5 Ways Urban Growth Has Negatively Impacted Fort Collins
It’s no lie that Fort Collins is one of the greatest places to live, I mean even National Geographic ranked it #4 as happiest cities to live in the U.S. and while getting ranked on a National Geographic’s list gives us bragging rights it isn’t necessarily a good thing in terms of growth.
Here are 5 ways urban growth has negatively impacted Fort Collins.
- There’s more traffic.
Hello, new thing called rush hour. It now can take up to 25 minutes just to get 5 miles across town during the lovely hours of 3–6pm.
2. The Cost of Living Has Significantly Increased.
A single-family home can now cost upwards of $375,000 and that’s not including location. Any home on Mountain Avenue is guaranteed to be half a million dollars and up.
3. Lack of Water Resources.
“Three hundred and seventeen. That’s approximately how many gallons of water the average Coloradan uses in just three days,” says Rose Dreisbach of Yellowscene Magazine. Multiply that by the number of people moving to Fort Collins and the amount of water that the Horsetooth Reservoir and Cache La Poudre river provide. That number doesn’t match the availability of our water resources and that’s frightful.
4. Insufficient Infrastructure.
The infrastructure of Fort Collins isn’t matching the growth, which means construction to help solve housing issues is happening a lot more frequently, aka having an entire lane of Prospect blocked off for several months to accommodate construction for the new apartment complex being built.
5. Urban sprawl is destroying natural habitats
Housing developers are moving/building outwards on our city’s open land resources to build more housing, and it’s destroying natural habitats for animals.
Whether you’re new to Fort Collins or have been a local for 20 years, it’s hard not to see that urban growth is all around us.
To learn more about the changes, or find information on this matter refer to links listed throughout the article.
