Colorado Highways:
Municipal-Related Trivia Items

Colorado Municipalities

• Related Site: Colorado Department of Local Affairs list of all municipalities in Colorado, and their type
  

This form of municipality is a town that is still operating under a charter that predates statehood. There is only one in the state, the Town of Georgetown, whose charter is from 1868. A charter that old has some oddities: For example the town board is called the Board of Selectmen, and what other towns call mayor is in Georgetown called Police Judge.

This form of municipality operates under §31-4-300 of state statutes. The town has a mayor and a Board of Trustees, with four or six elected members. There are no wards, all are elected at-large. State law says the town is required to have a town clerk, treasurer and attorney, which the Board of Trustees can either appoint or have the positions be elected. The Board of Trustees can also appoint a town administrator for running day-to-day operations. There are 167 statutory towns in Colorado, making this the form of the majority of Colorado municipalities. A sampling of statutory towns includes the Towns of Bayfield, Bennett, Del Norte, Estes Park, Meeker and Sheridan Lake.

This form of municipality operates under §31-4-100 of state statutes. The city has a mayor elected at-large and a City Council made up of two members elected from each ward. The Council must appoint a city attorney and at least one city judge. A city treasurer and clerk must be elected, or the voters can pass a referendum to allow the Council to appoint the treasurer and clerk. The Council can appoint a city administrator to run day-to-day operations.

There is a second form of statutory city (§31-4-200), in which the voters can petition to reorganize to a council-manager system, with the mayor being either still elected by voters or selected by and from within the City Council. There are two Council members from each ward and one elected at-large. The Council must appoint a city attorney and city judge. The Council must appoint a city manager for running day-to-day operations, with the manager having authority over all city employees, except for city attorney and judge.

There are 13 statutory cities in Colorado, a sampling of which includes the Cities of Brush, Florence, Leadville, Ouray, Rocky Ford and Walsenburg.

This form of municipality operates under a home-rule charter set up under authority given in Article XX of the Colorado Constitution. The residents of a municipality can call a charter convention to draft a municipal charter, which can spell out almost everything as far as operation of the municipality is concerned. The charter can set the form of government, how many are on the council, what other offices are elected, when elections are, the powers of office holders, special tax assessments, etc. Language in the Colorado Constitution gives home-rule municipalities the power to pass ordinances which can supersede state law in certain situations, firearms and traffic laws being the most visible examples.

There are 88 home-rule municipalities in Colorado. Because each home-rule municipality gets to set its own government type, the specifics of the municipal government will vary greatly from one to another. Generally, though, you're likely to find the council-manager form. Also, in its charter the home-rule municipality can choose whether to call itself a town or city. For example Breckenridge, Parker and Vail are "Town of", while Aurora, Durango and Sterling are "City of". There 60 city and 28 town home-rule municipalities. Home-rule municipalities are not necessarily larger municipalities; the Towns of Larkspur, Ophir and Ward are home-rule.

Colorado has two city-counties, Broomfield and Denver. A city-county is a consolidated form of government that provides all the services normally provided separately by a city and county in one single entity. For example, counties typically provide assessor and clerk/recorder while cities provide police and parks. The city-county is somewhat rare in most parts of the U.S., the corollary to another part of the country would be what are called "independent cities" in Virginia.

Denver became a city-county in 1904. Today the City and County of Denver operates under a home-rule charter with an elected "strong mayor" form of government. The City Council has 11 members elected from districts and 2 elected at-large. The City Auditor and Clerk/Recorder are also elected. One quirk of Denver's city-county government is that it has both a police department and a sheriff's department. The police provide day-to-day patrols and investigations while the sheriff provides security at the courthouse and administers the jails.

The City of Broomfield was operating under a home-rule charter adopted in 1974 up until the late 1990s, when growth started creating a problem. Broomfield's location was causing it to spill across four counties: Adams, Boulder, Jefferson and Weld. This was a problem for citizens, having to deal with county officials in four different cities (as far away as Greeley) depending on where they lived in the city. The solution was to consolidate Broomfield into a city-county. This required a constitutional amendment, approved by statewide voters in 1998. Broomfield's 1974 charter became the effective charter for the City and County of Broomfield which it operates under today with a council-manager form of government, 10 members on the City Council plus the mayor.

