Land use

Colorado consumed by 'rural sprawl'
Christian Science Monitor; 03/29/2004

Conservation program slows suburban sprawl in Montana
Bozeman Daily Chronicle; 02/01/2004

Massive Arizona development under scrutiny already
Arizona Republic; 01/29/2004

Colorado's sprawl costs more than planning, study says
Denver Business Journal; 12/16/2003

Idaho towns, county hope to fence in sprawl on the range
Spokane Spokesman-Review; 11/17/2003

Utah growth concentrated in suburbs, data show
Salt Lake Tribune; 07/10/2003

Wyoming subdivisions cost more than they pay, study says
Casper Star-Tribune; 05/13/2003

Retirees

Utah among fastest-growing states
Salt Lake Tribune; 03/10/2004

Wyoming's share of retirees will be highest in nation, AARP says
Billings Gazette; 01/07/2004

Retirees at odds with Western energy boom
Salt Lake Tribune, 12/29/03

Wyoming facing aging problem
Denver Rocky Mountain News, 10/19/03

Hispanic Issues

Education

Study shows lack of diversity in Colorado educators
Durango Herald; 04/12/2004

Denver's Latino curriculum catches on
Denver Post; 04/07/2004

Minority students changing the face of Colorado schools
Denver Rocky Mountain News; 03/21/2004

Santa Fe schools struggle to close learning gap
Santa Fe New Mexican; 01/04/2004

Economic

West's Hispanics among nation's most employed
Denver Post; 02/24/2004

Salt Lake City courts Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Salt Lake Tribune; 01/18/2004

Politics

Presidential candidates make push for Latino vote
Arizona Business Journal; 04/12/2004

Utah Republicans welcome Hispanic voters
Salt Lake Tribune; 04/05/2004

Denver Latinos want more say in, services from city government
Boulder Daily Camera (AP); 03/03/2004

Hispanics primary in New Mexico vote
Santa Fe New Mexican (Washington Post); 02/02/2004

Critics say ulterior motives show through immigration reform
Denver Post; 01/08/2004

Colorado College

Center of the American West Tracking the Changing West

Denver University Institute for Public Policy Studies

Routt County, Colorado

The Trust for Public Lands review of Routt County, Colo.'s Ranchlands and Natural Areas Initiative

Demographic Change in Small Cities, 1990-2000, A National League of Cities Report

Ecological Causes and Consequences of Demographic Change in the New West, 2002 American Institute of Biological Sciences(pdf)

Demographic Changes in Arizona, U.S. Census Bureau 2001-2002 Supplementary Survey Changes

Demographic Changes in Colorado, U.S. Census Bureau 2001-2002 Supplementary Survey Changes

Demographic Changes in Idaho, U.S. Census Bureau 2001-2002 Supplementary Survey Changes

Demographic Changes in Montana, U.S. Census Bureau 2001-2002 Supplementary Survey Changes

Demographic Changes in Nevada, U.S. Census Bureau 2001-2002 Supplementary Survey Changes

Demographic Changes in New Mexico, U.S. Census Bureau 2001-2002 Supplementary Survey Changes

Demographic Changes in Utah, U.S. Census Bureau 2001-2002 Supplementary Survey Changes

Demographic Changes in Wyoming, U.S. Census Bureau 2001-2002 Supplementary Survey Changes

Many of the challenges facing the Rocky Mountain West are exacerbated by the region's changing demographics.

NIMBYism (the not-in-my-backyard mentality) has shifted during the last 30 years from the once-rampant anger towards outsiders associated with the Sagebrush Rebellion to a somewhat more subtle animosity towards the New or Next West and its associated neophytes: the tenderfoots, cappuccino cowboys, minority immigrants, young part-time workers, starving artists and retirees.

Just read the average SUV bumper sticker, which for the past few years has touted the proclamation "Native" in an almost hip, almost trend-setting fashion, and you will feel the faint loathing that has settled in the thin air of the Rocky Mountain West.

