In 2002, Adams and Arapahoe counties sat down and wrote a plan for what Strasburg would look like by 2020. They projected a planning area population of 10,000 to 12,000 people. When 2020 actually arrived, the count came in at 4,376. The plan missed by more than half.
That history matters right now because the counties just did it again. Following a public process that began in 2024, with mailed notices, an online survey, open houses, and a draft review period, Adams County adopted the Strasburg Subarea Plan on July 7, 2026, and Arapahoe County followed on July 14, formally completing what planners are calling Strasburg 2050. If you are weighing Strasburg against other eastern I-70 towns, this document tells you more about what you are actually buying into than any single month's median price ever will.
The new forecast is far more conservative. Using combined ESRI and DRCOG modeling, the plan projects the Strasburg Planning Area growing from 4,703 people in 2024 to somewhere between 6,889 and 7,761 by 2050. That is a fraction of the growth the 2002 plan once assumed, and the gap between those two forecasts is the most useful thing a buyer can learn before treating "Strasburg is growing" as a reason to act.
What the county actually adopted
The plan itself is not a zoning ordinance. It guides how both counties will make land use, transportation, and infrastructure decisions along the I-70 corridor over the next 25 years, without rezoning anything on its own. Two pieces of it are worth knowing if you are comparing Strasburg to a denser subdivision closer to Aurora.
First, future mixed-use development is capped at 14 dwelling units per acre, specifically to keep Strasburg from turning into the kind of subdivision sprawl that reshaped towns further west along the corridor. A roughly 200-acre parcel northeast of Piggot Road and East Colfax Avenue is expected to be the first place that density shows up, oriented toward commercial frontage rather than wall-to-wall rooftops.
Second, the plan creates a new "Recreation Commercial" land use category built around the Comanche Crossing Museum, the site where crews completed the last link of the Kansas Pacific Railroad in 1870, and a proposed community recreation center. Adams County Board Chair Julie Duran Mullica said the goal was to manage growth "through a thoughtful and deliberate process" while letting residents keep the rural lifestyle that drew them there in the first place.
| 2002 Strasburg Plan | Strasburg 2050 | |
|---|---|---|
| Adopted | 2002 | July 7 (Adams County) and July 14, 2026 (Arapahoe County) |
| Population forecast | 10,000-12,000 by 2020 | 6,889-7,761 by 2050 |
| How the forecast held up | Actual 2020 population: 4,376 | Target year is 2050, too early to judge |
| Density control | Not specified in the original plan | Capped at 14 dwelling units per acre in future mixed-use areas |
| New zoning category | None | "Recreation Commercial," anchored to the Comanche Crossing Museum |
The retail dollars leaving town every year
A companion document called the Neighborhood Economic Development Strategy was built into the plan specifically to quantify what Strasburg is missing. It found that an estimated $93.8 million in retail demand leaves Strasburg annually, spent in Aurora, Denver, or wherever residents happen to be driving that day. Commercial vacancy in town sits below 1 percent, which sounds like a healthy business district until you realize it also means there is almost no available storefront space for someone who wanted to open something new tomorrow.
That combination explains why Strasburg's dining and retail options still feel thin relative to its population. It is also exactly what the plan's downtown business association and small business grants are aimed at fixing, concentrated along East Colfax Avenue where owners like Alma Navarro of Dulce Espresso & Bakery have already built a following. A sidewalk and roads audit from April 2025 found widths ranging from 2.5 to 10 feet along that same corridor, with missing segments between Adams Street and Comanche Drive and no meaningful stormwater infrastructure downtown, which is part of why the near-term capital priorities in the plan focus on that stretch before anything else.
The commute number that outweighs the price tag
Here is the figure that should reset expectations for anyone picturing Strasburg as a place where you live and work locally. According to the plan's own data, 92.6 percent of residents commute outside town for work, averaging 32.5 miles one way, compared to the Adams County average of 17.9 miles. Buying in Strasburg today means your daily life is still tied to Denver, Aurora, or DIA regardless of what gets built locally over the next 25 years. The plan is not designed to change that. It is designed to manage growth around the fact that it will not change soon.
The median price swings that don't mean what they look like
If you have already looked up Strasburg on a listing portal, you have probably seen a number that seemed alarming or encouraging depending on which site you checked. One portal's data showed a median sale price of $470,000 over the three months ending in May 2026, down 10.5 percent from the same period a year earlier, with homes taking 104 days to sell compared to 49 days the year before. A different portal, looking at the 30 days ending in early May 2026, showed a median of $435,000, down 32.6 percent year over year. A third showed a June 2026 median list price of $505,000, down 20 percent per square foot from the year before.
None of these numbers are wrong. They are measuring a town that sold roughly 4 to 13 homes in the windows each portal used.
A market that small produces medians that swing hard on the back of just a few closings, one custom log home on 10 acres, one new construction listing, one estate sale. Reading a single month's percentage change as a signal about where Strasburg is headed tells you less than reading the growth plan does.
What this actually means if you're comparing corridor towns
- Strasburg's growth over the next 25 years is intentionally capped, not open-ended. The 14-unit-per-acre limit is a ceiling the counties chose specifically to avoid subdivision-style density.
- The retail and dining gap is a known, quantified problem the plan is trying to close, not a sign the town is stagnant. Expect it to close slowly, business by business, starting along East Colfax Avenue.
- Your commute will look the same as it does today for a long time. Nothing in the plan changes the 32.5-mile average, and nothing suggests it is designed to.
- Treat any single month's median price swing as noise until you can compare several months. A town this size does not produce a stable enough sample for one data point to mean much.
A few questions we hear often
Does the new plan rezone properties in Strasburg? No. It guides how the counties make future land use and infrastructure decisions, but it does not itself change zoning on any specific parcel.
Will Strasburg feel noticeably bigger any time soon? Based on the plan's own projections, growth through 2050 is modest and staged, not a near-term surge. The 2002 plan's failed forecast is part of why this one was written more conservatively.
Why do home price numbers for Strasburg look so different depending on where I look? Different sites use different time windows on a market that closes very few homes each month, so the same town can show wildly different percentage swings depending on which handful of sales gets counted.
If you are trying to figure out what a home in Strasburg is actually worth right now, or what a specific address near East Colfax or Piggot Road might be worth given where the new plan points, that is exactly the kind of question The Lybarger Team at RE/MAX Full House works through with buyers and sellers along this corridor every week. Reach out for a free home valuation and a straight answer about what the numbers in your part of Strasburg actually mean.