Municipality Population Ranks (2005 Census Estimates)

Largest Municipalities: 1. Denver - 557,917 2. Colorado Springs - 369,815 3. Aurora - 297,235 4. Lakewood - 140,671 5. Fort Collins - 128,026 6. Thornton - 105,182 7. Westminster - 105,084 8. Arvada - 103,966 9. Pueblo - 103,495 10. Centennial - 98,243

Smallest Municipalities: 262. Branson - 79 263. Haswell - 76 264. Kim - 67 265. Sheridan Lake - 61 265. Two Buttes - 61 267. Paoli - 43 268. Montezuma - 42 269. Sawpit - 25 270. Lakeside - 20 271. Bonanza - 15

Largest Non-Front Range Municipalities: 1. Grand Junction - 45,299 2. Cañon City - 16,000 3. Durango - 15,501 4. Montrose - 15,479 5. Sterling - 12,589 6. Fort Morgan - 10,844 7. Steamboat Springs - 9354 8. Craig - 9143 9. Trinidad - 9077 10. Alamosa - 8682

Regarding the smallest towns list, 9 of them fall easily into two categories: Eastern Plains towns (Branson, Haswell, Kim, Sheridan Lake, Two Buttes, Paoli) or  mountain towns (Montezuma, Sawpit, Bonanza). Lakeside is a little more interesting: It is a 1/2 x 1/2 mile square of land at I-70 and Sheridan Blvd on the Denver/Wheat Ridge border. The south half of town is taken up by Lakeside Amusement Park and Lakeside Mall, while the north half of town is occupied by Lake Rhoda and I-70. Town Hall is in a corner of the mall.

The Non-Front Range Cities list ranks the ten most populous "outstate" cities, those not in the Pueblo-Fort Collins urban corridor. Among the things surprising to me about the list was Cañon City coming in 2nd and Glenwood Springs not even placing.

Municipal Incorporation Changes Since 1990

• Broomfield: Change from city to city-county November 2001
• Castle Pines North: Incorporated November 2007
  
• Centennial: Incorporated February 2001. Changed from statutory city to home-rule municipality June 2008.
  
• Foxfield: Incorporated December 1994. In the late '90s a disincorporation effort was started but failed.
• Keota (Weld County): Disincorporated February 1991
  
• Lone Tree: Incorporated December 1996
• Mountain Village: Incorporated March 1995
• Prospect Heights (Fremont County): Disincorporated June 1994
• South Fork: Incorporated May 1992
• Watkins (Adams County): Incorporated summer 2004, disincorporated November 2006. Talk about a quick mood swing in voters....

Places You Might Think Are Incorporated But Actually Aren't

• Highlands Ranch: This massive bedroom community development in northern Douglas County does not have a municipal government. Instead, Douglas County and numerous special districts with taxing power provide the services. 2000 Census population in the Highlands Ranch "Census Designated Place" is 70,931.
• Pueblo West: Same story. A massive bedroom community development west of Pueblo that does not have a municipal government. 2000 Pueblo West CDP population is 16,899.
• Southglenn: This is an outdated Census region centered around Arapahoe Road/University Boulevard in Arapahoe County. A lot of maps, using places defined by the Census, throw in a dot at this location and label it Southglenn. Back when this area was unincorporated it made sense to have some kind of term for it, but Southglenn no longer has any use since the area it encompassed has been incorporated as part of Centennial since 2001.

Unincorporated County Seats

• Conejos, Conejos County

Municipalities Not Served by State Highways

Municipality	Population (2005)	Nearest State Highway	Notes
Bonanza	15	US 285 at Villa Grove 15 miles	County road to US 285 is gravel.
Bow Mar	808	SH 88 at Federal Blvd/Belleview Ave 1 mile	Only municipality in metro Denver without a state highway.
Coal Creek	362	SH 115 west of Florence 2 miles
Crestone	84	SH 17 at Moffat 12 miles
Erie	12,351	I-25, US 287, SH 7	Original part of town is not served by state highways, but the town has annexed outlying areas that are.
Firestone	6410	SH 52 at Dacono 1 mile	Town is growing toward the I-25/SH 119 interchange, I may consider it to be served by a state highway if that continues.
Grover	155	SH 14 at Briggsdale 22 miles	By far the furthest municipality from a state highway in the state.
Hartman	109	US 50 west of Holly 4 miles
Jamestown	233	US 36 north of Boulder 7 miles
Larkspur	306	I-25 Exit 173 1 mile
Marble	102	SH 133 south of Redstone 5 miles
Mead	2663	I-25, SH 66	Original part of town is not served by state highways, but the town has annexed outlying areas that are.
Montezuma	42	US 6 near Keystone 5 miles
Mount Crested Butte	756	SH 135 at Crested Butte 2 miles
Ophir	120	SH 145 south of Telluride 2 miles	County road to SH 145 is gravel.
Pitkin	115	US 50 at Parlin 15 miles
Rockvale	438	SH 115 west of Florence 2 miles
Severance	1910	SH 257	Original part of town is not served by state highways, but the town has annexed outlying areas that are.
Snowmass Village	1767	SH 82 4 miles
Starkville	131	I-25 Exit 11 1 mile
Telluride	2303	SH 145 3 miles
Timnath	214	I-25 Exit 262 1 mile
Williamsburg	753	SH 115 at Florence 1 mile
Municipality	Population (2005)	Nearest State Highway	Notes

Non-Towns on the CDOT Map

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Page created 6 August 2003
Last updated 22 June 2008