After years of setbacks and legal battles, the Jefferson Parkway project, a 10-mile segment of metro Denver's beltway, is making a comeback. However, the project remains stalled due to several factors, including the need to secure a concessionaire, rising interest rates, and ongoing environmental concerns. Local residents continue to oppose the project, citing its potential negative impacts on their neighborhoods.
Mike LeClare stands outside his home and next to the Jefferson Parkway right of way in Arvada on Dec. 2, 2024. LeClare, an opponent of the project, hopes plans to build it behind his home continue to stall. through Broomfield and Jefferson counties — part of a conspicuously missing segment in metro Denver’s 83-mile beltway — are set to come back to life after years of delays, resistance and litigation.
“I’d love it if it doesn’t come,” said Mike LeClare, an eight-year resident of Arvada’s Leyden Rock neighborhood whose house atop an earthen berm looks over the parkway’s right of way. “I kind of have a Hot Wheels ramp into my backyard.” Arvada City Councilman Bob Fifer, who sits on the Jefferson Parkway authority’s board of directors, said there was a need for a high-speed thoroughfare in the city’s fast-growing northwest quadrant, where Colorado 93 and Indiana Street “are packed all the time.”Cars on C-470 head west between Santa Fe Drive and Lucent Boulevard on Aug. 18, 2022, in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. C-470 was the first segment built in metro Denver’s beltway, which still hasn’t been completed 40 years later.
Efforts to extend the road to Arvada spurred the formation of the Jefferson Parkway authority in 2008. It was made up of Broomfield, Arvada and Jefferson County.
But talks continued, resulting in a deal finalized on Dec. 19: Broomfield will grant right of way for the parkway within its boundaries for 20 years.A spokeswoman for Broomfield said the city “believes this is an amicable resolution” to the yearslong dispute. Mayor Guyleen Castriotta declined to comment.
“It’s instructive that they set a timeline of 20 years to figure it out,” Goetz said. “They may very well need all 20 years to do it.” Using the Colorado Department of Transportation’s inflationary index, Archer said the parkway would likely cost closer to $900 million — or even a cool $1 billion if it is delayed much longer.
Jeff Staniszewski, a Leyden Rock resident for the better part of a decade, said he wouldn’t be surprised if community websites opposing the project — long dormant and inactive — sparked back to life now that project had worked through its legal obstacles. If the project does eventually move forward, he said, certain mitigation measures, like sound walls and fire protection, would need to be included.
Jefferson Parkway Construction Delays Toll Road Environmental Concerns Community Opposition
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