Poll: Coloradans see growth as threat

By Jim Hughes
March 29, 2001

Many Coloradans believe growth is posing an increasing threat to the state's quality of life, according to a poll sponsored by a Washington, D.C., anti-growth group.

Ridder/Braden Inc., a Denver polling firm, this month polled 500 registered voters in Colorado, asking them to agree or disagree with statements like "The current pace of population growth threatens the quality of life in Colorado" and "Development and sprawl can never be controlled if the state's population continues to grow."

Seventy-two percent of the respondents agreed with the first statement, and 64 percent agreed with the second, reported the survey's sponsor, Negative Population Growth.

The survey's margin of error is about 4 percentage points. Negative Population Growth is a public-policy advocacy group dedicated to reversing the trend of U.S. population growth.

The survey, released Wednesday, comes on the heels of the 2000 Census report, which showed that Colorado's population grew by about a third since 1990. In 1990, the state's population was 3.3 million. Now, it's 4.3 million.

Poll respondents indicated that they feared what might happen should future growth be unregulated:

- 78 percent agreed that "the current pace of development and population growth is overcrowding schools and threatens the quality of education."

- 82 percent agreed that "the cur rent pace of development and population growth is a serious threat to Colorado's natural resources like the Rocky Mountains, our national and state parks, rivers and open space."

- 71 percent described the rate of new-home construction in their communities as "much too fast" or "a little too fast."

- 64 percent agreed that "development and sprawl can never be controlled if the state's population continues to grow."

- 70 percent agreed that the state and federal governments have a "responsibility to enact policies that reduce development and halt population (growth) so that a high quality of life, a healthy environment, and a sound economy can be maintained."