Here in Colorado, I find that more often than not, the changing culture of the region not only finds old-time residents squabbling with newcomers and their associated values, but newcomers squabbling with yet-more-recent newcomers.

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We stand at the edge of a second Sagebrush Rebellion of sorts ... one in which the enemy is no longer the distant federal government, but possibly your newest neighbor.

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People in the Rocky Mountain West aren't easily positioned on one side of the newcomer-old-timer dynamic. According to 2000 Census Bureau statistics, just over half (54 percent) of the residents of the eight Rocky Mountain States (AZ, CO, ID, MT, NM, NV, UT, WY) lived in a different house in 1995 and only 84 percent lived in the same state in 2000 as they did in 1995.

Now, the once-subtle distaste towards newcomers has become increasingly vocal. No longer is the rebellion one of "insiders" against distant bureaucrats, but one that pits resident against resident. We stand at the edge of a second Sagebrush Rebellion of sorts, one fought in new arenas ranging from local planning meetings all the way up to the board of the Sierra Club; one in which the enemy is no longer the distant federal government, but possibly your newest neighbor.

Disparate approaches towards coping with newcomers in the Rocky Mountain West have ushered in what I will call the bumper-sticker rebellion (for lack of a better name) – a fervent rush to capture a sense of place in the Rockies before someone carves away your slice for their own.

It doesn't really matter whether you've been frustrated with change for 10 years or 10 months, people all over the Rocky Mountains are clinging to any sort of collective frustration they can muster to assert themselves in this rugged landscape.

And therein lies the problem for most communities in the Rockies – frustration leads to paralysis. Instead of creativity in the face of rapid change, there is a failure to proactively organize the community to generate new assets for the coming decades.

Too often, stressed communities fail to prepare for any potential negative consequences associated with change. Reactionary responses to change ensue, as "locals" seek to seal the gates of a community and then try to revive old-time, traditional economic realities that went into cardiac arrest long, long ago.

Communities everywhere are making decisions, often unconsciously, that shape their ability to cope with the onslaught of growth and change. These decisions and non-decisions shape community futures and they impact community wealth – commonly thought of as a trinity of social, natural, and financial capital.

Colorado College's first annual "State of the Rockies Report Card," to be released at the 2004 Rockies Conference on May 3-4, represents a unique attempt to analyze community assets and the decisions that affect them.

As you may have guessed from my lengthy introduction to this Report Card, I am postulating that a community's approach to change, proactive vs. reactive, is directly related to that community's health, vibrancy and vitality.

My job description then, as one of two primary authors of the report, requires that I assume a guidance counselor-like position for a region I cannot claim to know with all that much intimacy. I am a 23-year-old recent Colorado College natural resource management graduate from Pennsylvania, who probably would have slipped into what Ray Rasker of the Sonoran Institute calls "the voluntary sloth-effect" had my skills and background not suited me for this position – I am a young part-time-worker, if you follow the canon I've laid out above, certainly a "newcomer."

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I know not every community wants to be Telluride, and thank god for that, but maybe communities need to start highlighting their culture a little more.

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But in some ways it is fitting that a transient is called upon to contribute towards developing a written health checkup and report card of this region (I do have help, mind you; preparation of the report card calls upon numerous reports and data sources as well as regional experts to provide insight and criticism to its content), because all previous attempts to grasp the Rockies start with the area's history, speak at length about its unique landscape, and then end with its esoteric dynamics – we can't, no matter how hard we try, characterize this place in any other way than its systematic tendencies for continual change.

I'm finding, as we move through the process of grading all 280 counties in the Rockies, that the really interesting "county students" are not the ones earning A's across the board, but the ones that fail once or twice along the way and respond by doing something about it.

The point being, unless you want someone from Pennsylvania ridiculing your community, you had better take some sense of ownership for the place and move beyond that first, perfectly understandable, reaction of disdain for newcomers.

Routt County, cappuccino cowboys and land-use:

Declining quality and size of farm and ranchland is a very visible measure of the changing economic base and quality of life for many parts of the Rockies.

