Business View Civil and Municipal | June 2022

27 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 6 BERTHOUD , COLORADO steadily growing influx of people and businesses since just before the beginning of the pandemic has pushed the population to more than 13,000. As Town Administrator Chris Kirk reports, “We’re changing so fast that when we got the U.S. census numbers from the 2020 population data, by the time we received it, it was already pretty significantly out of date.” Kirk believes one of the major contributing factors to the migration to Berthoud is its location. “We are so close to these larger municipalities, but yet we’ve still maintained this really small town feel. The town is growing rapidly, roughly doubled in the last five years in population, but we still have a great core in our downtown, wonderful local businesses, good schools, and we’re just a great place to live along the Front Range. We have access to everything you could want, but then you come home and relax a little bit.” One of the things that makes small businesses in Berthoud successful is community support of the downtown, but also a lot of the business owners know the town inside and out. Walt Elish, Business Development Manager for Berthoud, says a lot of small business owners that need to expand want to stay in the town. He notes, “A lot of them have lived here, and their kids go to school here and so, when they look to expand, they look to stay.” So many people are moving to Berthoud that it’s difficult to keep their housing stock up, but they have several subdivisions being developed and built rapidly. The town is also looking to redevelop part of downtown to accommodate more residents. Those new subdivisions and developments come with a requirement that a variety of housing types be constructed to create more financially attainable housing options.