Photo courtesy of the Town of Berthoud
An illustration of the different developments in and around Berthoud.

By Will Cornelius

The Surveyor

Behind every development is a developer. And in Berthoud, behind every planning document is a team of planners diligently checking details.

Leading Berthoud’s team of planners is Anne Johnson, the director of community development for the town. “I like being a planner and I like serving communities,” she explained with a smile.

At the end of 2022, the town’s two planners announced they were moving out of Berthoud. In response, Town Administrator Chris Kirk said that he wanted to hire a director of planning and let them construct their team and department as they see fit. Now, one year into the job, Johnson has rebuilt the department, drawing on 30 years of experience in planning and development around the Front Ranges. “Berthoud is wonderful. I love the people that I work with and the community development team is outstanding,” she said.

One of Johnson’s first initiatives was creating the role of senior planner for the town. “I knew that we needed to have somebody with a lot of experience and experience working with the development community,” she stated. Johnson wanted someone who knew how development in Colorado worked and had a keen eye for details. Thankfully, she did not have to look far.

Tawn Hillenbrand was working for Larimer County’s planning department and caught Johnson’s attention at a county planning commission meeting. “I was so impressed with her skills, that after the hearing, I just happened to mention that the town may be looking for a senior position,” Johnson recounted.

“Just looking at the [town’s] Comprehensive Plan, much of what is discussed in the Comprehensive Plan jives with my values and what I value in my own community and what I want to see in the development of Colorado,” said Hillenbrand, Berthoud’s first senior planner. “As a [Colorado] native, I’ve seen a lot of growth here, up and down. So, it was really inspiring to see what was in the Comprehensive Plan and what the community wants to see for their own community and what they value and so I wanted to very much be a part of that.”

In 2021, the town updated its Comprehensive Plan for the first time since 2014. As one of the fastest-growing municipalities in one of the fastest-growing areas of the country, the plan was created to guide and manage growth in Berthoud.

Johnson and Hillenbrand both profess an appreciation for the document, citing its commitment to the preservation of what makes Berthoud great, like the small-town feel and natural beauty of the area while also emphasizing connectivity. “Those are all called out as important values in the Comprehensive Plan,” Johnson stated.

The 2021 Comprehensive Plan is also the starting point for developments in town. “I think it’s always using that as that base,” Hillenbrand said about working with developers who are interested in Berthoud. “I think as long as developers understand that—and I think most of them do. I think it’s easier to have those conversations when they become tough.”

On the town’s website, a map of subdivisions lists 33 different developments, ranging from sprawling residential single-family ones like Heron Lakes to heavily industrial ones, like the Berthoud Tech Center near Interstate 25. Juggling all of these different projects along with the needs of the community and developers is no easy task. “Planning is not for the faint-hearted,” said Johnson.

By far the biggest area of development occurring in Berthoud right now is residential, said Hillenbrand. What is most notable though is the sheer volume of residential development occurring in Berthoud. Johnson explained that the total number of units being processed or in some sort of development review is over 3,200.

With a booming population, businesses are starting to focus their attention on Berthoud too. “We probably have at least 80 acres in different places in Berthoud under development review for commercial,” Johnson explained. While a lot of this is occurring on either Mountain Avenue or near the arteries of U.S. 287, the First Street corridor is an area the town sees as having a lot of potential for commercial growth.

“They see this as a huge opportunity to redevelop and re-envision that corridor. We want it to be a place where it’s an employment center, where people can live and work in that area, but [also] to foster innovation and to foster entrepreneurism. It’s really exciting,” Johnson stated. “That’s the area that has so much potential of really changing just the nature and the dynamic and how that looks and how it functions.”

One new commercial development that is complete is the mini-strip mall near Heron Lakes. Tenants include a Bank of Colorado branch, a Domino’s Pizza restaurant, a dental office and UC Health. Hillenbrand said there are still a few units vacant in the building but that the town has not heard anything yet about them.

On the other side of Berthoud Parkway in the PrairieStar development, the developers are in the early stages of the final plat approval. “Some of it will be residential and then some of it will be commercial,” said Hillenbrand.

Further south, Westside Crossing is progressing too Johnson said. “They’re actually going to [the] Planning Commission on the 14th of March for their final plat.”
Johnson also confirmed that there are no discussions for new businesses at the Berthoud Tech Center located in the Weld County portion of Berthoud near I-25.

The same is true for the massive 2,200-acre Wilson Ranch development, now known as Turion, east of I-25. In February 2022, Berthoud’s town board rejected a service plan agreement for the development. Just under 600 acres of the development are within the Town of Mead’s municipal boundaries, which agreed to zone the area as a planned unit development (PUD) in March 2023. Construction at the PUD in Mead is not expected for a couple of years.

In Berthoud, development on Ludlow Farm, now being called Legacy Park, is nearing its first preliminary plat filing “for a small portion of the residential component,” Hillenbrand explained. “As of right now, I believe it’s somewhere around 400 units,” she said about the development.

After addressing staff and agency comments on filings, the next step will be a public hearing for the preliminary plat. That hearing could come in the next six to 12 months according to Hillenbrand, but admitted it was difficult to know exactly. She anticipated that the build-out of Legacy Park would be similar to Heron Lakes or Prairie Star, using a piecemeal approach over several years.

Heron Lakes and Heron Point also continue to see gradual development, with interest in the commercial area of Heron Point picking up. “Right now, we have two different parties that are interested in two of those five lots,” Hillenbrand said about the commercial lots.

The southern portion of Hammond is nearing completion, with the rest of the residential lots expected to be paired housing, or duplexes. The same is true for the Vantage development.

Development at Farmstead is also progressing as the town grows east crossing into Weld County. Part of the development there will also be a commercial lot Hillenbrand confirmed.

Growth in Berthoud has generated strong feelings both in support and in opposition among the community. But Johnson and Hillenbrand stress that the town and the planning department are not in the business of picking favorites or injecting their personal views into projects.

“The town is not in the development business. We’re in the business of maintaining vision,” Johnson said, referencing the town’s planning documents like the Comprehensive Plan.

Hillenbrand agreed, stating that their job is to work with the community and separate their personal views when reviewing development proposals. “We have to be really diligent about keeping our own personal opinion out of what we do and really stay by the review criteria,” she explained.

Johnson urged people to reach out to the planning department if they have concerns or do not understand something. “If they don’t understand, don’t make an assumption and just call us and ask us. Because if there’s an opportunity to make something clear, we’ll make it clear.”