For the 2004 Rockies Report Card, counties have been ranked based on indicators of high proportions of farm and ranchland converted to housing use.

Data on the decline in the average size of a farm or ranch, on the percentage of total housing units in the county built from 1990-2000, and on new housing unit permits authorized as percentage of existing units in 2000, were used to generate a composite score for all counties in the Rockies.

No. 6 among the Top 10 on this list of counties that have faced the fastest shifting land-use was Routt County, Colo.

In 1995, Routt County approved 495 new building permits, nearly half of those being permits for low-density, single- home development, in a community that had a population of just about 16,000 people.

Community leaders, conservationists, and local ranchers responded by generating a consensus-based ballot initiative called the Ranchlands and Natural Areas Initiative. A purchase of development rights (PDR) technique was proposed to secure development rights from willing ranchers in conjunction with a countywide increase in property taxes to foot the bill.

The initiative made Routt County the first in the Rocky Mountains to approve a tax increase specifically for the purpose of purchasing development rights and controlling the size and location of future development.

Ranchers in Routt County could have spent their time grumbling about latte-drinking ski-bums, local government's pervasive attempts to safeguard private property rights, and the family ranch going in the tank.

Instead, they found a leverage point for the community. By increasing property taxes they effectively found a way to turn the changing demographic into the principal financial capital for preserving working ranches in the Yampa River Valley.

Ranchers in Routt could have put all their might into an uphill battle. But when sprawl is gobbling up open space in Colorado at a rumored rate of 10 acres per hour, I'd bet they'd probably get caught with their pants down if they tried.

This example is an easy one; many newcomers to Routt County bring with them a huge supply of surplus income. The challenge for old-time residents was simply to reallocate some of that floating wealth to preserve traditional lifestyles.

Wherever in the Rockies an East Coast coffee-cowboy resides, this principle offers a potential constructive tool to address growth.

But other newcomers present different problems requiring more creative solutions.

Retirees and Wyoming's response:

Retirees require affordable housing, an increase in community services – particularly medical services – and low taxes.

In some instances, chambers of commerce fear the "graying" of their community for the strain it will put on their community infrastructure.

Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal chose instead to respond by creating a workshop called "Ahead of the Curve: Economic Planning for Wyoming's Retirement Boom," in conjunction with AARP Wyoming.

Participants indicated that the newcomers from the "boomer" generation bring with them a wealth of experience and intellect in community building and volunteer service. Some communities in Wyoming are using these newcomers as pro-bono consultants to help revitalize their downtowns and deal with a myriad of other challenges; other places are still up in arms, questioning their right to live in the community at all.

Latino immigrants:

A growing Latino population is sprouting up throughout the Rockies, exerting powerful change on communities, local economies, and small businesses. Economies of the Rockies have come to depend on immigrant labor, legal and otherwise, for much of their low-wage labor and productivity.

These immigrants require an array of services to assimilate and succeed, including low-income housing, language services, and employment training services. The population boom associated with their arrival strains local educational services and infrastructure, and, as former Colorado Gov. Richard Lamm is quick to assert, is potentially detrimental to our environment.

When asked what the biggest issue facing the Hispanic community was, recent Idaho Third District Court appointee Judge Sergio Gutierrez replied, "There's the issue of political power. But to me, it's so connected with education, because what I see is that as technology sort of dominates our life, you cannot either self-empower as a people, as a group, create a life, create an environment that is good for you unless you are able to get engaged and involved."

Throughout the Rockies, groups have given recent immigrants the tools they need to engage and succeed, spurring new business creation where predominantly Latino businesses catering to Latino tastes have become integral parts of small-business-driven economies.

Starving artists:

Recognizing what makes a community culturally unique and then celebrating that distinction may be the most overlooked tenet of strategies to pursue economic development and vibrant communities.

Local organizations for the arts, culture and humanities provide communities with an enriching atmosphere conducive to community vitality.

Frequently dismissed service industries, such as the information industries (book, software, news and magazine publishers), scientific and technical services industries (architecture, engineering, design, computer services and advertising), and the arts, entertainment, and recreation industries (theater, dance, music, fine arts, museums, and sports) all require a highly-skilled, highly-specialized workforce.

