Colorado has lost more than 1,250 square miles of open space, (e.g., natural habitat and farms) to housing, shopping malls, and development since 1982, all to accommodate two and a half million more people. This has degraded the landscape and our quality of life. At the current rate, Colorado will convert an additional 140,000 acres (210 square miles) of Colorado's valuable rural lands, agricultural land, wildlife habitat and other open spaces into pavement and buildings every decade. Coloradans don't want this.

Even the most aggressive and well-intentioned policies promoting smarter growth, better urban planning, and higher residential densities cannot escape the immense population pressures facing many communities around the rapidly growing Front Range of Colorado. A more effective approach must be taken to suppress urban sprawl before our dwindling rural lands disappear altogether. Colorado officials have little hope of slowing population growth, within their jurisdictions, if the national population continues to increase by some 2.0 to 2.5 million additional residents each year.

The sole source of long-term population growth in the United States is immigration. Thus, long-term population growth in the United States and Colorado is in your hands and the hands of your fellow policy makers. It's time for Colorado's leaders to listen to the public who are tired of the constantly increasing traffic, crowds, and degradation of the natural world around the state.



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