Loveland, Colorado

How Loveland is governed

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0 of 14 positions listed. Gray dashed boxes are placeholders waiting for a name.

• Mayor

  Executive

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  The city's chief elected official. Presides over the executive branch, proposes the budget and represents the city.

  • City Manager / Administrator

    Executive

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    The professional administrator who runs day-to-day operations (in some cities appointed by the council instead of the mayor).

    • Police Chief

      Administration & departments

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      Leads the police department.

    • Fire Chief

      Administration & departments

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      Leads the fire and emergency services department.

    • Public Works Director

      Administration & departments

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      Streets, water, sewer, and city buildings.

    • Finance Director

      Administration & departments

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      The budget, taxes, and city accounts.

    • Planning & Zoning Director

      Administration & departments

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      Land use, zoning, building permits.

    • Parks & Recreation Director

      Administration & departments

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      Parks, programs, and public facilities.

• City Council

  Legislative

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  The elected body that passes ordinances, sets the tax rate and approves the budget.

  • City Clerk

    Administration & departments

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    Keeps the official records, runs meeting agendas and, often, local elections.

  • City Attorney

    Administration & departments

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    The city's lawyer; advises officials and prosecutes ordinance violations.

  • Boards & Commissions

    Legislative

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    Citizen advisory bodies, such as planning, zoning appeals and library boards.

• Municipal Court

  Judicial

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  Hears traffic, ordinance and other minor cases.

  • Municipal Judge

    Judicial

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    Presides over the municipal court.

Website

ci.loveland.co.us

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Population over time

From 66,859 in 2010 to 76,378 in 2020 (+14.2%).

History

The Loveland area was a hub for French fur trappers in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Mariano Medina built the first settlement in the area, Fort Namaqua, in 1858. It was a trading post and stage station, and the site is now Namaqua Park.

The nearby Big Thompson, Colorado Territory, post office opened on November 12, 1862. The Namaqua, Colorado Territory, post office operated from January 28, 1868, until January 3, 1879. The Loveland, Colorado Territory, post office operated from April 4, 1872, until January 24, 1873. Colorado became a state on August 1, 1876.

Loveland was officially founded in 1877 along the newly constructed line of the Colorado Central Railroad, near its crossing of the Big Thompson River. It was named in honor of William A. H. Loveland, the president of the Colorado Central Railroad. The city was founded one mile (1.6 km) upstream from the existing small settlement of St. Louis, the buildings of which were moved to the site of Loveland. The Big Thompson post office moved to Loveland on January 10, 1878, and the Town of Loveland was incorporated on April 30, 1881.

For the first half of the 20th century, the town was dependent on agriculture. The primary crops in the area were sugar beets and sour cherries. In 1901 the Great Western Sugar Company built a factory in Loveland, which remained as a source of employment until its closure in 1977. During the late 1920s, the Spring Glade Orchard was the largest cherry orchard west of the Mississippi River. At that time the cherry orchards produced more than $1 million worth of cherries per year. A series of droughts, attacks of blight, competition from growers in other states (particularly Michigan), and finally a killer freeze destroyed the industry. By the late 1960s, cherries were no longer farmed at scale, although orchards remained in southeast Loveland and nearby Masonville into the 1990s. In the late 20th century, the economy diversified with the arrival of manufacturing facilities by Hewlett-Packard, Teledyne, and Hach, a water quality analysis equipment manufacturer. A new medical center has added a substantial amount of employment in that sector.

Sundown Town

Loveland was known as a "sundown town", a racially segregated community which prohibited non-white travelers from remaining in their borders after the sun set. While such towns were most common in the Deep South, Loveland showed the practice existed elsewhere. Longtime Loveland residents reported anecdotes from this era such as a baseball team with African-American players not staying overnight in the city after their game, and those of Mexican and Native American ancestry being treated poorly and paid low wages. In the early 1900s, neighborhoods and Homeowner Associations prevented people of color from purchasing homes.

Before 1960, road signs welcoming travelers to Loveland read, "Welcome to Loveland – Elev. 5000 – Nationally Famous Sweetheart Town – Won’t You Stay Awhile – Industrial Opportunities – Diversified Agriculture.” A smaller handmade sign read, “We observe the Jim Crow Laws here.”"

Loveland has the largest percentage of residents in Colorado who solely identify as white. According to the 2020 census, the Black population of Loveland makes up less than 1%, and the Hispanic population is 12%. The city council began discussing plans to give non-white and other minority residents what local media called "more of a voice", but prevailing community sentiment opposed the plan due to its perceived divisiveness. As of 2021, "[a]fter nearly two years and at least six meetings that prominently featured the issue, almost no action has been taken by city councilors."

1976 and 2013 floods

The Big Thompson Flood of 1976, is often considered to be about a 1 in 500 chance of occurring in a given year, also called a "500-year flood", by the USGS and Colorado Department of Natural Resources standards and data respectively. 37 years later, on September 12, 2013, a historic flood affected numerous areas in Colorado. It rained heavily for four consecutive days, causing most rivers and creeks to overfill their banks. Estes Park received 8 to 12 inches (200 to 300 mm) of rain, causing Lake Estes to overfill its banks. This prompted a lot of water to be released out of the dam, causing the Big Thompson River to swell. The flooding river caused sections of U.S. Highway 34, the main highway from Loveland to Estes Park, to collapse. The Big Thompson caused major flooding in Loveland, and caused numerous road closures because of flood waters. The Loveland/Fort Collins area received about 4 inches (100 mm), which is relatively less significant compared to the amount of rain other places received. Two people died as a result of the 2013 flooding in Larimer County, while 144 people were killed in the 1976 flood, with 5 bodies in the 1976 incident never found.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

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• Aurora 386,261
• Fort Collins 169,810
• Thornton 141,867
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• Pueblo 111,876

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