These industries constitute a "creative class" core group that many have said is essential to creating a high quality of life necessary for attracting a first-rate workforce in all industries.

Heather Knox Rommel, Telluride Conference Center director, has found a way to bring new income to the community to overcome seasonal economic downturns by building upon the existence of these industries in the community.

"Packaging meetings with festivals and special events is a great enticement for your attendees," she says. "At a time when everyone is looking to save money, access to free entertainment can make a meeting more cost-effective for planners while giving attendees memorable recreation opportunities."

I know not every community wants to be Telluride, and thank god for that, but maybe communities need to start highlighting their culture a little more. Maybe they'll even find that their comparative advantages aren't exclusively found beneath the ground or in their trees, but also in the types of culture they allow to inhabit their towns.

There is plenty of room for creative community leaders to build assets out of recent newcomers to the Rockies. To find out how your community has fared in managing its assets and coping with change, check out this year's 2004 State of the Rockies Report Card or come on over to Colorado Springs for this year's State of the Rockies Conference on May 3-4. Hopefully, when we sort out all the A's and B's, a few insightful communities will emerge to share their ingenuity with the rest of the Rocky Mountain West.

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Author's blog:
It's not immigrants
The point made by Kathleene Parker is a relevant one for stirring much-needed debate over national immigration laws, but it is also largely unfounded when it comes to analyzing the pressures of growth in the Rocky Mountains.

Roughly 847,000 residents entered the eight Rocky Mountain States between 1990 and 2000 that were born in a country other than the United States.

During this period, the total population of the Rocky Mountains increased by nearly 4.5 million people. That means that almost 81 percent of the new growth comes from long-time, naturalized residents of the United States (source Census 2000).

Even if we wished to blame the population pressures of the Rockies on the whole of the foreign-born population residing here (including those moving in before 1990) that would amount to no more than 37 percent of the growth the region experienced from just 1990-2000.

Yes, immigration is an issue worth debating now rather than later, but is has little bearing on the fact that growth is coming to the Rocky Mountain West.

Moreover, this growth is almost entirely from the migration of current U.S. residents and citizens expressing their market demand for attractive places to live and work.

If we continue to erroneously contend that the plight of the West is inextricably linked to population pressures instilled by foreign-born immigrants, I am afraid that there may be no American West left to concede.

Earlier this week I was quoted in Headwaters News for saying that "In Colorado, sprawl gobbles up 10 acres per hour." Need we do the calculations for how many acres would be lost if we devoted all of our time lobbying our congressman in Washington to change U.S. immigration policy?

I am not interested in finger pointing the culprits of growth the way most are. Decisions to relocate to another region or town are based on a number of factors including job opportunities, desirable lifestyles, attractive settings, and a plethora of other location-based assets a community/environment might provide.

Overarching national conceptualizations of carrying capacity are ill-informed if they fail to analyze market tendencies for consumers (foreign or otherwise) to locate near these amenities.

The problem of carrying capacity for the Rocky Mountains is not uniform, then. Pockets of growth and decline blanket the West alluding to the need to generate policy solutions to growth that are not uniformly applied to the landscape.

My point is simple here - immigration reform is a solution to, at best, 20 percent of our current growth problems here in the Rocky Mountains.

While its lasting impact may only increase with time, local collaborative efforts to manage growth are the only effective ways to adequately find solutions that meet community standards and visions for the future.

I am appalled that we should be encouraged to turn away from these emerging efforts, and past attempts to manage growth.

Population stifles planning
I have never heard of J. Patrick Holmes, then in one day I encounter him in an Associated Press article and in a Headwater News opinion piece. I think he badly misses the point in both.

Yes, if we want to develop ever more systems, bureaucracy, plan ever-more elaborate communities and growth strategies, we can direct growth to some very limited measure.

But forgive me, I've watched boom growth in the West for 50 years and see little reason to believe the strategies for dealing with growth in the future will be one iota better than the strategies of the past, which have failed miserably.

