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ENGLEWOOD, Colo.--Our Colorado is filled with stories of cities big and small grappling with growth. But in Englewood, locals are worried the added development could be dangerous.
Englewood resident JJ Margiotta is a familiar face around the city. He's at every council meeting, asking questions as he notices the changes around him.
"We're having tremendous growth in this area, and we know Colorado's growing, but the problem is its happening without any checks and balances," said Margiotta.
One of his biggest concerns, is the fear that Englewood's aging infrastructure can't handle the dozen or so development projects in the works. Those don’t include the several possibilities on the horizon, like proposed multi-unit apartment complex called Alta Englewood Station.
"With the newer style buildings, was the infrastructure built, was the drainage system, was the traffic patterns built to handle this?" asked Margiotta.
Just last Summer, a deadly flood overwhelmed the drainage system. Daisy Yu with the City of Englewood said the city is looking at a fix.
"We have to continue development in order to keep up with the growth of our city, but at the same time we are taking studies and measure to research what additional repairs our aging infrastructure needs," said Yu.
She said the developer for the Alta Englewood Station site already planned for an underwater retention pond, so there will be space for sewer and drainage. Also, at 34,000 residents, Englewood's water plant isn’t even operating at half of its max capacity.
So there's plenty more room to accommodate more growth.
"Our proximity to the City of Denver sets up really well to an influx of residents, while still maintaining the community and the great place that it is to live for our existing residents," said Yu.