Golden – A parking area popular with skiers and other high-country carpoolers will grow by about 800 spaces after Jefferson County commissioners agreed Tuesday to sell open-space land to the Colorado Department of Transportation.
Located off Interstate 70 just west of the Dakota Hogback, the parking lot expansion is part of an $11.3 million CDOT project to re-align U.S. 40 to the north as a safety improvement.
The deal, in which the county will receive at least $160,000 for the 6.3 acres, plus a quarter-million dollars’ worth of trail connection and signage improvements for Matthews-Winters Park, is making the best of “an uncomfortable situation,” said Greg Stevinson, chairman of the Jefferson County Open Space Advisory Committee.
CDOT had threatened to condemn and take the land. CDOT board member Joe Jehn said at a December 2003 open space meeting that the state agency has eminent domain authority for county property.
“We would call out the junkyard dogs at the (Colorado) attorney general’s office and say, ‘Sic ’em,”‘ Jehn told the open-space board.
Some area activists contended the half-mile-long, 24-acre parking lot with a high retaining wall isn’t needed and degrades “the gateway to the Rockies.”
“Millions of people come into the Rockies for the first time through this area, and the scenery is going to be ruined,” said Dick Bartlett, president of the Canyon Area Residents for the Environment.
Margot Zallen, chair of the open-space advocacy group PLAN Jeffco, said not enough had been done to encourage people to park elsewhere. In addition, CDOT could use the money on more urgent county projects, she said.
Construction is due to begin late this summer, with completion in two years, said Jeff Kullman, CDOT’s Region 1 director. The project will be paid for with funds from Senate Bill 1, a law passed in 1997 that provides new transportation funds as rising state revenues pass certain legally specified “triggers.”
When completed, there will be 1,320 parking spots – up from the current 500. CDOT engineer Brian Pinkerton told the county board that a month-long experiment of electronic signs directing people to park at the nearby county government complex on weekends was not successful. The hogback lots recorded up to 100 vehicles beyond capacity; less than 15 vehicles per day used the county building parking.
Staff writer Ann Schrader can be reached at 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
