Since 1980, El Paso County’s population has increased by more than 125 percent, or 389,000 additional residents in the area. During that period, local governments were increasingly unable to adequately invest in the historical responsibility to provide public infrastructure (streets, sidewalks, water mains, sewage systems, etc.) for new housing developments through general tax revenues or utility rate increases. Local government started looking to the private land development activities to fund the infrastructure by making growth pay its way.
