Proposed New Counties for Colorado

Colorado resident Matthew Salek has also proposed redrawing some of Colorado's county boundaries. I liked several of his ideas and incorporated them into my proposal. Please visit his site for another view: http://www.mesalek.com/county/index.html.

Long County

• County Seat: Longmont
• Formed from: Adams, Boulder, and Weld
• The area north of Denver is urbanizing rapidly, but the area is on the periphery of several different counties. This can cause problems: the city of Broomfield happens to be located in Adams, Boulder, Jefferson, and Weld Counties, and has chosen to break off and form its own consolidated city-county government (effective 2001). This is one solution, but it ignores the problems faced by other nearby communities with similar situations. That is why I propose consolidating Broomfield and several other nearby communities far from their current county seats into Long County. It is named after Long's Peak, the mountain dominating the western skyline.

Platte County

• County Seat: Fort Lupton
• Formed from: Weld
• Like Long County, Platte County gives local government to the suburban areas closer to Denver than they are to Greeley, their current county seat. It is named for the Platte River, which flows through the western part of the county. (idea courtesy of Matthew Salek)

Thompson County

• County Seat: Loveland
• Formed from: Larimer and Weld
• The southern part of Larimer County centers on Loveland and the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park. Thompson County (named after the Big and Little Thompson Rivers flowing through it) gives local control to this area, plus a small section of Weld County that looked out of place once Long and Platte Counties were formed.

Uncompahgre County

• County Seat: Nucla
• Formed from: Montrose and San Miguel
• This county should make things a lot simpler for residents of the western parts of Montrose and San Miguel Counties. Currently, some residents must travel nearly 100 miles -- through another county -- to get to the court houses in Montrose and Telluride, respectively. Matthew mentions that Montrose County already has some satellite county offices in Nucla, so this seems like the logical place for the county seat. The name comes from the plateau in the eastern part of the new county. (idea courtesy of Matthew Salek)

Adams, Arapahoe, Denver, Dolores, and San Miguel Counties

These counties are shaded in pink because their boundaries were realigned. There doesn't seem to be much sense in dividing Denver's eastern suburbs into north and south halves, and I've never seen the point in putting Denver and its suburban areas in separate counties. My plan (borrowed in part from Matthew's) puts Denver together with Aurora, Littleton, Commerce City, and other nearby suburbs in Arapahoe County (with Denver serving as county seat). Adams County is now the eastern half of the Adams/Arapahoe/Denver rectangle, and its seat is Strasburg. In the southwestern part of the state, eastern Dolores county is combined with the remainder of San Miguel county, since Telluride is closer than Dove Creek to these communities.