ARVADA, Colo. — Arvada was discovered in 1850 and incorporated in 1904. In 2025, it is home to more than 121,000 people, laying claim as Colorado's seventh most populous city.
It takes vision to reach a title like that, and Arvada leadership has laid its blueprint out clearly in its Big Opportunities for Leaders to Deliver (B.O.L.D.) initiative.
The plan has five main economic-focused goals: grow talent, increase workforce housing, increase childcare, strengthen business advocacy and strengthen entrepreneurship.
“We can be bold in applying innovation," CEO of the Arvada Chamber of Commerce Kami Welch said. "Communities have an opportunity to shine bright when we're creative. And I think that's what's really making us different here in Arvada; we're all coming together to say, let's solve those issues as a team and not in silos.”
B.O.L.D. launched in 2023 as a five-year plan and Welch said the city has already worked with 800 new and existing businesses as part of the program.
We are highlighting B.O.L.D. in a series of stories Denver7 is doing this week about the community in Arvada, and what residents love and find challenging about living there. We will be live from Olde Town on Friday, July 25 during Arvada's Fourth Friday event.
- What is Denver7 | Your Voice? Read about the project here.
Part of that B.O.L.D. initiative is putting Arvada on the map as a stand-alone city that isn’t always followed by the qualifier “just northwest of Denver” to out-of-towners. If the city's meeting with member of the Gay Games was any indication, it’s well on its way.
On July 17, Arvada hosted representatives from the Gay Games as it works to decide between the Denver metro area, Perth, Australia, and Auckland, New Zealand, as hosts for its 2030 games.
The reps toured the Arvada’s brand-new aquatics center that opened in 2024 and the Stanger Lutz Complex — one of the largest combinations of soccer and baseball fields in the state as Arvada hopes to host three of the competitions within the games.
Arvada’s mayor told Denver7 the games would be a perfect representation of what she believes Arvada to be, as well as a huge driver for the city.
“It's like the Olympics, smaller scale, I agree, but it's like the Olympics," Mayor Lauren Simpson said. "People come in to spectate in the sports, but then they also come in for the entire experience. It's a giant week long party of great athletic games, of experiences, nightlife, shows, culture, you name it, they have it. It could mean millions of dollars in economic impact, potentially over $100 million in economic impact for our local area, and we in Arvada are very excited to be a part of it.”
If chosen, Denver would bring the Gay Games back to the U.S. for the first time since 2014. Recent games have been played in Paris (2018), Hong Kong and Guadalajara, Mexico (2023). The 2026 games are set to take place in Valencia, Spain.
The growth can be exciting. It can also be troublesome for longtime residents who are used to a slower pace of life.
Denver7 heard from one viewer, Rachel, who wrote in about the city's growth saying in part, “There is way too much growth too fast here, the roads are falling apart. Putting up more traffic lights is not a great solution. I think laws need to be enforced better.”
So Denver7 took those concerns straight to the city’s transportation planning manager Kellee Van Bruggen and asked how the city plans for transportation in a way that values to community input.
"That is something that we’ve really discussed over the last couple of years," Van Bruggen said. “One of the challenges we experience is not everything is within the city’s control, so we are working with a lot of jurisdictions on the development of the plan to ensure that we can list those projects in priority that aligns with all the different jurisdictions that might be involved with different projects.”
"We really took to heart the public engagement piece of it," she added. "So we had several rounds of engagement where we went out to the community, both in person and had an option online. We had a map available for people to select areas specific to their concerns or opportunities they saw for development or different types of facilities they would like to see.”
To address the parking issue, the city built a 600+ parking structure at 5575 Vance Street. The thing is the city said people rarely use it because it doesn't look like a traditional parking structure so they don't know about it. To preserve the view of the mountains, the structure is only a few stories high, but the city said it's completely free to use without a time limit.
In these Denver7 | Your Voice stories, we want to hear from you about what matters most in your community. We hope to hear what makes our communities special, the challenges facing them, and everything in between. Have an idea or want to share your thoughts? Fill out the contact form below.
