Moving here
Moving to Johnstown
What it is like to move to a sugar-factory town of 17,000 (22,000 by the latest estimate) that is one of the ten fastest-growing in the country: housing, two counties and two school districts, the I-25 commute, who sends which bill, and where the parks are.
What you are moving to
Johnstown is a home-rule town on the Weld–Larimer county line, nine miles from Loveland and ten from Greeley, at the I-25 and US 34 interchange that the developers call 2534. The 2020 census counted 17,303 people, up from 9,887 in 2010, and the Census Bureau’s 2025 estimate is 22,433, which made Johnstown the tenth fastest-growing community in the United States among those with 20,000 or more residents that year. It began as Harvey Parish’s railroad and sugar-beet town of 1902 and the five-block Old Town on Parish Avenue is still there, with the Parish House museum, the library and Town Hall at its south end; everything else, from Scheels and the dinner theatre at 2534 to Buc-ee’s at County Road 48, is new.
Housing
Almost entirely single-family homes in master-planned neighborhoods on former farmland: Thompson River Ranch, Pioneer Ridge, Rolling Hills Ranch, Clearview, Johnstown Center, Mountain View and the newer subdivisions along Colorado 60 and County Road 48, most with metropolitan districts and homeowners’ associations. Old Town has the small 1900s houses on the original grid. The 2020 census put median household income at about $69,900. The listings sites in the sidebar show what is for sale; ask which county, which school district and which metro district a house is in, because all three change within the town.
Schools
Most of Johnstown is in Weld County School District RE-5J, the Johnstown-Milliken district: Elwell Elementary and the early-childhood center on Silverbell Drive, Letford Elementary on Jay Avenue, Pioneer Ridge Elementary on Cinnamon Teal Avenue, Roosevelt Middle School (renamed from Milliken Middle in 2024) on North 2nd Street and Roosevelt High School on Roosevelt Parkway, all in town. The northwest corner of town is in the Thompson School District, based in Loveland. The Town’s schools page has the map.
Getting around
By car. I-25 is on the west edge of town at the 2534 interchange, so Loveland is about ten minutes on US 34, Greeley fifteen the other way, Fort Collins twenty-five up the interstate and Denver about fifty minutes down it; Denver International Airport is about an hour by I-25 and E-470. Colorado 60 runs east through Old Town to Milliken. There is no fixed-route transit in town.
Utilities, trash, fire, police
- Water, sewer and trash are all billed by the Town. Set up service through Utility Billing at Town Hall, 970-587-4664. Trash and recycling are collected under the Town’s contract with Waste Connections: trash weekly, recycling every other week, with pickup days split east and west of Colorado Boulevard.
- Electricity depends on the address: Xcel Energy in Old Town and the 2534 area, United Power in Pioneer Ridge and south, Poudre Valley REA north of County Road 48½ and west of I-25. The Town’s provider page has the map and numbers.
- Natural gas is Xcel Energy.
- Police is the Johnstown Police Department at 430 South Parish Avenue; main line 970-587-5555, non-emergency dispatch 970-356-1212.
- Fire and emergency medical response is Front Range Fire Rescue, the Johnstown-Milliken district, from Station 1 at 100 Telep Avenue.
- Building permits, planning and zoning are Town departments; the Planning and Zoning Commission meets on the second and fourth Wednesdays.
Government
Johnstown adopted a home-rule charter in 2006. A mayor and six council members, elected at large for four-year terms, meet on the first and third Mondays at 7 pm at Town Hall, streamed on the Town’s site. A Planning and Zoning Commission, a Tree Board and other boards are filled by application, and a Downtown Development Authority created in 2026 runs the Old Town events and tax-increment projects.
Living here
Summer is BBQ Day in Parish Park on the first Saturday of June, with a parade, a car show and a duck race, then the YMCA pools and the disc golf course at Pioneer Ridge. Fall is the Downtown Development Authority’s Fall Fest in September, Trick-or-Treat Street on Parish Avenue on Halloween morning and the Historical Society’s Cemetery Crawl that afternoon. Winter is the Johnstown Jingle and tree lighting in Old Town on the first Sunday of December, the holiday open house at the Parish House and the lighted hockey rink at Eddie Aragon Park. Year-round there is a musical with dinner at Candlelight, the Ferris wheel at Scheels, and a walk around the lake at Lake Park.