The Colorado town of Granby on the far side of Rocky Mountain National Park is launching an anti-corporate “independence” identity campaign — fighting to keep local control and protect nature as tourists, recreationists, house hunters and others transform the state.
And Granby leaders have hired an advertising company for “rebranding” around small-town authenticity. Ads in the works build on one shop’s slogan: “We have everything you need, but not everything you want,” aiming to “turn what’s not in Granby into an asset.”
This push began July 4 after a Granby Chamber of Commerce survey found residents widely dread replicating Summit County and other commercialized resort areas. Granby (pop. 2,200) sits 86 miles west of Denver at an elevation of 7,935 feet near ski slopes, hot springs, golf courses and mountain hiking trails.
Town leaders are tackling a problem that has bedeviled popular resort areas in mountainous western Colorado for decades: how to save organic local uniqueness as hordes move in and do things differently.
Bright lights, aggressive traffic, big money and overwhelming demands for service transform communities. Tourism and organized recreation that state government agencies promote in Colorado’s high country, enticing 86 million visitors a year to spend as much as possible, has coincided with a housing development boom and soaring prices. Displaced workers no longer can afford the rising prices to live and raise children. In Granby and surrounding Grand County, 57% of homes sit vacant — similar to other mountain counties.
“You are coming to a hometown”
Across western Colorado, how to prevent locals from selling out as the broader economy favors becoming a “destination,” accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, “is a difficult conversation,” said Jon Stavney, director of the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments, an association run by leaders of six counties and 30 towns.
“You can say ‘no’ to development,” said Stavney, a former construction project manager, mayor and county commissioner, suggesting preservation efforts derided as NIMBYism (Not In My Backyard) may reflect well-meaning efforts “by people who care and are really passionate about their places” to protect them.
Granby has retained authenticity “and they are leveraging what is really good about that place,” Stavney said. “That’s smart.”
What worries Granby residents is a shift toward “curated experience” in resorts where activities are professionally designed and prescribed, combined with economics driven by “big box stores” and “restaurants owned by the resort,” said Lauren Huber, director of the chamber of commerce.
Granby officials conducting the survey “just kept hearing, over and over, that Granby does not want to become Summit County. We don’t want to be a corporate-owned town,” Huber said, referring to the high-traffic resorts along Interstate 70.
Ads developed by a Nebraska-based marketing firm will convey that “you are coming to a hometown,” she said. “This is where people live. We have our schools here. Every time you come back, you will see the same people. The owners will recognize you.”
But could the enterprise of crafting and advertising an image, something corporations do, backfire against an authentic small town wanting to stay that way?
“Good question,” Huber said.
“Western-esque” feel
The independence campaign will serve partly as “tourism management,” encouraging short stays and spending money that will stay in Granby by offering an alternative to “the amusement park atmosphere” in resorts while preserving space “to truly connect to nature” in a quieter way, she said.
“Disconnect from man-made curated experiences and sit by an alpine lake, let your kids explore nature, and enjoy a simpler time. We are a town of locals who welcome visitors.”
Few outside-owned businesses operate on Granby’s Main Street, other than a 7-Eleven and gas stations. A City Market grocery lies at the outskirts. There’s no Walmart. A non-government employer, Granby Ranch, operates a ski area, bought two years ago by brothers in St. Louis who, officials said, plan to move to the town. They’ve partnered with Bode Miller, a former U.S. Olympic ski racer, to develop a ski academy and run the place right.
Ranchers graze cattle around Granby, where lettuce farming in 1920s dwindled after blight hurt soil. In June 2004, a disgruntled auto muffler repair shop owner, feuding with town officials, went on a rampage in a heavily armed bulldozer, demolishing the town hall before dying by suicide. In October 2020, a 193,812-acre East Troublesome fire destroyed 366 houses north of Granby as it burned through Grand County.
Main Street retains what residents describe as a “western-esque” feel, including 1950s motels, contrasting with resort areas closer to Interstate 70. Breckenridge, Vail and other mountain “destinations” now rely on smart phone apps for finding parking and post electronic digital info along roadways to manage visitors arriving from metro Denver.
Family-owned restaurants in Granby likely serve better food than chain restaurants, residents here say. Granby businesses to be featured in the “this is independence” ad campaign include Two Pines Supply, where customers looking for tents are likely to find about 10 varieties compared with 75 in Denver’s Recreational Equipment Incorporated, Two Pines owner Chris Olivier said.
“We have enough of the cookie-cutter resort towns in Colorado. We don’t need any more,” Olivier said. “We are not ‘a mountain town.’ We are a small town in the mountains,” he said, pointing to agricultural and other non-resort enterprises.
“This is not going to be easy. You cannot stop ‘progress.’ Your hope is to control it as much as possible. Granby is in a unique position to do that,” he said. “We want to control the ‘progress’ as much as possible … I don’t know of any town that has done it.”
Preparing for changes
A construction boom in western Colorado reflects rising interest as more and more shoppers, skiers, anglers, hunters, cyclists, campers and others chase good times in the state. Escalating housing prices – a condo in Granby can cost $500,000 – have led to vacancy rates from 34% to 71% in 15 western counties, census data show, with displaced workers commuting for hours from affordable areas. Dealing with housing has become “insanely complicated,” Olivier said, because only corporations seem to have funds sufficient to install enough low-cost worker units.
Like resorts, Granby relies on foreign student laborers admitted to the country on special visas to help handle tourism surges.
Town manager Ted Cherry has been monitoring changes over the past two years. Owners of homes that previously sat vacant began staying longer during the COVID-19 pandemic as employers discovered benefits of remote working.
And Rocky Mountain National Park’s shift to computer-run timed entry and reservation-only camping drove more people into Granby, 20 miles from the park’s western gate. “People started realizing Estes Park (on the east side of RMNP) wasn’t the only entrance to the park. We started to see significantly more traffic in the summer. That’s definitely changed things,” Cherry said.
“If the changes are coming, we as a community need to be prepared for those changes.”
Granby’s small town authenticity push, and ads to convey that, aren’t meant to “bash” Summit County and other commercialized resorts – just to be different, said R&J Liquors owner Ed Raegner, who moved to Colorado from New York decades ago and in 2017 bought his store on Main Street.
In Breckenridge, some of the businesses are owned by Vail Resorts, a global mountain resort corporation, Raegner said. The corporation runs them based on marketing research, he said. “People have put thought into what they have that sells, and how they interact with their customers. You could put the same shop in at Breckenridge, Vail, Lake Tahoe — a plug-in place,” he said.
“We do need to get people to come here, stop and stay. But you want them to do it for the right reasons. This is about growing in a creative way that is real and more authentic.”
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