Bottom-line, as the AP article pointed out, the West is growing at a rate three times the national growth rate, which is itself appalling. We are the third-fastest-growing nation in the world, with a doubling time in ranges of 60 years or less.

That means the West is one of the fastest-growing if not the fastest growing region in the world, with some communities experiencing population doubling times in ranges of 10 years or less.

Until we take steps to slow that appalling national growth rate, illusions of managing growth are just that illusion, delusion and naive thinking at its most dangerous.

Author's blog:
Recognizing differences
The Colorado College Annual State of the Rockies Report Card is a tool to engage communities in the region in discovery and dialogue about current economic and demographic trends.

As such, the report uncovers a few economic realities that continue to faction communities in ways that prevent needed civic discourse.

A look at myth vs. reality for the Rockies uncovers our preconceived notions about the region, allowing us to address old concerns and uncover new ones that will bring stakeholders together regionally to address difficult local problems.

Myth – The Rocky Mountains are agriculture and natural resource-based.

In actuality, only 2.8 percent of the employment base of the region was in these industries, and less than 2 percent of total income comes from earnings in farm, mining, forestry, or fishing related activities.

Myth – The Rocky Mountains are predominantly rural.

Only 3 percent of the population lived in completely rural counties (counties with an aggregate urban population of greater than 2,500 people) in 1970, and only 1.7 percent did in 2000.

Myth – The Rocky Mountains are overrun with government workers.

Only 16 percent of the population works for the government and only a fraction of that works in matters pertaining to land-use and/or the public domain; most government employees work for the military.

Taken together, these three myths create an environment that is ill-suited to collaborative efforts to address the problem of rapidly changing land-use in the region.

We cannot improve the profitability of working ranches if we assume they are already highly lucrative and economically essential.

We cannot encourage public finance efforts that keep ranchlands in production if ranchers fear, above all else, county zoning and development restrictions.

And, we can't assume that the Rockies will retain its rural character if these trends persist.

Farm and ranchlands in the Rocky Mountain West grow other important services beyond agricultural products and employment. They grow open spaces; in some cases, they preserve critical wildlife habitat; and they produce cultural heritage for many western communities.

They are the defining characteristic of rural quality of life and are arguably critical for attracting businesses and workers in a wide-array of industries.

Citizens who work in these other industries (all 97.2 percent of us) ought to consider compensating these folks for these services. I run across too many city types all the time who would rather drive these people off the land, chastise them for poor water-use and over-grazing, and unknowingly carve another quadrant of the American west into tasteless subdivisions.

On the other side of the coin, ranchers want little or nothing to do with local governments. Most do not support regulatory restrictions on private land holdings more generally – more a philosophical obstacle to collaboration than an economic one – and the rest oppose zoning restrictions based on the perceived impact they will have on land values.

Enough of the Myths for a moment.

Reality – Even through innovative purchase of development-right financing programs, there will simply not be enough financial backing to preserve enough working ranches. Zoning is the only other alternative.

There has been some initial anecdotal evidence in support of the notion that more restrictive zoning increases long-run land values through enhancing the values that make a particular parcel an attractive one for residential use.

Succinctly put, agriculture must preserve certainty and some degree of flexibility regarding future development potential.

Ranchers need to know what will likely happen to their land values if restrictions are put in place in order to join the discussion over land-use at all.

Yes, talk is cheap, but before we can even get to that point, community stakeholders need to begin to overcome some of their preconceived differences. The new challenge is to bring members of the community together to address common problems.

State of the Rockies report

Colorado College's first annual 2004 State of the Rockies Report Card, to be released at the 2004 Rockies Conference on May 3rd and 4th, represents a unique attempt to analyze community assets and the decisions that affect them.

Contents include invited essays on the "state" of the region by regional experts; a "Rockies at a Glance" section to put the region in perspective; an overview essay on the economics and demographics of the Rockies; and 15 indicator sections that rank counties based on cultural, demographic, economic, and environmental characteristics - including thumbnail sketches of innovative communities.

