Golden – A proposal to build a 1.5-million-gallon underground water tank on Jefferson County Open Space land has opponents concerned about using publicly owned property to assist development.
The city of Arvada and the Jefferson Center Metropolitan District have requested a permanent easement from Open Space to build and maintain the tank, a pump house and access roads.
Water from the tank – which would be built near Colorado 72 about 1 mile west of Colorado 93 at the mouth of Coal Creek Canyon – would flow to the 90-home Canyon Pines foothills development and a 1,500-acre residential-commercial project south of the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant.
“This proposal would allow taxpayer-owned open space to be used as a means to stimulate urban growth into the foothills,” said Tom Hoffman, president of Friends of the Foothills.
“Open space is not there to help someone find the cheapest way to make money,” he said.
The Jefferson County Open Space Advisory Committee will consider the plan Thursday.
Open Space director Ralph Schell has discussed options with Arvada and the metro district.
Schell said he’s told them that “if there is some other way, you probably should consider that because putting it on Open Space land is extremely controversial.”
“We know and expect we’ll get turned down, and that’s fine,” said Charlie McKay of the metro district, which was formed to build infrastructure for the area’s developments.
Most of the tank’s water would flow to the mixed-use Candelas development – previously known as Vauxmont and Cimarron – on the east side of Colorado 93. A small amount would go to Canyon Pines.
Arvada has charged the district with finding a tank site that is the most economical, as well as the best from an engineering standpoint.
The Open Space land would provide the best elevation to get water to both developments, McKay said. If the plan gets shot down, he said, the district will evaluate nine alternatives.
One is to build an elevated tank – the golf-ball-mounted- on-a-tee type of storage – on private land at the southeast corner of Colorado 93 and Colorado 72.
“Is it better to have an unsightly water tank disrupting the mountain backdrop, or to have the tank in a place where no one will see it?” asked Arvada spokeswoman Maria VanderKolk.
That question was asked at a June Open Space Advisory Committee meeting. Opponents chose the elevated tank.
Rob Medina, president of Citizens Involved in the Northwest Quadrant, said the water tank is part of Arvada’s efforts to develop its west side.
Water would make homes sprout, Medina said, “and this eventually leads to completion of the beltway,” a project battled by his group and the city of Golden that aims to connect the Northwest Parkway with C-470.
Hoffman, Medina and others note that Jefferson County residents overwhelmingly support open space – from approval of a half-cent sales tax in 1972 for preservation of natural areas to the $160 million bond issue passed in 1998 by 71 percent of the voters to buy land.
“Open space is one of the things I think Jefferson County citizens really care about,” said Commissioner Kathy Hartman, noting she has received “a lot” of comment on the tank plan, and it has been “unanimously against.”
Commissioner Jim Congrove said open space “is great” but he is concerned whether there is enough sales tax to maintain what already has been acquired.
Open space “really adds value to our community,” said Commissioner Kevin McCasky, adding, “We’re at a point where we have $22 million left in the bond (sale) for acquisitions” and the county needs to consider how to balance land acquisitions and maintenance.
Other utility easements have come before the Open Space Advisory Committee. One approved a few years ago is a water tank on the northwest corner of North Table Mountain Park. There were no other alternatives, Schell said.
Medina said there should be strict guidelines governing such requests instead of the current case-by-case consideration.
“Open space is exactly that – open space,” Medina said. “It should not be touched.”
Staff writer Ann Schrader can be reached at 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
