Worley moved to the master planned community of Highlands Ranch in 1985, back when it had about 3,500 residents. Today, it has 70,931 people and hundreds more homes are on the way. While rapid growth brings new challenges in providing schools, roads and affordable housing, population loss can be a vicious cycle. Take St. Louis, which acts as a city-county and had more population loss, 12.23 percent, than any county with more than 100,000 population. The main thing is the loss of tax base.
Property values are down.
Stagnation has its own problems. Three years ago, the county was dissolved and taken over by the state because its revenue stream wasn't growing enough to pay for all the services, said the register of deeds, Donald E. Ashe. Still, Ashe is not envious of Douglas County's 191 percent boom. The only thing I would like to see are larger businesses coming here. Talk to Us .