City: Boulder, CO

Category: Relocation

Address: 11 miles from Boulder

Description: Lafayette Miller ran a farm, a stagecoach, and a hotel. After he died, Mary Miller discovered coal on their late homestead. In 1890, she named a new town after her husband. Coal and farming were the main industries for 50 years. Today, the town is a burgeoning residential community for the high-tech industry, with brand-new home tracts, green patches of lawn, and hopeful baby trees. To reach Lafayette, head 11 miles east on either Baseline Road or South Boulder Road through Louisville.“Old Town” Lafayette has its tidy little bungalows and big street trees. Efrain’s is a good Mexican restaurant (see the Restaurants chapter). The city offices (303-665-5588) are at 1290 South Public Road, the northeast corner of “Four Corners,” a business district at the intersection of US 287 and South Boulder Road. The Lafayette Chamber of Commerce (303-666-9555) is in the old historic district at 309 South Public Road.Local sentiment favors keeping small-town charm even as affordable and upscale subdivisions boom. There’s a move to protect favorite open areas such as Waneka Lake, where people can paddle rented canoes to a blue heron’s marshy shallows. So far, the city has 167 acres of developed parks and more than 1,000 acres of open space. You can find a map of these places at the recreation center on 111 West Baseline Road (303-665-0469).The YMCA of Boulder Valley has opened a 55,000-square-foot complex including an ice-skating rink, fitness center, gymnasium, indoor running track, and other facilities on Arapahoe Road and 95th Street to entertain the burgeoning population. The Indian Peaks Golf Course is within city limits.Lafayette is home to a community of Hmong families, refugees from Laos. It also has one of the nation’s few co-housing communities, the Nyland Community Association (303-494-2778). It features 42 passive-solar homes built around a common area and the “community house” with guest rooms, activity rooms, a child care center, and a dining hall open to residents who don’t want to cook evening meals in their homes. Cars are parked outside the community. Only pedestrians are allowed inside.