Invisible suburbs privatized growth in suburban metropolitan den

University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Doctoral Dissertations Student Scholarship Spring 2017 Invisible Suburbs: Privatized Growth in Suburban Metropolitan Denver, 1950-2000 Kevin Weinman University of New Hampshire, Durham Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.edu/dissertation Recommended Citation Weinman, Kevin, "Invisible Suburbs: Privatized Growth in Suburban Metropolitan Denver, 1950-2000" (2017).edu/dissertation/157 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact Scholarly. INVISIBLE SUBURBS: PRIVATIZED GROWTH IN SUBURBAN METROPOLITAN DENVER, 1950-2000 BY KEVIN C.

WEINMAN Bachelor’s of Business Administration, University of Notre Dame, 1993 Master’s of Business Administration, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1999 Master’s of Arts, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, 2005 DISSERTATION Submitted to the University of New Hampshire in partial fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy In History May 2017 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2017 Kevin C. Weinman ii This dissertation has been examined and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate in History by: Dissertation Director, Kurk Dorsey, Professor of History Lucy E. Salyer, Associate Professor of History J. William Harris, Professor of History John M.

Halstead, Professor of Natural Resources & Environment Michael Childers, Assistant Professor of History, University of Northern Iowa On May 8, 2017 Original approval signatures are on file with the University of New Hampshire Graduate School iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Although there is no normal path to the completion of a doctoral dissertation, my route was more circuitous than most. I entered the University of Notre Dame in 1989 squarely convinced that the purpose of college was to learn how to become an accountant. Funny things happen when interacting with amazing scholar-teachers and brilliant classmates who hold more sophisticated worldviews. Through the normally-destructive force of peer pressure, I decided to pursue a second major.

Everyone was doing it. I didn’t know what else I would study, just that it would not require the use of a calculator. Thankfully, I chose history. I am forever grateful to each of my history professors at Notre Dame for their excellent teaching and the effort they took to work with a business major: military historian Robert Kerby, medieval historian William Dohar, the late historian of modern European history Robert Wegs, the late visiting professor of Polish history Andrzej Bartnicki, and Native American historian Greg Dowd.

In 1993, however, America needed accountants, even those who opted to write a senior thesis about Jacksonian America. I spent a decade working in accounting and finance roles and obtaining a Master’s in Business Administration. In 2003, the allure of continued studies in history became too great to resist, and I enrolled in the Master’s in History program at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs while still working full-time. There, nineteenth- century America historian Harlow Sheidley and environmental and South Asian historian Christopher Hill provided insightful countenance and challenging tutelage.

I am particularly grateful for the close and thoughtful counsel of Paul Harvey, religious historian, chair of the iv graduate program at the time, and one of the hardest-working scholars-teachers I have ever known. In 2007, I joined Dartmouth College as an administrator, responsible for budgeting and financial planning. Soon after, I applied to the University of New Hampshire’s History Ph. program, with the unreasonable request that I pursue studies while continuing to work full-time.

Thankfully, I fielded a happy phone call from then-History Graduate Program Director Ellen Fitzpatrick welcoming me to UNH. I will be forever grateful to the department for taking a chance on me. This work would not have been possible without the generosity and flexibility of a number of people at Dartmouth, including Julie Dolan, Adam Keller, Mike Wagner, and Steve Kadish. I thank them for permitting me the time and space for classwork and research, including a leave period to gather archival materials in Colorado for this study.

I moved to Amherst College in 2013 to become its chief financial officer, and once again benefitted from the outsized generosity of colleagues who supported my studies at every turn. In particular, I owe much to President Biddy Martin, whose service to Amherst is remarkable and inspiring, and whose personal counsel and generosity has been a source of strength to me for four years now. I also would like to thank former Amherst Trustee Danielle Allen, now the Director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard, who took more than a casual interest in my scholarly work and found time at each quarterly board meeting to catch up on my progress and provide a gentle nudge to keep moving forward.

To a person, the history department at UNH is replete with amazing scholars, teachers, and mentors. That I have the opportunity to cite certain faculty members is only emblematic of the fact that my scholarly interests and the quirks of the course schedule brought me in closer contact with some rather than others. Lucy Salyer and Bill Harris taught the modern United v States history readings-research continuum from which this project was hatched. I appreciate that both agreed to serve on my dissertation committee.

I very much appreciated, and benefitted from, the constructive criticism that they offered in the classroom and as dissertation readers. I owe a particular debt of gratitude to retired urban history professor Jeffry Diefendorf. Much of the Introduction to this dissertation is rooted in our collaborations. Lastly, and most importantly, I would like to thank the current History Graduate Program Director and my primary adviser, Professor Kurk Dorsey.

Kurk’s tireless commitment to his students, his research, and his leadership of the graduate program at UNH is prolific. From the beginning, I have appreciated his wisdom, humor, and measured criticism. Any errors or omissions are mine, but unquestionably this work is far better as a result of Kurk’s insights and helpful criticism. His patience and tolerance during some extended periods of relative silence while I was juggling work, family, and research was never warranted but always granted.

This project brought me to a number of excellent archival collections at Colorado institutions. I came into contact with dozens of dedicated professionals who provided valuable assistance at every turn. In particular, the Douglas County History Research Center (DCHRC) at The Philip S. Miller Library in Castle Rock, Colorado, the flagship branch of the Douglas County Public Library, is extraordinary.

