Metro Growth: The Hidden Cost of Urban Sprawl

BY LUKE ZARZECKI LZARZECKI@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Drive along the interstate into Colorado from its eastern side and the rolling plains slowly transform into vast hills of lights.

Shelley Cook, a former director with the Regional Transportation District and a former Arvada councilor, moved to the city in 1983. Back then, those lights weren’t as bright.

“(I moved) back when Olde Town was that sleepy little place and propthe region’s growth rate has outpaced the national average, according to the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation, and

“People aren’t able to live right in Olde Town, property values are expensive,” Cook said.

In the last 10 years, the region grew fast, and the Regional Transporta-