Golden – The end-of-the-line station will be farther east and parking spaces will be fewer than initially envisioned when the west corridor light-rail line opens in 2013.
On Tuesday, Jefferson County commissioners agreed on the station relocation and a phased-in parking plan developed over the past four months by county and Regional Transportation District staff.
“I like moving the station up,” Commissioner Kevin McCasky said of switching from a centralized county campus location.
“When we came into office, we started to look at what the previous board had committed for a station,” McCasky said. “We had concerns about how it would impact future county office expansion.”
The new station locale on the southern edge of the county administration and courts building will create more parking than RTD and the county currently have, McCasky said.
When the west line opens, RTD will have 436 spaces – 236 in a three-story parking structure and 200 in a surface lot – with the ability to add several hundred more spaces by replacing surface parking with a parking structure.
The cost of the last stop on the first FasTracks transit line also may grow from $12.8 million to $16 million, basically due to the $5.4 million cost of a parking structure.
Jefferson County and the city of Golden would pick up the difference. McCasky questioned whether the $12.8 million cost estimated in the 2003 environmental impact study was low.
“We need more design to fix the numbers, but we’re in the range where I think we should be at this point,” said Rob Ball, assistant FasTracks manager.
By November, 65 percent of the design will be completed on the 12.1-mile, $508.2 million west corridor line.
Jefferson County officials want to ensure the station and parking structure blend in with the county building.
RTD officials want to keep the walking distance from parking to the station to about 400 feet.
Future discussions between RTD, Jefferson County and Golden will include security, maintenance, parking enforcement, budget and an agreement on what will trigger parking expansion.
The application for federal funding is scheduled to be submitted in January or February 2007.
Staff writer Ann Schrader can be reached at 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
