1960 to Present Day
Incorporation
By 1961 when the city incorporated, the population had grown to 6,000. Emerald School was up and running, as was Kohl School. In 1962, a school serving junior and senior high school students opened, and a gym was added in 1964. The high school was begun in 1963, and classes started in the fall of 1964. These schools still stand, and after several remodels, they were combined into the current Broomfield High School in use today. Birch School was built in 1971 and opened in the fall of that year. Broomfield Heights Middle School opened in 1982.Home-Rule and Continued Growth
In 1974, the city passed its charter and became a home-rule city adopting the Council-Manager form of government, with an elected mayor and city council, and a professional city manager.
Broomfield continued its growth, annexing south into Jefferson County in 1969, east of Main Street in 1969, Greenway Park in 1970, into a small portion of Adams County in 1971 and the Westlake Village subdivision in 1972. In 1988 and 1989, the city annexed north into Weld County, thus spanning portions of four counties.
Schools in Annexed Areas
Schools in the Broomfield portions of those counties are served by several school districts. In the Adams County portion, new schools opened in the mid-1970s: Centennial Elementary and Westlake Village Middle School. Mountain View Elementary opened in the early 1980s. High school students in the Adams County portion of Broomfield currently attend Northglenn high school or Horizon high school. A new elementary school north of 136th Avenue opened in 1999, and Legacy High School at 136th Avenue and Zuni Street opened in the fall of 2000.Growth in the 1990's
Portions of what is now Interlocken joined the city in 1983 and 1986, and Broomfield's premier employment center began. Access to the area improved with 1995 annexations along 96th Street, and the completion of the 96th Street interchange in 1996, built with public and private funds. The promise of a bright future continued with the 1996 announcement that high-tech giant SUN Microsystems was coming to Broomfield, followed by notice of Level 3's intentions in the spring of 1998. The 1998 groundbreaking of Flatiron Crossing, an upscale shopping area, assured Broomfield of a long-anticipated retail sales tax base. More business opportunities for the city expanded when properties near the mall site and the new interchange annexed for mixed-use commercial development in 1998.
Becoming the 64th County
In the late 1990s, Broomfield made history. To help alleviate the problems and confusion in accessing services with the City of Broomfield being the only city in the state to lie in portions of four counties, residents sought relief in a constitutional amendment creating a City and County of Broomfield. The amendment passed on November 3, 1998, giving the city a three-year transition period in which to organize to become Colorado's 64th county. The state's newest county, the City and County of Broomfield, officially took effect on November 15, 2001.