A letter from:
Councilman Andy Schultheiss
City of Boulder
PO Box 791
Boulder, CO 80306 |
Commissioner Will Toor
Boulder County
PO Box 471
Boulder, CO 80306 |
Mayor Charles Sisk
City of Louisville
749 Main Street
Louisville, CO80027 |
Mayor Mark Hamilton
Town of Superior
124 E. Coal Creek Drive
Superior, CO 80027 |
October 5, 2005
Members of the NW Corridor EIS Corridor Consensus Committee
Dear Members:
On behalf of our respective jurisdictions, we have been actively
involved in providing input into the Draft Northwest Corridor Environmental
Impact Statement. During this process we have presented a number
of issues and concerns regarding both the content and the process
of the EIS. Some of these issues and concerns have been addressed
and some have not. The purpose of this letter is to consolidate
our issues and concerns and clearly state our joint position with
regard to the NW Corridor EIS.
US 36 Corridor congestion relief and mobility is the major priority
for Southern and Central Boulder County residents and jurisdictions.
We continue to believe that NW Corridor improvements are clearly
more important to jurisdictions and residents in Broomfield and
Jefferson Counties ; and therefore, these jurisdictions should bear
the majority of the impacts of NW Corridor improvements, just as
they will enjoy the majority of the benefits of such improvements.
The relatively small potential trip numbers on the north end of
Highway 93 and related arterials in Boulder County confirm the validity
of this position. Therefore, Boulder County , City of Boulder ,
Louisville and Superior continue to be adamantly opposed to inclusion
of NW Corridor transportation routes that traverse through Boulder
County and its municipalities, and particularly, those that go through
or impact publicly owned open space. Currently, we are satisfied
that the routes that traverse through open space in Boulder County
have been eliminated from consideration. However, we continue to
be concerned with the routes that border open space and environmentally
sensitive areas of Boulder County jurisdictions.
We are concerned about the impact any major transportation improvement
will have on open space, and undeveloped open lands not yet preserved
as open space, along the current Hwy 93 corridor from Boulder to
Golden and on the foothills backdrop. Preservation of open space
should be encouraged around whatever final alignment is determined
through the Northwest Corridor EIS and should be considered a major
mitigation approach, potentially funded as part of the transportation
project, as it was used in the Northwest Parkway development. Otherwise,
the travel benefits of any of the improvements being considered
are likely to be significantly reduced by induced demand associated
with new development that will be spurred by the transportation
improvements.
We are concerned that the environmental analysis that has been conducted,
and was used to eliminate alternatives, has not included adequate
analysis of the land development or transportation demand that will
be induced by the potential transportation improvements. The environmental
impact associated with induced development is likely to be by far
the largest impact of this project.
We have grave concerns with the screening of alternatives. In particular,
we do not believe that the early removal of modest improvements
to existing arterials meets the credibility test.
State Highway 93 between Boulder and Golden should be kept free
and unencumbered. We would like explicit guarantees that Highway
93 will continue to be maintained as a functional free highway corridor
linking Boulder County to Golden and the I-70 corridor.
We have concerns about local access at the intersection of US 36
and 96th Street and any extension to the Northwest Parkway . We
would like guarantees that local access will be preserved at the
intersection of US 36 and 96th Street , as well as further north
to any planned connections at the Northwest Parkway .
We are concerned that one of our colleague local governments, namely
the City of Golden , will be dramatically impacted by the remaining
alternatives under consideration in this EIS, especially those that
call for either a major tollway or freeway intersecting their community.
We strongly believe that more work needs to be done to mitigate
the potential adverse impacts to this one community.
Finally, we are concerned with the allocation of regional resources.
The 2030 traffic forecast under a no action scenario demonstrates
relatively modest traffic volumes along both the N-S and E-W corridors
within the study area. We believe that there are far higher regional
priorities for investment of limited transportation funds, whether
of state, federal, or Colorado Tolling Enterprise (CTE) origin.
We are requesting that these issues and concerns be placed on a
future NW Corridor CCC meeting for discussion and resolutions.
Sincerely,
Councilman Andy Schultheiss, City of Boulder
Commissioner Will Toor, Boulder County Board of Commissioners
Mayor Charles Sisk, City of Louisville
Mayor Mark Hamilton, Town of Superior
Cc: Members of the Northwest Corridor Technical Committee
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