use of things such as bikes and scooters. There’s been an emergence of Transportation Network Companies, and residents want to see more walkable and bikeable neighborhoods, Grant explained to Broomfield City Council in December during a transportation update on ongoing projects.
“Equidistant from Denver and Boulder, Broomfield continues to have strong ties to both communities, and Broomfield has emerged as a destination for regional employment and shopping,” the comprehensive plan states. “As in the past, the future health of Broomfield will depend on the quality of the transportation system serving the area.”
Traffic and mobility needs are bound to increase as both Broomfield and the Denver metro area continue to see population and employment growth, the plan notes.
“Many parts of Broomfield are not adequately served by Regional Transportation District (RTD) routes, and evening and weekend service is minimal. Alternatives to driving are critically important to members of the community who have difficulties with mobility, including older adults, persons with disabilities and young people. Regional growth is creating pressure on roadways internal to Broomfield, as well as on the state highway system serving the Broomfield area,” the plan reads.
The 2016 plan also outlines Broomfield’s transportation vision: “to provide a well connected and well maintained multimodal transportation system that safely and effectively accommodates all modes (pedestrian, bicycle, automobile, bus, rail and freight), provides mobility for goods and people of all ages and abilities while supporting economic development, reducing dependence on the single-occupant vehicle and minimizing environmental impacts.”
The transportation department remains busy trucking along on its multiple, ongoing projects that align with that vision. A list of recently completed and ongoing transportation projects can be found at broomfield.org/3272/Capital-Projects.
Housing
To make a perfect suburb, take proximity to a big city, add transportation and the next needed ingredient is housing.
Longtime Broomfield residents know the tale of former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who with several of his fishing buddies bought land that is now Broomfield.
“Because they knew the federal government was going to have a contract for the Titan Missile somewhere in Colorado,” City Councilwoman and lifetime Broomfield resident Elizabeth Law-Evans said.
The Broomfield location made it to the top two, but, ultimately, didn’t win the bid, leaving Eisenhower and his partners — including Bal Swan — with a plot of land. The Turnpike Land Company was formed, which led to the city’s first and second filing and the construction of Broomfield Heights. There were 164 house lots in the first filing, according to a 2009 update from the Historic Landmark Board. Homes sold for a base price of $12,500.
With houses in Broomfield quickly going up and filling up through the ’60s, Broomfield was best known as a bedroom community. Residents would hop on a bus to go work in Denver or Boulder.
The city had every major amenity, but lacked extensive employment opportunities.
“Until Interlocken came around at the very end of the ’70s,” Law-Evans said. “That was the beginning of Broomfield’s transformation from a bedroom community to now what we’re calling the creative corridor.”
The Interlocken development led a shift in planning and zoning that led to places like Aspen Creed and eventually the Broadlands, designed to bring in homes for those higher on the socioeconomic stratum, Law-Evans said.
“It’s been successful beyond our wildest dreams, in that it worked,” Law-Evans said. “It got a high level of people to come here and work here, but it was a disaster in the sense that everyone needs folks to work those jobs that we all depend on on a daily basis, store clerks, things like that. We have priced those folks out. The situation has priced those folks out.”
Multiple studies have emerged that quantify Broomfield’s growth — it was the ninth fastest growing city nationwide from 2014 to 2015.
During the span of a few years, several apartment complexes were approved along U.S. 36. Still, Broomfield has few affordable and attainable housing options.
In March 2020, City Council added a chapter to the municipal code requiring developers to take affordable and attainable housing into consideration when building housing units.
Broomfield’s housing market is competitive, following statewide trends. The latest trends are hard to believe, Law-Evans, a commercial real estate broker for more than 20 years, said.
“And the forecasts are calling for another 7-10% of appreciation in 2021 in Broomfield,” she said. On top of that, Law-Evans said she heard a statistic that there are more licensed real estate brokers than there are homes for sale.
“There’s no supply. That further prices people out of the market,” she said. “I wish I had the ability to foresee where the next big shift is going to be, but I don’t have the foggiest idea.”
