Activists in Denver’s Sun Valley neighborhood south of Invesco Field say a planned light-rail station near Federal Boulevard and West 14th Avenue could become a magnet for crime because of its isolation.
The Sun Valley Coalition, which represents residents and some business owners in the area, took reporters and others on a walking tour of the Lakewood Gulch bike trail on Thursday to point out weaknesses in the Regional Transportation District’s plan for the rail station, which is to be sited below and to the east of a new Federal Boulevard bridge over the gulch.
The group wants the station moved about 1,000 feet to the east, near Decatur Street and West Howard Place, where it would be more accessible.
“It would be safer and offer more visibility,” said Margaret Jauregui, who lives nearby.
“My feeling is do it right the first time. If they do it wrong,” Jauregui said, “someone could get killed, mugged or hurt.”
Relocation cost: $5 million
To get from the station platform up to Federal, some light-rail users will have to navigate a switch-back walkway up a steep grade, said Paul Bobian, another coalition activist.
An RTD-Denver analysis found it would cost an extra $5 million to move the station, now that the West Corridor line has been 100 percent designed.
Denver offered to pay $2 million of the relocation cost, but in a letter Monday to city Public Works Manager Bill Vidal, RTD General Manager Cal Marsella said the failure of Denver or any other entity to come up with the added $3 million meant the rail platform would not be moved.
“We appreciate your offer, but RTD has determined that due to budget constraints and lack of additional revenue sources, we will proceed with the construction of the station at the original Federal Boulevard site,” Marsella said.
City will address security
RTD’s decision means Denver now can plan pedestrian and bicycle access to the Federal station and other land-use issues, said Kristin Krasnove, a senior planner for the city.
Denver expects to use the $2 million it had earmarked for the station relocation in part to address security concerns, Krasnove said.
John Shonsey, RTD’s chief engineer, said the agency’s latest plan for the Federal station raised the tracks to get out of the gulch’s floodplain.
By raising the tracks and grading the terrain properly, the final design will give those moving through the area a good view of the station platform in a way that should allay concerns about safety and security, Shonsey said.
The area near the Federal station is where 2-year-old Jose Matthew Jauregui Jr., Margaret Jauregui’s grandson, was swept away by water in a flooded culvert in May 2007.
RTD plans to rebuild the Lakewood Gulch drainage system near the station as part of the light-rail project.
Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com
