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Historical Forces that Shaped Housing in Louisville <br />Louisville's growth and development has been influenced by several local and regional trends. <br />For the first half the 20th Century, Louisville maintained a population of around 2,000 residents or <br />less. It wasn't until the 1970s that Louisville started to see significant population and housing <br />growth. The major influences of Louisville's housing boom included new demand for housing from <br />major employers and employment centers and improved transportation connections. The <br />following are some of the primary influences: <br />0 Completion of the Valley Highway (US 36) in 1952, improving access to Denver and <br />Boulder. <br />0 Major employers of note and their development timeline that influenced local housing <br />demand include the Rocky Flats Plant (1957), the StorageTek campus (1978), and the <br />Colorado Tech Center, which began development in 1979 and continues its buildout <br />today. <br />0 Growth policies in Boulder and expansion of the University of Colorado. As housing <br />supply was constrained and housing prices increased in Boulder, Louisville provided a <br />significant amount of affordable workforce housing for Boulder and the University. <br />0 Approval of the Centennial Valley General Development Plan in 1983 that included 1,333 <br />new housing units and 3.6 million square feet of planned commercial development. <br />0 Between 1984 and 1993, a total of 2,865 housing units were permitted for construction. <br />Much of these units provided attainable workforce housing for the region and especially <br />Boulder. <br />0 The 2003 Boulder County Countywide Coordinated Comprehensive Development Plan <br />Intergovernmental Agreement created Rural Preservation Areas and Municipal Influence <br />Areas that resulted in development buffers between municipalities that significantly <br />influenced housing growth and cost. <br />0 The City of Louisville's current "by -right" zoning would only support about 400 new <br />housing units. <br />Summary of Louisville's Housing Needs <br />The City completed a Housing Needs Assessment (HNA) in August of 2023 to act as a foundation <br />for this Housing Plan. The HNA evaluated the City's current and projected housing needs based on <br />demographic and housing market trends. The HNA helped answer questions about the current <br />availability of different housing types, who lives and works in Louisville, and the range of housing <br />needed to meet current and future housing needs. This provides a factual basis from which to <br />base the Housing Plan strategy development. This section provides an overview of key findings <br />from the HNA to contextualize the remainder of the Housing Plan that follows. Appendix 1 includes <br />the full HNA. <br />Louisville Housing Plan Part l: Introduction <br />