Business
In the 60s, there were about 100 people in professional businesses in Broomfield, said Broomfield Chamber of Commerce president Sam Taylor. A community that once was centered around agriculture has developed into a home for more than 4,000 businesses today.
“It’s not really luck,” Taylor said. “It’s the long planning from the current city manager and the people before that, who said let’s make sure we have good transportation, structure, housing, how can we do this intelligently.”
Taylor said Interlocken was the long-planned park designed to be the northern anchor of Denver’s tech center. Things like that, he said, were deliberate decisions to ensure sustainable growth in Broomfield.
Growth soon followed Interlocken, with infrastructure slowly but strategically being built out.
Quinn said the FlatIron Crossing Mall, which opened in 2000, was another turning point for business in Broomfield.
Now, as a city and county with only 34 square miles, the same strategic mindset is required to figure out how to develop the little area that’s left. Taylor said the Baseline development at Interstate 25 and Colo. 7 is the next big development in the works. After that, it soon becomes a matter of working through redevelopment — strategically, of course. He said the city and county will have to work through things like what businesses or industries to attract, and meeting the required demographics of those businesses.
“I think we’re setting ourselves up to be able to take advantage of any of these disruptions and pivot,” Taylor said. “How do you react when things aren’t the way you think they would be? The Chamber has been doing that for 60 years, and we will continue to do that for 60 more years.”
Diversity
When Carolyn Love moved to Broomfield in 1985, she was one of four black families in town. Her daughter was one of two black students in her elementary school class.
“It was traumatizing for her. There were students who didn’t want to sit close to them. It was amazing some of the attitudes toward people of color at this point in time,” Love said, adding that she and her husband decided to send their daughter to school in Denver.
More than 30 years later, Love said Broomfield has come a long way. But she is still cautious about her surroundings. She won’t go on a walk around her neighborhood if it’s dark outside or if the sun will set mid-walk.
The city and county has taken substantial steps in diversity, equity and inclusion work, City and County Manager Jennifer Hoffman said.
“We wanted to walk the walk after the George Floyd murder. It was a catalyst for reform, (but) that’s (just) one very small piece,” Hoffman said. “It really is transforming your community into what has always been there but hasn’t necessarily been seen or heard or acknowledged or engaged.”
Hoffman said a consultant was hired and the city and county created a Diversity, Equity, Access and Inclusion department. The communications team has been engaging with the community and starting the conversation.
“We’re developing those relationships with those voices that haven’t been asked. What is it, what does it feel like, how does it taste, how do we move it or how do we just stop and make space for people to engage,” Hoffman said. “It’s messy and hard to hear. We don’t look at it as a project, we look at it as a culture, and that includes all voices. … When you live in a community that doesn’t have the foundational structure to be heard, it’s not something that happens organically. People have to work together to acknowledge it and bring it out and be prepared. It’s going to be tough.”
All city and county employees will go through mandatory training by the end of December, spokeswoman Carolyn Romero said.
“What’s critical is that what we’re developing is sustainable. It doesn’t matter who’s on council, who’s in the city manager’s office. It becomes embedded in what this community is,” Hoffman said.
In 2018, 77.1% of Broomfield’s population identified as white, according to DataUSA.
Love founded Kebaya Consulting, her business that offers diversity, equity and inclusion training.
“People need to understand what equity is doing to us as human beings,” Love said, later adding, “We need to be thinking about equity when we put our policies in place to see who benefits and who’s inadvertently harmed and what we can do to mitigate the harm.”
For Love, it’s about starting the conversation. She said the diversity murals at U.S. 287 and Colo. 128 have done just that.
"exciting" - Google News
May 23, 2021 at 08:14PM
https://ift.tt/34eq0iw
Broomfield Life 2021: Since incorporation, Broomfield’s growth strategic, inevitable, exciting - Broomfield Enterprise
"exciting" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2GLT7hy
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Broomfield Life 2021: Since incorporation, Broomfield’s growth strategic, inevitable, exciting - Broomfield Enterprise"
Post a Comment