Towns share hopes and challenges of rapid growth

By Dan MacArthur
Timnath Correspondent

Once the mark of a backwater burg, the lack of stoplights is a matter of pride for Wellington and Timnath residents who treasure the small-town living just beyond the reach of the big city.

But stoplights very likely will soon be coming to both communities as they continue striving to maintain their identity and economic viability with urbanity encroaching ever closer.

Although there are big differences--due largely to Wellington's head start down the road to growth--the two towns are tied together by a dozen miles of interstate highway and a shared goal of not becoming simply bedroom communities of convenience for commuters.

Administrators of the two towns--both veterans of guiding the growth in other rapidly growing communities-- addressed some of those challenges in a recent joint interview with the North Forty News.

To accomplish community self-sufficiency, both well understand that their top priority is developing a commercial tax base to pay for maintaining infrastructure and meeting the increasing need for public facilities.

That task is perhaps most trying for Timnath administrator Joe Racine. Since arriving in the fall of 2002, he has started virtually from scratch piecing together the puzzle of what the town will become.

While both towns are expected to one day reach a population of 15,000, that transition will be more explosive in Timnath with larger subdivisions likely to overwhelm its current 240 souls.

Wellington town administrator Larry Lorentzen said growth there should continue to be more modest and gradual. The town already is well on the way after trustees a few years ago made a conscious decision to encourage residential growth in an effort to attract commercial development and more broadly spread the cost of providing utilities. With an estimated population today of 3,600, he said, Wellington has nearly tripled from 1,300 in 1990.

Even though previous town boards have provided him with a good foundation, Racine said it's been a stormy process. "For Timnath it's either feast or famine," he said. "The revenue stream isn't there yet."

Right now, Racine said, Timnath is living off development application fees, the first of three phases for communities seeking to achieve self-sufficiency. It is not a sustainable or comfortable place to be, he conceded. Neither is the second phase of relying on use tax revenues and building permit fees collected as development starts to occur. The trap there, Racine said, is that towns can get sucked into a rapid-growth cycle financing day-to-day operations with those revenues unless they set some aside as reserves.

The final phase in which retail tax revenues provide a sustainable income "is what every city aspires to be," said Racine.

Wellington is not there yet, but, "we're probably a little bit further along," said Lorentzen. "We're kind of right in the middle of it all."

Taxes and services

Both towns collect a 3 percent sales tax, but Wellington has a broader and growing retail tax base that generates 30 percent of its revenues. In contrast, Timnath's businesses can be tallied on one hand.

The rest of Wellington's revenues come from an 18.31-mill property tax expected to generate more that $429,460 this year. Timnath's 5.16-mill levy yields $10,535.

Wellington's combined revenues pay for 17 employees who maintain its streets, staff its public facilities and operate the water and sewer utilities - owned by the town and already upgraded to accommodate growth. The town also contracts with the Larimer County Sheriff's Department for three full-time deputies to provide police protection.

Timnath has but two employees. Most residents still depend on septic systems, and the town doesn't own or operate its utilities; it is currently negotiating for service from a special district. Timnath contracts with the sheriff for limited law enforcement activities.

Wellington remains ahead of the game when it comes to roads, too. It has no need of more major thoroughfares with Interstate 25, Highway 1, and frontage roads on both sides of the interstate. The town also earmarks a third of its sales tax revenues for maintaining and improving older streets, making possible a $500,000 project to finish paving all the streets next year. In contrast, Timnath has no foreseeable source of funding for a high-priority bypass to divert the heavy traffic now pounding through the downtown.

So it would seem Wellington is sitting pretty with its established revenue base including two banks, several restaurants, a florist, three gas stations and a liquor store, to name a few. They contributed to a nearly $40,000 increase in sales tax revenue between 2002 and 2003. The town last year also successfully sought expansion of a state enterprise zone, offering incentives for businesses locating almost anywhere in Wellington.

Even so, Lorentzen said, "Our real concern is to start getting the commercial development picking up." He said the town can achieve self-sufficiency only with the availability of necessary goods and services so residents don't have to shop elsewhere.

He expects Wellington to make a real move in that direction with the pending construction of at least one of the two major grocery stores proposed for the town. Encouraged in part by the town board's agreement to rebate sales tax revenues during the next five years, the store would be part of the 10-acre commercial development at the west entrance to the town. A hardware store is also proposed for Wellington.

Community cohesion

Despite its tribulations, Timnath may, however, have an important leg up on its neighbor in one important respect --community cohesion. Lorentzen said Wellington faces a growing challenge developing a bond with new residents not yet particularly connected with the town. "It takes a little while for that to happen," he said. "Their focus is on their own neighborhood."

In April's municipal election, for example, Wellington lacked enough candidates to fill all its town board seats. That prompted the town to seek release from the state term-limit standards. That waiver was approved with 69, or 3.5 percent, of Wellington's 1,978 registered voters casting ballots. In contrast there were contests for all the trustee seats in Timnath and 58, or 40 percent, of its 145 voters turned out.

And even more than Timnath with its renovated but tiny quarters, Lorentzen said Wellington is in serious need of a new town hall. Crowding has become so severe, he said a $200,000 renovation of the Leeper Center is planned to provide space for the town board, court and other functions.

While the challenges are quite different, Wellington and Timnath do share one fundamental goal. Both are determined to preserve their historical identities while accommodating what they regard as inevitable growth that will force the communities into a new era.

With proper planning and vision, Racine believes that could be a good thing. Twenty years from now, "I'd like for people to look and say Timnath did it right," he said. "It still looks like Timnath and not any suburb USA."

And rather than a place where people retreat to their pillows every evening, Lorentzen said he wants to help Wellington become "a nice small town with all the amenities people would like."