Moving to Lyons

What you are moving to

Lyons is an incorporated statutory town of about 2,200 people at the 2020 census, in 1.36 square miles, where US 36 and Colorado 7 leave the plains for the St. Vrain canyons, twenty minutes north of Boulder. Six blocks of red sandstone storefronts on Main Street, a river running through the middle, four open-space trail areas within fifteen minutes, and two music festivals a summer that bring several thousand visitors to a town with two small lodges and no hotel. It is the last town before Estes Park, and it feels like it: through-traffic on summer weekends, quiet the rest of the year.

Housing

Mostly single-family homes on the older grid around Main Street and up the hillsides, with a scattering of newer subdivisions on the edges. Inventory is small in a town this size and the festival economy supports a licensed short-term-rental market, so what is for sale at any moment is a handful of listings; the links in the sidebar go to the major sites. Ask about the floodplain before you fall for a riverside lot: the September 2013 flood put a fifth of the town’s housing out of use, and the maps were redrawn afterwards.

Schools

Lyons is in the St. Vrain Valley School District. Both schools are in town: Lyons Elementary and Lyons Middle/Senior High School, whose cross-country team runs its invitational across Bohn Park every September. The district’s site has boundaries, enrollment and transportation.

Getting around

US 36 is Main Street, and it is the road to Estes Park, so summer weekend afternoons are slow in both directions. About twenty minutes to Boulder on US 36, fifteen to Longmont on Colorado 66, an hour to Denver either way, and about an hour and a quarter to Denver International Airport by E-470 or I-25. There is one bus: the free Lyons Flyer, run by Boulder County with the Town, RTD and Via, makes four weekday trips each way between Fourth Avenue and Broadway and Boulder along US 36, no fare or pass needed; RTD’s own routes start at Boulder and Longmont, and the Estes Park shuttle does not stop here. Within town, most of it is walkable, and the river path links the parks without crossing the highway.

Utilities, trash, fire, police

Unlike the unincorporated towns nearby, Lyons runs its own services from Town Hall at 432 5th Avenue.

• Water, sewer and electric are Town utilities, billed together; rates are set by the Board with an advisory Utilities & Engineering Board.
• Trash and recycling are arranged by each household with a private hauler (Western Disposal and One Way Trash both serve Lyons); Western Disposal offers opt-in curbside compost. The Town and county run a free drop-off recycling center at 198 2nd Avenue, open 7 to 7 daily. Bears walk the river corridor, so cans stay in until the morning of pickup.
• Fire and emergency medical response is the Lyons Fire Protection District, staffed around the clock, which also runs swiftwater rescue on the river.
• Police is the Boulder County Sheriff, under contract, from a substation in the Depot at 430 5th Avenue.
• Emergency alerts for flood, fire and evacuation come through Boulder County’s alert system. Register every phone in the household; the town was cut off for days in 2013.
• Building permits, planning and zoning are Town departments; the Planning & Community Development Commission reviews applications before the Board.

Government

Who governs Lyons sets out who does what; in short, a mayor and six trustees, all elected at large for two-year terms in April of even-numbered years; the next election is April 2028. The Board meets on the first and third Mondays at 7 pm at Town Hall, hybrid with a livestream, and the meetings are on the calendar. Boards and commissions for planning, utilities, parks, historic preservation and the arts are filled by application, and a town this size is always looking.

Living here

Summer is tubing through the whitewater park when the gauge drops, free concerts in Sandstone Park, RockyGrass in late July and the Folks Festival in August at Planet Bluegrass, when every bed in town is booked months ahead. Fall is the best walking weather, the artisan market, the Halloween Spooktacular on Main Street and elk down in the meadows at Hall Ranch. Winter is the Parade of Lights, the ice rink at LaVern M. Johnson Park when a cold snap holds, the Polar Plunge and the Old Man Winter bike rally in February. Year-round there is live music most nights of the week in the taprooms.

The quickest way in is a volunteer group: LEAF, the town’s mutual-aid fund with the Wednesday food pantry; the Lyons Community Foundation; the Historical Society; or the Chamber. The Lyons Recorder is the community news site and carries the fullest local calendar.

Before you decide

Spend a Saturday here. Coffee on High Street, the walk down Main and along the river to the park, a trail at Hall Ranch in the afternoon, and a pint on a patio while the band sets up. The trails and river guide is the outdoor half; the history explains the stone. Lyons with kids is the version with children, and what’s on this week is the calendar.