community | GROWTH & COLLABORATION
WINDSOR FORGING AHEAD WITH COMMUNITY IDENTITY, REGIONAL COLLABORATION IN MIND BY TREVOR REID
W
hen it became clear early last year the pandemic would batter municipal budgets, Windsor officials tightened the town's proverbial belt while continuing work to get certain projects shovel-ready. Town Manager Shane Hale said residents are already seeing the fruits of that careful planning, as the town works on about $37 million of capital improvements this year. Roughly half of that, Hale said, is focused on roads and road capacity. Those projects, while costly, are a
24 | mywindsor | JUNE 2021
necessary part of keeping up with both the town's population growth, as well as that of the entire northern Colorado region. Over the past decade, Hale said, the town's population has basically doubled. "It seems word is out on Windsor," he said. "And, obviously, northern Colorado — it's not just unique to us." The North Front Range population is projected to reach nearly 1.2 million by July 2050, according to the State Demography Office. A 2020 projection from the office has the region's population at 692,483, which means officials are projecting the population to grow by more than 73% over the next
three decades. Two of Windsor's smaller neighbors have seen explosive growth over the past decade, with Severance growing from nearly 2,800 residents in 2010 to nearly 4,750, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau data. In the same time,Timnath grew from a population of 447 to nearly 3,500 residents. Hale cited a couple of the region's attractive qualities as possible reasons for its growth, including its proximity to the mountains and its strong, diverse economy. "I think that Weld County and Larimer County seem to diverge in