The Rockies Project, including annul report cards and conferences, represents a Signature Program in the college's Action Agenda 2010. Building upon 130 years as a private liberal arts college in the Rockies and extensive ties to the region through classes, field trips, research and specialized programs, Colorado College seeks to inform and stimulate discussion about the Rockies that form our backyard and help define our character and mission.

Speakers and events for this year's conference include:

• Charles Wilkinson, University of Colorado Law School professor, on "Endurance and Sovereignty Among the Indian Nations of the Rocky Mountain West."
  
  
• Ed and Betsy Marston, former Editors of High Country News, on "Home and Hope in the Rockies: 20 years of Observation."
  
  
• Former Colorado Gov. Richard Lamm, now with the Denver University Institute for Public Policy, on "The Angry West, Revisited."
  
  
• Dr. Jill Baron of the U.S. Geological Survey's Natural Resource Ecology Lab, on "Rocky Mountain Futures - An Ecological Perspective."
  
  
• Thomas Sisk, professor at Northern Arizona University, on "Developing a Public Science That can Weather the Politics of Resource Management in the Rockies."
  
  
• A panel titled "On the Rockies Front Lines - Community Organizations Confronting Change."
  
  
• And the unveiling of the 2004 Rockies Report Card publication.

Talk is cheap,
but it's a start

By Greg Lakes, editor
Headwaters News
April 28, 2004

The region's rapid growth and its effects are familiar topics on this page, and we jumped at the chance to showcase Colorado College's report and to note some of the communities trying to cope, successfully or not.

The effects are increasingly apparent, and increasingly discussed, as shown in a sampling of recent headlines.

In Colorado, Fort Collins and environs have become the poster child for rural sprawl.

The population of Colorado is growing faster than that of Bangladesh, and the sprawl is not just in strip malls along the interstate but in 35-acre ranchettes that legally avoid subdivision review and eat up countryside.

The rising tide of newcomers into the domain of fourth- and fifth-generation farmers and ranchers feeds a sharp clash of cultures and heightens resentment that undermines attempts at growth management.

Yet another recent study concluded that sprawl costs far more than planned development – and more than some Colorado communities can afford.

One of the authors of the study by the Environment Colorado Research and Policy Center said the effects typically escape notice because they're spread over many civic departments, but the research found what he called a "financial disaster."

A study of growth in Wyoming counties came to the same, now-familiar conclusion but said county officials prefer to ignore the consequences.

Rural subdivisions cost from $1.03 to $1.45 in services for every $1 they generate in tax revenue, the study said.

"There's always the hope that maybe someday it'll work," said one author and critic.

Some communities, though, are trying to get ahead of the flood. Boise and its surrounding cities will cooperate on a shared "instruction book" to direct growth, the result of a decade of talking that so far appears to be little more than a list of good ideas: growth that reduces travel time and traffic, more economic development and jobs, and fewer strip malls.

In northern Idaho, communities in and around the Rathdrum Prairie, 100 square miles between Coeur d'Alene and Spokane almost inevitably destined for large-lot development, have agreed to jointly manage growth.

They expected to have a formal agreement to cooperate by now, after five years of talking. The details apparently will result from further talks.

Some communities, such as Durango, have opted for so-called smart growth developments, not so much as a way to control growth as to make it more palatable.

As noted in the prior Perspective, one development passed city muster and another failed, due in large part to the degree and timing of the public talks that went into them.

As an ironic aside, one of the most successful ideas about controlling rural sprawl was accidental. The USDA's Conservation Reserve Program pays Montana farmers to take environmentally sensitive land out of production, but so many farmers quit farming that equipment and supply dealers went under and small-town economies suffered.

The effect was to slow the conversion of farmland to subdivisions near Bozeman, according to a Montana State University study.

Still, although many communities spreading under the weight of increasing growth, sprawl and the cost of services are stuck at the talking phase, talk may be the catalyst for the kind of creativity that will earn those cities a passing grade from Colorado College.