A sizable portion of my analysis rests upon the meticulous work done by research librarians at DCHRC over decades. In particular, I offer deep thanks to Shawn Boyd and Annette Gray for their assistance over several different visits to the library. Similarly, the Western History collections at the Denver Public Library and the repository of reports from state agencies at the Norlin Library of the University of Colorado- Boulder proved to be invaluable resources. vi Excerpts from this work were published in an essay in the Fall, 2014 Journal of the American West, an issue entirely dedicated to the analysis of suburban life in the American West.

I thank Colin Irvine from Augsburg College for spearheading this collection of essays, as well as journal editor Steven Danver. I also thank Thomas Isern, North Dakota State University; Janet Ward, University of Oklahoma; and Cindy Ott, St. Louis University, for moderating panel discussions where I presented aspects of this work at the 2010 Western Historical Association conference at Lake Tahoe, the 2013 Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association conference in Denver, and the 2015 American Society of Environmental History conference in Washington, D. I met Michael Childers, a terrific historian of Colorado and the West, at the 2010 WHA conference when he was a fellow graduate student.

I appreciated Mike’s willingness to participate as a member of the committee, especially considering the heavy demands of his own research and teaching as an assistant professor at the University of Northern Iowa. I also appreciated John Halstead’s participation on my dissertation committee and his sharp insights and suggestions for further research. I extend my deepest gratitude and appreciation to my family. I am grateful that my father, Joe, and my late mother, Dolores, supported my desire to leave home for South Bend as a first-generation college student in 1989.

My mother passed far too soon in 2014 at the age of sixty-four. She found my seemingly incessant pursuit of graduate studies over the years both bewildering and admirable, and was always curious about what I was up to – and why – every time we were together. She would have enjoyed celebrating the completion of this work with me, and I would have liked that more than anything. Beth, my wife of over twenty years, and my children Alex (16) and Brooke (12) have lived with this project for a very long time and have been equal partners throughout.

Sometimes this work has been in the forefront in the form of vii time away from home to research or time at home locked away in another room to read and write. Other times it has lurked in the background as a project that was always there, relentless in its demand of my attention. At all times, it has placed a burden on them. The patience and tolerance that these three remarkable people have demonstrated is beyond that which I deserve.

They even willingly consented to join me in 2012 for what I dubiously depicted as a “summer vacation” to suburban Highlands Ranch, Colorado for some R&R (research and relaxation, in that order). This dissertation, like every graduate class, exam, and paper over many years, has been a true team effort. It is equally a product of their support as my own efforts. Although I will try, I can never repay this debt.

My enduring love to them all. viii LIST OF TABLES Table I.1: Twenty-Five Most Populous U. Cities, 1950, and Growth/(Decline) by 1980………………………………………………………………………….1: Colorado Special Districts, 1992 vs.2: Multi-Purpose Districts in Four Suburban Denver Metro Counties, 1992.3: Colorado Real Estate Developments Served by Four or More Metropolitan Districts, 2007……………………………………………………………….1: Six-County Denver Metropolitan Area Population Trends and Ratios, 1960-1980…………………………………………………………………….1: Highlands Ranch Metro District Board of Director Election Results, 1988-2000…………………………………………………………………….2: Highlands Ranch Metropolitan District #3, Board of Director Elections – Four Open Seats, 1996: Signatories on “Petition for Nomination of Director to Serve on the Board of Directors”….3: Highlands Ranch Community Association Board of Director Election: Five Open Seats, 1990.1: DRCOG Population Estimates for the Year 2000: Discrete Activity Centers.2: DRCOG Population Estimates for the Year 2000: Metro Denver Suburbs….3: Fastest Growing Counties in the United States, 1980-2000.4: Employment-to-Population Ratio, 1980……………………………………… 252 Table 6.1: Population Growth from 1990-2015 in the Twenty-Five Largest US Cities, 2015…………………………………………………………………………… 288 Table 6.2: Ten Fastest Growing Colorado Counties, 2010-15………………………. 291 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure I.1: Metropolitan Denver Population: Central City versus Suburbs, 1950 & 2015………………………………………………………………………….1: Local Governments by Type: 1952-2002…………………………………… 55 Figure 2.2: Colorado Special Purpose Districts, 1955………………………………….3: Colorado Special Purpose Districts by County, 1955.4: Colorado Multi-Purpose Districts by County, 1992……….5: Colorado Special District vs.6: Special District Revenues as % of Total Local Governance Revenues: Colorado vs USA, 1972-2007………………………………………….7: Special District Revenues as % of Total State Revenues, 1972-2007….8: Colorado Metro District Revenues as % of Total Special District Revenues, 1972-2007….9: Newly Created Metropolitan Districts in Colorado, 1968-2007…………….10: Multi-Purpose Districts by State: All States with More than Fifty, 2007…… 103 Figure 2.11: Other Multiple-Purpose Districts by State, 2012…………………………….1: Population Trend, Six-County Denver Metropolitan Area, 1960-1980….2: Map of Douglas County, Colorado, 2016…………………………………….1: Ratio of Local Tax to State Tax Collections, 1990………………….2: Distribution of Colorado Municipal Sales Tax Rates, 1995………………….3: State Sales Tax Payments per $1,000 of Personal Income, 1990….1: Housing Price Index, US & Selected Cities, 2003-10………………………… 285 Figure 6.2: City of Denver Population, 1940-2015……………………………………….3: Denver Housing Price Index, 2003-10……………………………………….4: Ratio of Growth Rate to Population Share: City of Denver vs.