General Information about Fort Collins, Colorado

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HOME—Miscellaneous—Fort Collins

Fort Collins, Colorado

Here is a little information about Fort Collins. You can also check the city's website, the visitor bureau website, or the chamber of commerce website.

Climate

Altitude about 1500 m (5000 ft)
Nearby Rocky Mountains ranging to 4300 m (14 110 ft)
300+ days of sunshine, little rainfall, very low humidity, moderate climate
Pleasant summers, warm days, cool nights
Typical summer high temperatures would be 24 to 30 deg.C (75 to 86 deg.F)
Pleasant winters, lots of sunshine, snow rarely stays on the ground long
Typical winter high temperatures would range from 2 to 21 (!) deg.C (35 to 70 deg.F)

People

The population of Fort Collins is 131 000 (2007 city estimate). The population growth rate is 1.6% per year (2006).
Fort Collins is officially classified as a metropolitan area by the Census, and is the fifth largest city in Colorado. Outside of the Denver metro area, only Colorado Springs is larger than Fort Collins.
The population includes over 22 000 students at Colorado State University.
48.2% of Fort Collins adults over age 25 have a college degree, and 16% have a post-graduate degree.
The population of Larimer County is about 274 716 (2006).
Most people have immigrated from other states.
The town has been growing rapidly for the last 30 years, and continues to be one of the fastest growing cities in the US.
Fort Collins is known for friendliness of people and low crime rate.
Facilities and activities for seniors are excellent, and Fort Collins has become a popular retirement center.
Population is 89.6% White, 8.8% Hispanic, 2.6% Asian or Pacific Islander, and 1.0% Black (2000 US Census—adds to more than 100% because the Census now allows people to indicate more than one race).
Fort Collins is the county seat of government for Larimer County (also the largest town in the county).
It is located about 105 km (65 miles) north of Denver, and about 72 km (45 miles) south of Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Other towns in county are Loveland (2006 population 60 749), Estes Park, Wellington, Laporte, Timnath, Red Feather Lakes, Berthoud.
Nearby towns (in Weld county) are Greeley, Windsor.
Primary employment is white collar.

Unmanaged Growth

Perhaps the most significant downside to life in and around Fort Collins is the decades-long inability of the city council to manage growth. The city council has long had a reputation for being anti-growth and anti-business, directly or indirectly pushing Kodak to build its local plant in Windsor instead of Fort Collins, and turning away the Outlet Mall which ultimately built in Loveland. Now Loveland has major regional malls on I-25 and other major retailers that bring Loveland millions of dollars of tax revenue, while Fort Collins is having to cut services due to falling sales tax revenues.

City council policies forcing houses to be built on smaller lots have caused a massive and sprawling growth boom just beyond the southeast city limits near Windsor, and nearby Wellington is also starting to experience the beginnings of a growth boom. Having so much housing and shopping destinations spread out well beyond the city limits has worsened the area's air pollution problem (though still much better than Denver).

Traffic

Busy traffic, and the city's inability to get the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad to relocate some of its tracks and switching operations outside of town, cause a lot of frustration to drivers (but people from 'back east' and from California tell me that our traffic is not nearly as bad as we think). There is a public bus system, used extensively by public school students, college students, and those without cars. There are also other transportation options for seniors. The city website has more information under "Transfort".

Interestingly, a July 2008 report from Allstate Insurance indicates that drivers in Fort Collins ranked second (after Sioux Falls, SD) among the US's 200 largest cities for safe driving! And we've been second now for three years in a row. The report states that Fort Collins motorists are 25.5% less likely than the national average to get into a collision. For comparison, Denver ranked #48, and Aurora (a Denver suburb) ranked #50. So we must be better drivers than we thought.

High Rankings

Fort Collins keeps getting high rankings from various magazines. Money Magazine named Fort Collins the second best US city to live in with a population between 50 000 and 300 000 (August 2008). Fort Collins ranked number 1 on their last report in 2006. (Number 1 this year was Plymouth, Minnesota, which has a slightly better job market thanks to nearby Minneapolis.) And Forbes magazine just ranked Fort Collins 9th (out of 380 metropolitan areas) on their list of 100 "best cheap cities: ('cheap' in the sense of inexpensive). The city has also been ranked as a good place for seniors.

Cost of Living

Property values are high, housing is somewhat expensive, cost of living is moderate. According to a 1998 survey published in our local newspaper (the ACCRA index for the first quarter of 1998), Fort Collins is 6.7% more expensive to live in than the average US city. According to the survey:
Utilities cost 25% BELOW the national average.
Medical care costs over 15% ABOVE the national average.
Housing costs over 20% ABOVE the national average.
Groceries cost almost 13% ABOVE the national average.
In Colorado, Boulder, Greeley, and Gunnison all have a higher cost of living than Fort Collins.

The survey ranked Colorado cities:

Boulder, +19.7% above the national average
Greeley, +7.1%
Gunnison, +6.8%
Fort Collins, +6.7%
Denver, +6.5%
Colorado Springs, +2.1%
Grand Junction, +1.0%
Loveland, -2.7% below the national average
Pueblo, -7.9%

For comparison, some other western US cities were ranked:

Los Angeles, CA, +17.6% above the national average
Eugene, OR, +8.7%
Albuquerque, NM, +3.1%
Spokane, WA, +2.5%
Salt Lake City, UT, -0.5 below the national average
And let's not forget New York City (+137.7% above the national average).

Schools

3 public school districts in county
Poudre R1 (Fort Collins, Wellington, Laporte, Timnath, mountain areas)
Thompson R2J (Loveland)
Park R3 (Estes Park)
A number of private and parochial schools
2 colleges/universities
Colorado State University
Front Range Community College

Local Attractions

Rocky Mountain National Park (1 hour)
Estes Park (1 hour)
Poudre River Canyon (30 minutes)
Fort Collins Municipal Railway historic city streetcar (trolley rides in summer)
Clydesdale horses and tour at Anheuser-Busch brewery
Several well-known microbreweries (craft breweries) in Fort Collins, including New Belgium Brewing Company, Odell Brewing Company, Coopersmith's Pub and Brewing, and the Fort Collins Brewery.

Outdoor Activities

Hiking/backpacking in the Roosevelt National Forest and Arapahoe National Forest
Climbing "14ers" (Colorado's 54 peaks over 4267 m/14 000 ft are all climbable, mostly without technical gear; the nearest 14er to Fort Collins is Longs Peak at 4301 m/14 110 ft; about a 2-hour drive to the base, 8 hours to climb, non-technical, primarily in August)
White water rafting (some canoeing) on the Cache la Poudre River
Bicycling (extensive bicycle/pedestrian trail system) in town, particularly along the Poudre River
7 golf courses in Fort Collins, 12 more in immediate area

Major Employers

[The local economy has been strong (one 1997 book listed Larimer County as having the 13th strongest economy in the nation), and county unemployment was at 2.8% in April, 1998. About 6900 employers in Larimer County employ over 132 000 people as of April, 1998. But the area also has a reputation as one where finding a job can be difficult, and where salaries for comparable jobs may not be as high as in some other areas. Median household income is $68 200 (2007).]

Here are the county's top 12 employers according to the chamber of commerce website (4/08):

Colorado State University
Hewlett-Packard
Eastman Kodak Colorado Division (actually in nearby Windsor)
Poudre R1 School District
Poudre Valley Hospital
City of Fort Collins
Larimer County
Water Pik Technologies
LSI Logic
Anheuser Busch
Woodward Governor Company (Fort Collins & Loveland)
Advanced Energy