Cheyenne Metropolitan Planning Organization focuses on long-term development goals during Smart Growth America workshop

cheyenne
Downtown Cheyenne, WY. Photo via Flickr.

Cheyenne, WY is working to grow in ways that support the community’s economy as well as the quality of life for residents, and as part of that work the Cheyenne Metropolitan Planning Organization welcomed experts from Smart Growth America on April 21 and 22, 2015 for a “Planning for Economic and Fiscal Health” technical assistance workshop.

Cheyenne-area residents joined the workshop’s first day for an introductory presentation that featured an overview of the relationship between how a community grows and the health of its economy and local finances.

Technical assistance

Downtown revitalization helps Cheyenne, WY remain competitive

The WranglerDowntown Cheyenne, WY. Photo by Cliff, via Flickr.

Cheyenne, WY is at a crossroads. As the state capital of Wyoming, the city of 65,000 residents has long represented the cultural identity and values traditionally associated with the rural American West. Yet just 90 miles north of Denver, CO, Cheyenne is also a growing participant in the economy of the Front Range region, which includes Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs and Ft. Collins among other major and mid-sized metropolitan regions in northern Colorado.

“Residents in Cheyenne want to become a part of that growing Front Range economy, while still being rooted in the values of Wyoming,” says Cheyenne’s Planning Services Director Matt Ashby, a member of Smart Growth America’s Local Leaders Council. For Ashby, balancing these two sides of the city is about attracting new investment to Cheyenne while preserving the city’s unique character.

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