Thornton has been named a 'boomburb'

The March issue of Planning magazine has Thornton Colorado as the only Colorado city named with that moniker.  A 'boomburb' is defined as city with at least 100,000 residents that has experinced growth of at least 10 percent each decade since 1970, but that is still not the largest city in its metropolitan area.  According to the US Census, Thornton has grown at least 30 percent each decade and doubled in size between 1970 and 1980.  The current population is rated at almost 120,000 people. 

Much of the city's growth has occured in the last 5 to 10 years as the city has annexed new real estate.  However, Thornton Real Estate growth isn't just growth for growths sake according to the city's policy planning manager.  To provide a perpective of how much growth there has been, when Thornton first became a city in 1956, it had 786 acres of land, now it has almost 23,000 acres of land!  The city of Thornton has been planning for this land and housing growth, although it has somewhat stalled in the last couple years as the real estate boom and economy have soured.

Some of this growth is evidenced by the new Holly Sports Complex and the new Larkridge Shopping center at I-25 and Colorado Hwy 7.  There are still mixed use development being planned along the E-470 corridor and transit oriented real estate development around the (temporarily in limbo) FasTracks stations.  Additional new projects include the new Rangeview Library District's second city library that just broker ground March 28 at 128th Avenue and Holly Street, and the expansion of 136th Avenue between Cherry Street and Holly Street in front of Horizon High School.