For those who don't already know of this, or are interested, much of the anti-growth sentiment in Boulder can be traced to a man named Al Bartlett and his famous talk "Arithmetic, Population, and Energy." A video of which can be seen here.
http://www.albartlett.org/presentati...on_energy.html
This kind of thinking really riled people in Boulder up in the post-war era, and has a lot to do with the way Boulderites think about population growth in relation to environmentalism. I saw the talk once about a year before he died (still being given on an old fashioned overhead projector). His basic mathematical premise is not wrong, but its application to 21st century urban growth patterns in a place like the Colorado Front Range can be easily challenged by smart-growth advocates. In the 1970s though, when growth was defined exclusively by suburban sprawl patterns and the Denver area had less than 1 million people, this was pretty innovative stuff.
To me it explains a lot about Boulder, and why many long time residents still see no-growth as the most environmental alternative; ignoring the fact that surrounding communities will happily take that growth for themselves. I'm happy to see this may be finally eroding though.
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